Lately, I've been having issues with my car. It felt like it was losing a lot of power for some reason and my car's idle was irratic (normall it is at 600 rpm but started to dip down to 200 rpm and almost [but not completely] stalled). This incident occurred after I cleaned my Amsoil nano air filter (which I don't recommend btw - no matter how you clean it, it will still have dirt trapped in the folds and won't come out).

Other symptoms were that when I was cruising at 80mph on the highway, all the sudden my RPM dropped by 2000 RPMs and my engine felt like it got bogged down. Also, when I gunned it, my car would not take off like it used to and struggled to gain acceleration. I was a really unhappy camper.

So just now, I replaced my air filter with the K&N air filter again and while I was at it, I decided to check my plenum bolts to make sure they didn't loosen. To my freaking astonishment, the bolts were ALL LOOSE. I mean seriously loose!!! When I took my torque wrench to it, it turned freely. I retorqued them to 100 inch/lbs. I also torqued the bolts to those specs when I initially installed the spacer.

My recommendation is that anyone with a spacer periodically check to make sure the bolts are torqued to the proper setting.

Good news is that my car drives like a bat out of hell again. It is like I breathed new life into the motor.

 

Did you put the recomended thread lock on them when you installed them. Mine came with it.

 

I installed properly according to the install instructions. Even used a torque wrench to tighten the bolts the first time around.

 

That's the first thing I thought of as well when I read the post. I assume then you also tightened the bolts in the specific order recommended?

 

ya I would put some thread locker on it just to be safe and retorque and you will be good

 

Yep...this is why I was surprised that the bolts were all loose.

 

I just checked mine this past weekend and they were all loose. I did not receive thread lock with my spacer or remember being instructed to do so. I guess I will have to pull it back apart and add some thread lock. I did torque them down in the proper sequence as well.

 

Same here. No thread lock and no instruction to do so. I have retorqued mine twice over the last two years. The second time they weren't loose.

 

Thanks RXM for the heads up.

Sounds like there may have been some different instructions going around (different manufacturer?) for some. Good to check none the less.

 

I'm glad that I ran into this issue and was able to diagnose the problem. Hopefully this prevents anyone else from running into issues!

 

I doubt the Amsoil filter was causing any sort of problem. For the lodged particles, did you try using compressed air and flowing from the non-filtering side? I believe that is the recommended procedure. The driveability issue was most definitely caused by a slight vacuum leak with the loose bolts. Mine are holding fine with 100 in/lbs and no thread locker. I'd be a little worried about using thread locker on a low torque, super brittle bolt.

 

Instructions on cleaning were fairly simple and I have am air compressor and vacuum to do the job. Still dirt is trapped in the folds. Therefore, I do not think you can ever truely have it cleaned. Doesn't matter to me, I'll just use it as backup when I'm servicing my K&N oil filter. I'm glad I kept it.

 

good to know as this mod will be in my future

 

I had the same issues, especially the 6 bolts on top.

Got lose 3 times in a week. Because the white bolt spacer adapter is plastic.
& vacume change deflect the plenum & it get lose easy.

Wish it was metal pieces.

 

I just checked mine and they are all good.