Hi, I've recently noticed a deformation of my air duct, the one that goes to the air cleaner case, while I was looking how to change the air filter to a greenfilter performance air filter.

I've changed my air filter 6 weeks ago at the dealer and did notice a decrease of about 2MPG on my nav since then.

The air duct is lifted off the car chasis but clipped down by the snaps.

here are a couple pics of it... can anyone answer this?

 

is your car black, and do you live in a hot climate? looks odd to me too.

 

no, actually relatively cold climate, canada (eh?)

yes its black but needs a wash

 

Although an undesirable effect, I think that is somewhat normal. It's possibly the heat in the engine compartment warping the plastic duct. Perhaps, a few stainless steel pop rivets can hold down the bottom lip of the said duct.

 

Wow thats strange....that has to be from something/someone putting a lot pf pressure on top (for example, maybe something was rested on it?)

Just doesn't look like warping, and lots of ppl have this car in hot weather.

My best guess is somebody leaned on it.

 

thanks guys for your input...

would this account for the warping from the bottom of the duct too?

my next question: would this affect my fuel economy since the air doesn't all go into the duct? I've been noticing some black residue on my left exhaust pipe.

 

no worries buddy..
from my observations, all the 03/04 airduct are manufactured like that.

If you carefully study how that thingy works, you should see that the air is being re-directed to the right hand-side towards the actual airbox with the filter in it. In order to optimal the amount of flow going to the right, it makes sense to decrease the amount of intake volume on the right hand side so as to decrease the turbulence... or you can use the concept of pressure zones in fluid dynamics to explain why they manufacture that thingy like that =)

Afterall, the MPG is prolly because of the new filter.. and you should also give some love to your engine bay lol !

 

I was thinking of putting a K&N or Green performance filter... since in my locality there's alot of humidity especially during the summer and paper filters tend to expand in humid days. I presume this filter will have a constant air flow in all humid and dry weathers since it's plastic based. but will this void my warranty?

And is there any dangers from too much air getting into the intake manifold?

 

It is so dirty, it is revolting against the car. j/k

I wouldn't think the engine temps would get so bad to be able to do that because the engine cover would probably be starting to deform as well. Odd indeed.

 

I'm having the same problem, and nobody has ever leaned or sat on my car.

 

There is some contact there (even if just weatherstrip) when the hood is closed. I can't remember if the underside of the hood's frame extends above that area, so you might take a look.

I seem to recall mine being slightly dipped on top, and I've only got 2500miles on my IP... ...but this is W. Texas and the past couple of days have been 100 degrees already. That's not very thick plastic and it's certainly not as hard as the engine cover. Some deformation would be normal, given the material, pressure and heat.

 

lemmi start my story from the beggining.

every since my last maintenance, I've noticed a decrease in my fuel economy not bad enough to get it out of the dealer's expected range, but I do notice the diff.

It's not my driving habbits, cuz even if I drive like a grandpa with thick glasses I still don't get the same numbers as before which was ~20-21. The best I'm getting nowadays is 18-19. I'm still driving throught the same traffic and going the same way.

I've also started to notice some black residue on the tailpipe which i'm sure didn't have before... or atleast not as dark. So this got me wondering maybe I'm not getting enough air into my system or that my air filter (which was changed on my last maintenance) might be faulty

I said lemmi install a performance filter for: A) never need a change just clean from time to time. B) constant air flow with a varying humidity climat C) finally join the modders

When I popped the hood open, I've noticed the air duct's top bent down and the air duct's bottom not touching the chasis (take a close look at the pics you'll understand) so I got asking if that would restrict somewhat my air intake and would explain the fuel economy and black residue that I've noticed earlier. cuz I believe not all of the air comming in is going into the air filter box.

there are others on the board that are having less than good MPG maybe they have the same problem as me... would be worth it to check out.

 

I doubt it's the sagging duct-opening, as the air entering it is being pulled in more than it is being pushed in. I'd suspect an over-oiled filter for the issues you've mentioned before suspecting a saggy duct-opening. It's not a completely sealed unit anyway.

Another thing to keep in mind is fuel quality. As you said, many others are noticing a decrease in their MPG as well. My senior partner here at work has been down on the coast doing a lot of work, and her car has been tripping a fuel-filter code (OnStar ) for a tank or two after getting the tank of gas out that she filled up with on the coast. Remember Bush cutting back on the required fuel standards to ease things on manufacturers in the wake of Katrina? I wouldn't rule out degraded fuel quality as a possibility.