AFE Intake

[MasterC17]

At the request of danewilson77, I will review the AFE Intake.

To begin with, I can't compare directly to the factory intake as mine was shot from the accident and epoxied back together; needless to say it wasn't working as well as it should have been. However, I can compare it to my dad's (330i ZHP) intake.

Performance: The car seems a little peppier and seems to respond to the throttle better, in terms of actual performance gains I'd guess about 2-4hp/tq. I'm sure the car is breathing a bit better as well.

Sound: My favorite part! The sound is the same except in two situations - over about 4k and more than about 3/4 throttle at any RPM. The sound is, simply put, awesome. It gives a low, throaty growl to the car which it definitely did not have before. It is also a bit louder.

Fitment: I don't know if my is just old, but the fitment disappoints me - not sure if anyone else has this problem. The intake hits the Xenon Ballast, Expansion Tank, and the Upper Radiator Hose. Not to the point where it's going to break anything, but it is annoying and it rubs. Also, the top cover is a major PITA to get on (comes off fine). The bolts never seem to want to line up well enough.

Conclusion: Assuming AFE fixed the fitment issues, this is a very good intake. You will experience some performance gains and the sound, as stated, is pretty awesome. However, with the BMW Performance Intake currently at its competitive pricing, I would have to say go with the BMW Intake. While I can't compare directly, I assume it will give very similar benefits while fitting perfectly and looking good - two things the AFE, in my opinion, lacks.

Here is a picture of my AFE Intake:



And here is a video comparing the stock intake to the AFE Intake (stock intake first, AFE second) and some pulls. However, the sound in real life is significantly better than the video can convey.



I hope you enjoyed this review.

[danewilson77]

How hard is it to get filters?
Thanks for the review. Very informative.

[MasterC17]

How hard is it to get filters?
Thanks for the review. Very informative.

Just the filter? I'm not sure, I doesn't look like AFE sells them separately. If you get an oiled one it should last a really long time. Just clean it under water and re-oil it.

[mikeyb74]

Replacement filter is available for the oiled filter.

#24-91021

[danewilson77]

Thanks for the writeup MC17.........

[kayger12]

Nice writeup.

[BCS_ZHP]

Last summer, we had an '00 323 coupe, 5 spd, stock 174 hp. My son bought a package from Bimmerworld -- aFES intake, HKS exhaust, and Shark Injector, it was about $1200 of his hard earned money. That was a sweet package, they said it would add 25-30 hp to that car, I think it did more. Primary reasons, that was the first year for the E46 coupe and the air box was small and a very restricted flow pattern (smaller than our ZHPs) plus the exhaust was a single pipe from right after the manifolds all the way back to the muffler, no double pipes midway like ours. The CAI had much better flow and the exhaust was 2-1-2 with separate resonators on each pipe for better flow -- all stainless and very sweet.

Unbeknownst to my wife or son, when my brother was in town one weekend we took the coupe and my wife's '03 330 vert 5spd out for a little comparison. Granted the vert is heavier but in stock form it supposedly had 50 hp more. We swapped cars during the test, I beat him in whichever car I was driving, and attribute that just to familiarity with the clutch/shifter, plus I owned them so I probably ran them a little harder than he did. When I drove the vert, I barely beat the coupe, maybe half a car length 0-80. The other way around, that "underpowered" little 2.5 coupe smoked the vert by over 2 car lengths. Then we did the twisties and the coupe pulled away from the vert no matter who was driving. If the money Gods were to drop a present under my pillow tonight, I'd probably add this Bimmerworld package to one of the ZHPs. But since I'm not the primary driver of either....

For Dane -- if you've ever heard the old S-3 ASW jet taking off, the "Hoover" with its suction sound, that's what the aFES CAI sounds like when you romp on it.

[danewilson77]

For Dane -- if you've ever hear the old S-3 ASW jet taking off, the "Hoover" with its suction sound, that's what the aFES CAI sounds like when you romp on it.

I just got a tingle in my secret place.

[kayger12]

Low bypass turbofan, ftw!

Droid X. Tapatalk. Use it.

[lpcmen2001]

Very interesting review. Thanks a lot ! I was wondering how easy was the installation ? Did you have to drill any hole ? How much time did it take ? Did you need to remove some parts under the hood in order to fit it in ? (Except your current AI of course...)

Thanks a lot !