So I've had the AEM Brute Force CAI on my truck for about a year now.. it hasn't given me much trouble except for the SES light that popped up a few hours after I installed it. All codes popping up were the obvious, increased air flow and colder air, so we overrode the light and I kept the intake in. It hasn't given me much trouble at all up until a discovery recently. In my auto mechanics class we were playing around with our vehicles, and I popped my hood to show the class the intake. The kids with the intakes of course thought it at least looked cool, but one kid said when he puts his hand on his air filter he can feel suction, so we start checking for leaks anywhere on the engine, on the intake, etc. Then the teacher pulls the PCV valve to spray inside the black plastic part that connects to the TB, but instead of the engine maintaining a somewhat steady rpm, when we pulled the PCV valve the rpm dropped almost to the point of stall. Of course the teacher said that's not good because I'm not getting enough airflow into the engine. I begin taking apart the intake piece by piece, removing the air filter which was so clean it looked new, still low air suction, we remove the chrome arm part up to the MAF sensor where we find hardly any air at all is getting past the MAF sensor. There was so little suction going into the engine that if you put just a finger against the sensor the engine almost stalls out. So we take off the MAF sensor and I put my hand against the opening of the black part which no longer has the MAF sensor attached and there's a significant amount of suction, enough to get your hand stuck and the top of the black TB piece starts sucking in on itself. So we remove the black TB piece, put it back on making sure it's seated properly and noticed it wasn't entirely on the TB. I had to remove a nut underneath the long bolts in order for the black piece to seat properly. We level that black piece out, re-install the entire intake, pull the PCV valve and the engine runs smooth. Small rpm drop but nothing serious. Then, as I'm driving out of the parking lot the truck starts running rough, roughest at idle. The steering wheel and pedals are vibrating, I pop the hood and the intake is vibrating. I take it off, re-install it once again and the vibration is gone...

Does anyone know if the black TB piece is a poor design and restricts airflow, or is there a problem with air getting through my MAF sensor? It looked clean, nothing stuck in it. I'm guessing with this amount of restricted airflow I'm losing much power. Has anyone experienced this with an intake of any sort, or the MAF sensor in general?

 

I am not sure what you are trying to prove with the "testing" that you performed.

What were the specific codes present when you "ignored" them? And what are the symptoms you are experiencing that prompted the "testing"...?