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Originally Posted by redpoint5
It's common knowledge that CAI increases fuel economy. While it's common knowledge, it isn't common reality. Same with dirty air filters. A moderately dirty air filter isn't going to affect MPGs in the least.
One possible reason for the confusion is the ambiguity of the word "efficiency". Cold air intakes improve the efficiency of cramming more air into the combustion chamber and boosting peak power, but power efficiency isn't the same as fuel efficiency.
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I don't know... a lot of these aftermarket "cold air intakes" are more like "hot air intakes" There's logic behind hot hair increasing mpg, not much with cold air that I can personally think of. It's denser... which means more will enter the cyl, which means the fuel mixture will need to be enriched to be correct, which means more power. But We're not after power, we're after getting "just enough" power to get to speed and maintain it so we burn as little fuel as possible.
higher velocity air that's the same temp as before the modification, or denser or a combination of the two serve to increase engine output through burning more fuel. I don't see how that helps increase mileage.
But since most of these "cold air" intakes suck ass and are actually hot air intakes sucking in hot engine bay air... THAT, that makes some sense.