Marvin Gaye’s probably rolling in his grave right now from my corny title, but I’m just trying to keep things interesting and somewhat creative. Suffice to say, this is the follow-up post to my earlier teaser regarding the new GrimmSpeed post-MAF hose kit that came in a few days ago. I finally had a chance to install it on the car tonight and take it for a fairly lengthy test drive, so here’s my initial impression and review.
First off, the quality of the hose and included hardware is quite high. The hose itself is solidly constructed and there are no faults with it that I could find. The interior was clean and smooth, and the only thing I did was to pass a slightly damp rag through it before installation to clear out whatever minor dust might have been present. Fitment of the hose was perfect and it went on smoothly and easily. The vacuum hose fitting was also perfectly placed, so that also was trouble-free (I’ve had issues with prior vehicles and other intake parts where this was not the case. I’m happy to not have had to deal with it here.)
Installation took me no more than 15 minutes at best. There were no instructions provided with the hose, but there’s an install .pdf you can download from GrimmSpeed’s site if you feel you need one. Tool-wise you only need a Phillips driver, a flat-head driver, and a small pair of needle-nose pliers or similar. First thing you do is to pop open the clips holding the airbox together. After that, I carefully unplugged the connector for the MAF sensor and used pliers to pinch and loosen the clip that was holding the MAF cable in place on the airbox. Gently move it aside and out of the way. Next, loosen the hose clamp that’s located closest to the airbox and carefully remove the rear airbox half and set it aside, being careful not to damage the air filter in the process. You can also now pull out the filter and set it aside as well. Once that’s out of the way, pinch the hose clip that’s around the vacuum hose fitting coming out of the top of the OEM hose and carefully remove the hose fitting and hose. Don’t force it; I found it works best to kind of wiggle and pull it at the same time, and that’s usually enough to get it out. Move the hose carefully out of the way once this is done. Lastly, loosen the hose clamp closest to the throttle body and gently wiggle and pull the OEM hose off of the fitting. To install the new hose, just reverse this procedure and then you’ll be good to go. There really were no gotchas or hassles when I installed it on my car, so I don’t suspect you’ll have any either. That said, I’ll state my usual disclaimer that you, and only you, are responsible for any damage that might incur from following my install suggestions. IMHO, this is one of the easiest installs you can do if you have even a little understanding of mechanics and how to work on cars, but if you don’t have the confidence to do it yourself, don’t force it and have a pro or experienced friend do it for you. I can’t imagine they’d charge much as it’s a stupid-quick install.
As for my driving impressions, I immediately took the car out for a rather long evening drive that was a mix of stop and go traffic along with some long stretches of highway and backroad driving as well. Before I set off, I let the car idle for about a minute or so to let it acclimate to the new part. Not sure if that was totally necessary, but I’d seen it mentioned on a few forums I’ve read plus I’ve had other cars where it was necessary to do so, so no harm no foul in the long run. Once I was out on the road, the first thing I tried to determine was whether there was any change in the engine/intake sound over stock, to which I have to say I didn’t notice anything at all. Sounded the same as always to me, even under hard acceleration. Now, my exhaust is rather loud, so maybe that masked it a bit if there was anything, but purely objectively I can only say it seemed the same as always.
Regarding driving feel, that also is somewhat up for grabs. With any of this kind of stuff, it’s really difficult to determine purely by feel whether or not there’s any improvement unless it’s stupidly obvious, which most of the time it’s not. Is it a placebo because we spent money, or is it legitimate gain? Hmmm . . . always a tough call. With that in mind I will say this: from driving around for a good solid hour+, at various speeds and intensities, I seem to feel that the car might be a bit snappier with throttle response at higher rpms (like, 4k+) and that the engine feels somewhat less restricted and held back in that same range as well. Of course, without having any actual measured data from dyno pulls to compare to, it’s all subjective speculation, but that’s what I have at the moment. Probably over time my impression will improve and refine itself as the little subtleties of everyday driving make themselves more apparent, but for now this is what I can give you.
Ok, so what are my final thoughts regarding this product and mod, and do I think it’s money well spent? I would say yes. If I look at it objectively from a quality standpoint the product is well made, easy to install, and adds a bit of flair to the engine compartment which is never a bad thing. From a performance standpoint, I would say it’s also worth it in that it definitely doesn’t make things worse I feel, and even if the gains are minuscule they are still something, though I can’t verify them empirically. My take is that there’s only so much you can do to the engine to improve it anyway without going overboard on some massive build, so it’s kind of a cumulative nickel-and-dime sort of thing – a couple of HP here, a little better response there; each part adds a bit to the total equation and when all is said and done, you may have a noticeable improvement. And worst case, even if you don’t it’s still fun to do anyway, allows me to relate better to my car, and makes it my own unique expression of myself. That has to be worth something right there.