Richardw

Hi Folks,

Just thought I'd share the following info to add to the debate about oil based filters and the effects on MAF's.

I purchased an MY00 about 3 weeks ago which had a RAMAIR panel filter and prodrive back box fitted. Immediately I got out of the area of the Dealer ( Romford ) into clear roads, I noticed it was running really lumpy particularly above 5k revs when accelerating flat out - and too be honest I was disappointed with the overall performance. Convinced that this was not typical scoobie behavior and after looking at various threads here I took this to the dealer yesterday. Sure enough the RAMAIR filter was all gunked up and the MAF was faultly. Fortunately they replaced this under warranty and put in a standard panel to avoid the problem again.

The results are amazing and the car now runs like a dream and too the expectations I had.

I appreciate this is highly subjective area but hopefully this be helpful visibility of my expereince for anyone who has one fitted presently.


Cheers
Rich

MikeWood

As a small note, the Ramair (and ANY other type) filter is not approved for 99MY onwards cars. Using anything other than the OE filter can cause particulate or other contamination of the air flow meter which should not be covered under warranty.

Changing the air filter makes so little difference to performance (none at all actually that we can measure!) that it's not worth the risk. We use the same OE filter on an STi Performance Package as well as our Group N cars so it's not going to be a restriction on a car with an otherwise std engine.

Regards

Mike

dnb

I took out the ramair filter from my MY96, and used a std paper one. No performance difference, and no gunked up MAF sensor.

Flat 4x4

TO MODERATORS

At the risk of upsetting the suppliers of panel filters - isn't Mike Wood's sum-up something that we should be making all 99MY on owners very aware of ?

There seem to be regular posts about what is and isn't safe and these get confused when the different MY MAF-type is taken into account.

TonyBurns

iTrader: (3)

Never had any problems with my MY00 PPP'd scoob
Then again i do only use the OEM filters which are good enough for me (oh and one of those decat downpipe things )

Tony

Catalunya Pete

Mike, how much of a performance gain can be made by using a Ramair filter on a MY97?
Is it that important to have one fitted when running the Prodrive ECU from the performance pack?

Thanks
Pete

99PPPDriver

My tale of woe!

You guessed it, I had a replacement filter element fitted..... Come service time I was told the MAF unit had to be replaced (£250 I think). I know you can now get the sensor on its own rather than the whole unit, but suffice to say you couldn't when I had it swapped. AND to top it all it's not covered by the warranty as the filter is non-standard.

Stick with standard filters guys! Especially if your still under warranty.

Peter

Catalunya Pete

Are you there Mike?

X SOOOBY

same situation ramair panel filter my00 romford dealer (chadwell heath} got it home showed my shiny engine to neighbour and he sais you have a oil leak and low and behold it is the filter so i put up with it thinking that is just the way it is

1 month passes by and the car starts to idle unevenly and stall take it back and yes the maf sensor has gone

now this is 2 years ago when i got the car new and i really cant beleive the same garage are still fitting the things they are crap

i now have a k&n induction with cold air intake and no problems

MikeWood

Pete

Sorry, I've been out of the office.

Your car will run OK with a Ramair filter or the std paper filter.

Whilst it's good to get as much air into the engine as possible, you will find that any performance increase is very small at best.

Mike

Catalunya Pete

Thanks for that Mike.

Pete

Turbo_Steve

Has anybody worked out WHY these filters ruin the MY00 MAF but anything before that is fine?

As I understand it, the only thing that is actually different IS the MAF, (completely different design) but that makes no sense, becuase surely the MAF on older cars would be exposed to anything passing through the filter too?

After comparing my ITG filter to my standard one, I notice that the ITG has a lot less rigidity than the OEM unit.
Is it possible that air is 'getting past' the after-market units, allowing the coating from the dirty side to contaminate the MAF?

Anyone who has had this problem......Is the 'clean' engine side of your airfilter covered in the same gunge that attacked the MAF?
Cos presumably if the filter is clean, the coating is going "around" the filter and not through it.

All speculation, but this problem fascinates me.