Wasted 80 bucks on a carbon fiber intake from eBay last year

I got one of those cheap carbon fiber intakes off eBay for my 2010 Civic Si. It looked nice in the pictures, lots of weave and shine. Took me 3 hours to install because the brackets didn't line up. Then I drove it for a month and the filter started falling apart. Pieces of it got sucked into my throttle body, had to clean that out. The whole thing flexed so bad it rubbed against the hood liner. Total waste of money and time. Has anyone else had luck with budget parts like this or am I just cheap?

2 comments

2 Comments

brookerobinson1mo ago

My buddy put the same exact filter on his 08 Si and it melted against his header within two weeks. I think a lot of the success with cheap parts depends on where you mount them and how much heat they see. What motor mounts are you running that let it flex that much?

nathan5451mo ago

Funny you mention that, it's like the whole "you get what you pay for" thing but sometimes it's really just about where you put stuff. I've seen cheap parts last forever in the right spot and expensive ones fail fast in a dumb location. It's like life man, half the battle is just not putting yourself in a bad situation in the first place.