cleaned intake

[sli240sx]

I just cleaned my jwt pop in charger with a k&n air filter cleaner about 3 weeks ago. Now my car has really lost its pep! I feel second gear is really slow and i don't know what the hell is wrong! Some one once told me that once you cleaned a dirty intake that you have to break it in again. Is that true or not? I've been driving alot just to try to get it back to the way it you to feel. My car was a 15.3 but now i don't think its that fast anymore. I am really mad i don't know whats wrong. Also my engien light keeps turning on and off could that also be why my car has slown down? If any one could help that would be great. Thanks

[themadscientist]

what did you clean the filter with? You have to reoil it like a K&N right? Did something come off the filter and get crud in your flow meter. Pull the filter off and see if it peps back up, maybe it was too dirty or you oiled it too much. I have never liked those "cleanable" filters.

[Mayhem_J30]

the only breaking in the k&n need is to beable to start collecting dirt better. the dirtier they get the better they filter. after a fresh cleaning they should be at the height of their flow capability and also at the bottom of their filtering capability. give/take. Unless you over oiled and it messed up your MAF, but I would think there would be other symptons besides "losing pep". Whatever the problem is I'm sure it's directly related to the CEL you're getting. Maybe your MAF is not fully connected and was losened when cleaning your filter. Pull the code if you can when the light is on, in the mean time double check all your sensor connections.

[sli240sx]

I'm going to take off the filter and see if I accelerate any better. It is mostly on my 1st and 2nd gear is where it seems slow when i hit 3rd gear it picks up faster. I don't exactly know what "CEL" is but I'm going to check if any oil got on my sensor. I think I may have over oiled it I'm not sure.

[Mayhem_J30]

CEL=check engine light

over oiling would be extreme as it seems to take a lot to turn the filter the proper red.

odd though how it seems to be speed related as you stated 1st and 2nd but not 3rd.

[MaineExport]

I would say your FIRST step should be getting the code off the ECU the next time the "CEL" comes on!

A dirty or oil-covered MAFS can cause all kinds of poor performance issues... give it a cleaning just for the hell of it.

But anyway.... if the chck engine light is on.. then you will definately be throwing a code.... and getting that will remove all mystery.