aFe Air Filter Installed

In stock air box but there's no noticeable difference in helping my Taco breathes. What's the benefit other than not having to replace it for a long time to come?

 

Unfortunately, there really isn't a solid hard proof evidence that CAI boxes really do much other than change the sound of your inhale. There was this nice post comparing aFe, K&N, and some other variety of CAI's on the market on this forum, ill see if I can find it again. Bottom line, a CAI purchase is done solely on the end user's wants. Performance improvements are debatable. Some argue that the filters that require to be oiled causes that oil to bleed to the MAF sensor causing issues with throttle response and Air/Fuel ratio. I don't remember what year your truck is, by my 2012 has a built in CAI. I'm not talking about the TRD CAI, but merely speaking that where the air is drawn into my air box comes from the passenger fender area. This is where the 'Cold' air and not warm engine bay air comes from. So not to sway your purchase, just merely rethink what you really want. Performance would, dollar for dollar, come from other mods.

Well, to answer your original question, as long as the aFe filter is a dry filter, you shouldn't have to change it until 50k. Whereas the stock filter gets changed at every 5k (well at least I change it every 5K). So add it up. So, roughly ~22$ for a stock filter every 5k adds up to roughly 220$ and some change for taxes and other expenditures spent every 50K. Your aFe filter costs ~43$ for the magnumFLOW filters. That's your savings, an estimated 220$ every 50K or an estimated 43$. That's a good return on investment.

The following information I used was taken from aFe's website regarding my 2012 model v6. That CAI is ~414$, so to get my moneys worth from it I would need to drive my truck for roughly 117k miles to cover the cost of buying the CAI to break even. Whew. Maybe this helps?

-J

EDIT: http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2nd-gen-tacomas/237442-cai-bad-news.html Good read.