Check Engine Light...CAI disconnected

Looking for some guidance...
When I started my truck after work yesterday I had a check engine light on along with the traction control. From what I understand the traction control is disabled when the check engine light is triggered in most cases.
Looked under the hood and found that the main hose for the K&N CAI was disconnected from the engine. I apologize, but I lack the knowledge to accurately describe the parts here. I am assuming this triggered the check engine light due to air flow problems.
I drove about 60 miles home from work and then another few around town. Could there be any problems or potential damage because of this? I will try to attach a picture later to show what I am talking about.
Thanks for any help.

 

Here is the photo. It was disconnected above the top metal clamp. There was about 1/8 inch of separation.

 

If air was entering your engine without being filtered severe damage may have been caused depending on what was sucked into it.

Time for an immediate oil change, MAF cleaning, and good dose of praying.

 

Thank you for the responses. I tightened back up and double checked all connections were secure.
Went to a local shop to have the codes checked. It showed PO171 (system too lean) and PO101 (mass or volume air flow problem). So this mostly confirms what captchas suggested. The tech then disconnected the battery. After restart the codes were clear. He said everything is fine and there shouldn't be anything to worry about. (He told me he was still in training)
So does it sound like I'm in the clear with this information? Would it still be advisable to change oil immediately and clean/replace the MAF? Thanks again.

 

"So does it sound like I'm in the clear with this information? Would it still be advisable to change oil immediately and clean/replace the MAF?"

Highly unlikely that driving for a few hours caused any damage. If you were just on the street buzzing around town you will be fine. Changing the oil wont do anything, your intake air goes into the combustion chamber, your oil (ideally) should not be interacting with your combustion air at all.

Clean/replacing the MAF is not at all needed unless it is due. Getting a little dust into your motor will not cause any damage unless you sucked in a leaf or something. Drive without the radio on for a few days an listen, pay attention to your fuel economy.

Likely your kit just loosened up after the initial install. Its really important on any DIY install to check all nuts and bolts a day, a week, and a month after install for things that will shift/loosen under normal conditions.

 

Yes. anything you sucked in is now in your engine and has dirtied your MAF.

I would if it were my truck. 20 minutes work to sleep good at night is worth it. Believe me I know....I have a bum engine.

 

He did over 60 miles of driving. That's not a short trip.

WTF..... oil doesn't get dirty from dirty air sucked into the intake? Are you kidding me? Read some Blackstone tests where people show significant amounts of silica (SAND) in their engines from runnig crappy filters like K&N. Where did the silica come from?

Cleaning maf not needed?

Dude this guys rolling around in a 30k truck and your telling him everything is A-OK.... always error on the side of caution not just blow it off.

How do you know he didn't drive through a dust storm?

 

While I will admit I don't know the layout of this particular intake. The mass air flow was before the break in the intake and therefore had no airflow. So how would it have gotten dirty? I wouldn't worry about the oil or potential damage. Unless you were driving through a haboob....

 

I'm retarded....




I was picturing a 4.slow intake where the MAF is after the CAI not before. Pardon my ignorance.

I'd still change the oil

 

Thanks all for the info, it was a big help. I will clean the MAF sensor when I get a chance just to be on the safe side. I have know idea how dirty it may be since I bought the truck used in December. The CAI was on there when I bought it. Sounds like the consensus is that I'll be safe waiting to change the oil as per my regular schedule and just clean the MAF as a precautionary measure at some point.
After driving around a little today, everything sounds normal.

 

Ok, so a little more detail, I just whipped out my first response in a generic statement.

First and foremost you would be concerned with silicon levels in your oil which can be caused by the breakdown of silica, blackstone testing can ONLY test for silicon (elemental). I am an analytical chemist, I kinda do this for a living. They would test for the oxygen side but there is so much oxygen already dissolved in the oil that its worthless. It is possible that he could have inducted some Si into his oil if he was driving in places that were quite dusty. Rhino, dude, if you drove through a dust storm just change your oil. That being said, you would normally not even consider doing a Si test on a 3-4 year old rig because the piston seals should still be tight and the dust would exhaust with the rest of the waste from combustion. Worst case would be his tolerances are going (like long haul diesels, which are where most blackstone tests are done) and he got a bunch of crap in his oil. Toyota's 4 cyl engine tends to be very reliable so I doubt he is having issues of this kind. Under normal driving conditions it just shouldnt be an issue.

Second, the whole K&N argument has been proven and disproven by blackstone tests about 100 times. There has never been an solid signal showing they are the root cause of silicon incorporation, 95% of the time is a head gasket leaking by. High levels are around 50ppm and above, guys looking into the K&N debacle were recording below 10 ppm, for the most part they were near the detection limits of the tool they were using to measure. No disrespect to your statement XXXX, but a lot of people just claim it was a smear campaign against K&N. Whatever it was though... it worked, I don't buy them...

Lastly, running a rig for 60 miles is nothing on a motor assuming he was not off-roading and was just cruzing down the highway heading home. Only he can really know what he did and whether he should change his oil.

My bad for short handing my first response, I didnt really have the time for details. Back in the day I short track raced a tuned corvette, a car worth far more than a taco. On sunny hot days we would run without air filters to save milliseconds, we never had problems and ran that way for hours at a time. When I would go through an engine (about every 2 years) it was always the pistons themselves that failed from... well... driving like an idiot.