Do I Need A Tune After Installing Cold Air Intake?

It often happens that people get cold air intake installed in their cars and wonder if they need tuning or not. To tune or not to tune, that is the question!

The answer is no! One doesn't need a tune after cold air intake installation. It is simply an optimization and works perfectly well without a tune.

Let us get into more of its details to understand better what to do.

How Does Cold Air Intake Work Exactly?

Getting as much information as possible is wise before jumping to conclusions. It is a well-established fact that the engine creates power in its combustion chamber. Oxygen gets mixed with fuel to create combustion and generate energy. The more oxygen, the more strength.

A cold air intake then simply becomes an enabler that lets more cold air into the engine. The dense cold air has more oxygen molecules, leading to more outstanding combustion and more power.

The system works by relocating the air intake position away from the radiating heat engine. Moreover, its greater surface area lets much more air than a stock air intake. It also has a heat shield that prevents hot air from passing through. If summarized, a cold air intake enables the car to suck more cold air.

What’s Car Tuning?

Tuning means a readjustment of lookup table values. It enhances the vehicle's overall performance and calibrates the newly installed hardware. And performance is all most people care about. And tuning takes care of that. New under-tuned cars are tuned to adjust the lookup table values for the car's operating system, which leads to improved performance. Moreover, regular tuning can help one save money by making necessary fuel-efficiency adjustments.

What Happens If I Tune for Cold Air Intake?

The oxygen sensors in the car are positioned at such a place where they can detect the presence of extra oxygen after combustion. But that doesn't help in any way as oxygen should be detected before combustion. And tuning after cold air intake installation increases fuel input to mix with the already detected extra oxygen, leading to a slightly increased horsepower. The only problem is that tuning alone costs around $400.

What Happens If I Don’t Tune For Cold Air Intake?

A 100% consumption of extra oxygen wouldn't happen. Cold air intake will still work but not as efficiently as it would do with proper tuning. One will get better results with better oxygen and enhanced airflow at lower RPMs, but the outcome is almost negligible at higher RPMs. But the amount that one has to spend for its installation makes one say, “it’s worth it!”.

So, Should I Tune My Car After a Cold Air Intake?

It's your prerogative, but experts believe that tuning to enhance cold air intake efficiency is not worth it. Because, even after adjusting, the best output one could get is about five horsepower.

A cold air intake is entirely harmless, so it won't affect the engine without tuning. And you can never say that it’s completely useless either. But, even then, one doesn't need to go the extra mile because apparently, it won't make any noticeable difference.

And this is all one needs to know about tuning one's car after cold air intake installation.