I have a question, is there a difference between the "eBay" intakes, and much higher priced brand name ones. I mean is it worth the difference in money, maybe if you wanted to build a race worthy car every hp counts, but for general application isn't a 30.00 eBay intake better than a 300.00 k&n? When you break it down its just a CNC machined pipe, and a filter. The pipe has to be the same eBay or brand name, and the filter you could upgrade and spend way less than 300.00 if the eBay one is bad. I'm just saying is there much sense in buying a brand name, for anything other than the warranty? I have bought 2 online, 1 for a 97 dodge neon, and 1 for a 04 Saturn ion, both have worked great, increased throttle response and saved gas, as well as a little noise under the hood. Let me know what you think.

 

The short answer is, no, there is often very little difference between "eBay" intakes and name brand ones on the surface. However, you'll often find that the cheap intakes are poorly built and take some doing to fit right. Beyond that, a lot of the price you're paying with the name brands comes from R&D, as well as all the costs associated with obtaining CARB exemption. If you're not in CA, CARB exemption probably doesn't matter to you, but emissions testing facilities are getting a lot stricter these days, and most are less willing to overlook an intake without the proper CARB EO labeling for fear of fines from the state. Again, this only really matters in CA, so if you live elsewhere, you'll probably be perfectly fine with an "eBay" intake. At most, you might want to get some better quality couplers/hose clamps and maybe add a (real) K&N or other reputable filter if the parts that came with the "eBay" intake are of lesser quality.

 

Thanks for the answer, I think the same thing, I was not aware of the CARB regulation but I do not live in CA so it's all good!