Air filter box / intake muffler

[Brian James]

Hi
Just taken my air filter out as a service item, and I found, lining the lower and upper parts of the air intake box, what appears to be a greyish/black "foam" lining. This lining does not appear on the parts list so wondering why its there as it seems to be very delicate and could cause particulate shedding. As this "foam" lining is present in the top lid (i.e. after the filter) the lining could potentially break up and the subsequent air be contaminated causing problems "downstream".
Has anybody removed this lining and what were the effects if any?
Any advice would be, as always, gratefully received.
Kind Regards
Brian

 

[NZ00Z3]

On the 1.9L M44 that I had for a while, it too had the foam in the air box. It was falling apart and some of it had already disappeared down the intake. I popped of the plastic grid that holds the foam in place and removed the remaining foam. Put the grid back in place, just in case someone wanted to put some new foam back in there. Had no impact on the performance of the car. Maybe the air induction was a tad bit louder?

 

[Stevo7682]

The foam is mainly there for intake noise suppression should do no harm to remove it

Stephen.

 

[Brian James]

Thanks guys for your feedback.

I have also removed it totally and so far can not hear any difference but will monitor.

HOWEVER, I did notice how COARSE the outlet (photo 2121) from the box to the engine is and how FINE (photo 2122) the shedding particles are.

It is also of significance that the "foam" is on both sides of the filter and the foam that was AFTER the fiter was incredibly crumbly.

As they say photos tell the story.

I would advise others to check there air filter boxes based on my findings. I also changed the air filter.

Kind Regards
Brian

 

[bombur]

Found mine to have disintegrated when having an Oil and filter service today at Zedshed cymru with @colb. Hovered it all up!

 

[AntStark]

Yip..first job I did when i got mine .. you dont want all that sucked into the MAF/cylinders

 

[Zephyr]

So did mine. And even worse, the amount of debris found under the filter was very little meaning that most of it already found its way inside the engine.
if this helps, I heat tested what was left (with a lighter) and can say that it totally burns without residue so probably safe for the pistons.
For preventative reasons I changed my idle and pcv valves and can verify that although my mileage is very low, they both looked like sh*** and no amount of carb cleaner could make them happy (only rubbing with cotton tips removed part of the gunk that was stuck on them).

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

Hmmm....gonna check this. My roadster is very low mileage, but the foam breaking down is probably more a factor of age than miles.

 

[t-tony]

Hmmm....gonna check this. My roadster is very low mileage, but the foam breaking down is probably more a factor of age than miles.

It is just that, Old Father Time catches up in the end.

Tony.