Long story short, I bought one & popped it in my '95 T-bird at the time, & very shortly, it fried my MAF!! I called & wrote k&n maybe like 10 times, never heard squat from them. I was out 600 dollars for repairs to my car, because i got an overoiled filter straight from the box.

Now, you can see why i dont care for 'em, because they dont care about me.

 

I never over oiled mine, i took mine straight outta the box, took the plastic off the filter & it was dripping w/ oil, shook the excess off ( this was the 1st & last filter ive ever bought from k&n !) still fried my maf & cpu shortly. see the post above ^

 

ill be damned if im ever gonna buy one & stick it in the HHR SS !!

 

If I were going to change filters, I would just use a K&N filter, and not bother with a new pipe.
The piping is under pressure most of the time, and any gains in H.P. & torgue is not worth the cost. Unless you bench flow the pipe, you can't tell any difference, other than looks, and I'll bet even flow testing there won't be any gains. They just want your $$, and if you bite, then shame on you.
Filter:good.
Pipe: waste of $.
"Moon"

 

The filter pipe is not under pressure and the gains are mostly with the piping the filters add little gains.

the fact that the SS has a pretty good system keeps it from gaining much. My GTP is horrible and it will gain 17 HP.

 

Sorry that you had an issue. I seldom see an issue with these. Anytime I have had to call they have never been a problem to deal with.

I can't say the same with other MFG I have to deal with.

 

I have put K&N filters or filters and intakes on everything I have owned Including diesels, the SS is the 1st vehicle that I have not put one on yet as I just don't see the proof that there are gains. The reason is that the SS intake is VERY well designed and has very little restriction. Hard to improve on.... Also, usually adding a K&N intake will improve the looks of the engine compartment. On this system, it is my humble opinion that this is not the case.....
It would be nice if any of our members with an SS AND the K&N intake could give some objective feedback and some pics.....


Also, as Hyper said, over oiling has caused a LOT of problems!

 

Looking a the pic. of the CAI package, I was under the impression that the pipe they sell you with the kit, is the turbo to I.C.pipe, and that is under pressure. I could be wrong. "Moon"

 

As far as dressing the engine up, It is just black plastic. So asthetically it is not much of an improvement. I used a K&N filter on my Cadillac and had zero problems. I was thinking about the intake. Now I agree that The performance division did a phenomonal job, but I like options. Does anyone know of any quality intakes out there?

 

I was just at the dealer and I have the K&N intake system, Hahn intercooler, Hahn piping, I have a catless down pipe, Hahn 3" exhaust and the Trifecta tune and the GM dealer didn't give a crap they just fixed the issue and even hooked it up to the computer and NEVER said anything negative about my mods. The only thing they mentioned is that they wanted to correct a re-call issue for the HHR SSs but that they couldn’t because I had the K&N system that resolved what they were going to do. In fact, they ask where the exhaust came from because the kid working on my car wanted one for his cobalt.