The bypass valve was installed perfectly, as was the AEM CAI, it took 4 1/2 years for mine to fail, but they will all fail.

The plastic got brittle, likely from engine heat, and it's brittle fracture failed at the coupling for the Norton hose clamp near the intake side of the rubber isolation/sealing section for the norton clamp. It was not torqued to death.

I'll post pics, this was an AEM materials issue.

AEM has changed the design of both the CAI non-V2 and the Bypass valve over the years for the Accord 98-02 CAI , likely do in part reliability and safety issues. I'll post pics, this wasn't my issue; the bypass valve was installed per AEM directions to the letter in the ideal location under minimal stress.

Replacing the bypass valve with a silicon hose would re-instate the reason for the bypass valve. Like I said I'll post pics later.

Worked great for 6 mo., wow talk to me in 4 years...... Unlike most I've had my Accord since new in '00.

I have reinstalled the OEM intake and filter w/out the reasonator for now. I may just swap to an ingen short ram. The build of the Ingen units appears better then the Accord-AEM from what I have seen on other's TSX installs.


Failure mode at tabs, note ring on inside of CAI, this was for a NHTSA recall, bypass valves were failing at the glue point causing the inner foam to get sucked into the TB.


Fingers on ends of bypass, note brittle failure cracks. Likely do to fatigue of the environment.


Close up of failure: early hairline cracks like these failures have started on the other side too. But they had yet to fail.


Failure point on CAI, the bypass valve sat next too the distributer wires in the engine bay if you are familiar with the 6th gen. The CAI never interfered and my AEM was installed per spec, using the rubber full isolation mounts. I also had proper clearance between the CAI and the AC hard lines never did they interfer or touch during operation. However, AEM has since redesigned the mount for the CAI in the 6th gen. "Could there be a reason?" Note my CAI was an original AEM grey unit; painted San Marino Red to match my car during a prior body kit install. No modification, other then install of the CAI bypass were done at any time. My CAI bypass valve failed after approx. 40,000mi of use. Also note my style of AEM conical filter is no longer in use by AEM.