Should I get a cold air intake in my 2009 Acura tsx? Can it damage the engine? Thanks?

Q: I was looking at injen cai and I saw that they can improve gas mileage. The thing is the car has 40k miles and a 100k warranty on it. Can a CIA damage the engine or cause malfunctions Thanks for your help
(2012-01-20 00:26:03)

A: Your Acura already has a more sophisticated cold air intake from the factory than you can afford to buy. Aftermarket cold air intakes *decrease* fuel economy on modern cars by not drawing hot air from around the exhaust during warm-up... engines use twice as much fuel during warm-up as when warm and aftermarket intakes increase the amount of time the engine spends cold. They have also occasionally caused severe engine damage when the car is driven through a puddle. Every once in a while we will see a question about repairing hydro-lock because an aftermarket intake sucked water into the engine.

Aftermarket cold air intakes are relics of the 1960s and 1970s, when most engines drew hot air from above the engine. They are pointless now. The funny thing is I never heard anybody rave about how much more power their car had in winter than in summer. No wonder - I did the calculations a few months back and found that decreasing the air intake temperature 50F had the same effect on intake air density as decreasing the altitude something like 300 ft.

Finally, it is impossible for a cold air intake to improve fuel economy. The claim is based on reduced restriction, but under any conditions except wide open throttle the throttle controls the intake restriction - the intake has exactly zero effect.