well i did this, used a rubber pipe cap from home depot for $2.75. sound just a little louder, not mush and i dont feel any diff. also its a cap not a plug(covers the outside of it) and its black so its safer and looks like its supposed to be there. so next step k & n drop in!, then hopefully run a tube down to the vent and bam! a GFI intake that looks stock. since im in so cal.

 

i second on what steve-r said about removing the plastic tube... isnt opening the box just the same? it still gets hot air..

 

yea... that doesnt make sense. if you remove the tube that little hole would be like 3-4 inches away from the the opening left in the box.... soooo ummm hot air all around man.

 

hey everyone! i was playing with my new camera so i made a video. hope this helps!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NA8xCyRuqig

 

I've removed my silencer and it made absolutely no difference in sound what so ever. Don't waste your time.

 

I don't think I saw it but what's the size of that plug? And if you you said walmart, would that be the bathroom section?

 

it looks nicer though, instead of that clunky silencer plastic box thing

 

ya..it does...I went to home depot and used a rubber pipe fitter......fits perfect and looks stock.

 

I have been looking at the pics and reading what you all post and I don't understand this very well. It seems that removing the "silencer" is simply raising the amount of noise caused by the air flowing into your motor. However if you look at the way air flows with this "silencer" installed you would see that it is really a condensatin collector just like the accumulator dryer on your air conditioning. Toyota did not build this plastic part because it was useless. Their thinking was that by removing water vapor from your intake air they could increase the actual amount of pure air being fed to your motor. Stop looking for nickle ways to make your car better, there are none! Put the intake air condensor back on your car so you can get the 400,000 miles from the motor just like you thought you would because you drive a Toyota!

 

toyota adds alot of parts to the tc that make is quieter. thats why we have so much sound deadoning padding
also, one major thing are the rubber bushings on the shifter linkage, this is only there to minimize vibration on the shifter and in the cabin...personally i don't see those rubber pieces lasting 100k miles without breaking done and giving you totally sloppy shifting.

as for the intake, my corolla had the same thing on the intake. it also had a large hollow chamber on the intake, behind the fender. this was a resonator and it really didn't serve much purpose at all because of it's position.

i don't think that the piece in the intake removes all that much water from the air. i also don't think that it removes enough water from the air to make a difference between having it there or not.

i say, if you like the look of not having a chunky box on your intake, do this...if you want to play it safe, don't do it.

i would love to see someone do a dyno comparison...or maybe something more real life, like a MPG comparision between having it plugged or not.

 

a few thoughts:

1) i wouldn't "plug" the silencer bung with a drain plug--seriously bad idea, it could get sucked in and block airflow and cause major damage.

like some others have said, go get a rubber plumbing cap from home depot that covers around the outside of the silencer bung. Part comes with a pipe clamp on it so you can tighten it down. The part i got fits perfectly, probably wouldn't even need the clamp, but nice for insurance. No way that thing is coming off.

2. DO NOT open up your air box. the filter is seated on the bottom half of the air box, opening the box will allow air to seep in ABOVE THE FILTER, and straight thru to the manifold. UNFILTERED AIR=NO GOOD. The box takes air in the the inlet (which is BELOW the filter. The outlet is above teh filter. I'm telling you, VERY bad idea.

as of now, i removed the fender well extension pipe. I too initially thought it went all teh way down to the compartment behind the false grill. I'm going to cut that extension pipe about in half, find either dryer hose or shop-vac tubing and get some couplers, to run hose down to the compartment. Planning to do this for summer/hot weather use only. Winter time, you're getting cool/cold air flowing throught the engine bay anyway. And where the air box draws air from is fairly isolated from the exhaust manifold and heatsoaked areas.

 

btw, have we ever confirmed 100% that the part in question is indeed a silencer, and not some type of Variable length/volume intake chamber that either decreases turbulence or compliments the resonance design of the intake system? It almost looks like it could be an air reserve or something that increases air intake at higher engine speeds or something.

I mean, i removed mine, and it does sound louder...but i'm not sure i didn't lose torque. Also, sometimes during cold drives, if i rev high at WOT i hear a high pitched vibration which sounds to me like its coming from the intake manifold or thottle body. Only noticed this after removed "silencer"

Do we know for sure?

 

holy thread resurrection batman!

 

So uhh, I realize this is 2 years old but hows the stopper fitting for you? haha

 

I know this thread is really old but I'm doing this mod to my gfs tC. This part is called a freeze plug. The one you bought is a rubber expansion freeze plug. Various sized can be purchased at your auto parts store.

 

The regular drain stopper works fine, Ive been using it since probably early June and its still in there, although not the white color it was when I put it in.