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Interested in picking up our Mercedes CLA45 intake system? Check out our product page for more details.

Mishimoto Mercedes-Benz CLA45 AMG Performance Air Intake

We've been working on this Mercedes cold-air intake for months, and finally we have arrived at our last test fit. After constructing a final prototype of our Mercedes air intake, we phoned our test vehicle owner and wrangled him into coming down to our headquarters for another day. A big "thank you" to the vehicle owner for the use of his CLA!

Installed Shots

Everything fit into place perfectly and looks fantastic! First, take a look at our final silicone intake inlet hose and pressure-sensor flange.

Mishimoto silicone intake inlet hose (left) and pressure-sensor flange (right)

As we've discussed in previous portions of this series, these components are key in producing the power gains we saw when we tested our kit. Next, we installed the intake into the vehicle. Check it out!

Mishimoto intake system installed

Mishimoto intake system

Interested in picking up our Mercedes CLA45 intake system? Check out our product page for more details.

Mishimoto Mercedes-Benz CLA45 AMG Performance Air Intake

Mishimoto CLA45 AMG intake system

It is a pretty exciting week here at Mishimoto! All our final prototype components for this awesome intake system have arrived. We have plenty of images to share, and we are excited to get our test vehicle back in the shop to confirm our final design.

Final Prototype Inlet Hose

One of the most discussed pieces included in this kit is our turbocharger inlet hose. This piece connects the turbocharger compressor housing to the airbox unit and is a vital component within the system. A couple of sensors are located within the stock unit and must be retained on our design.

The stock inlet hose is of a rubber material; our counterpart is constructed from a combination of silicone and CNC-machined (CNC) aluminum. We were able to mold our CNC aluminum sensor housing into the hose itself, creating a leak-free

Interested in picking up our Mercedes CLA45 intake system? Check out our product page for more details.

Mishimoto Mercedes-Benz CLA45 AMG Performance Air Intake

Inlet Tube Test Component Fabrication

Time for the fun part, dyno testing! Before putting the AMG on our dyno, we needed to make a quick adjustment for our tests. As mentioned in our previous posts, we created the inlet tube with our 3D printer for this intake, but with the close proximity of this component to the exhaust and turbocharger, we were a bit concerned with it melting or deforming during our dyno runs. We decided to fabricate an aluminum prototype to better handle the heat.

We started with some aluminum pipe and our template 3D-printed design.

Inlet tube fabrication

Inlet tube fabrication

This project has created an interesting challenge for our engineers in terms of metal fabrication.

Inlet tube fabrication

Inlet tube fabrication

Our fully tacked aluminum inlet tube!

Inlet tube fabrication

Once we verified all the dimensions,

Interested in picking up our Mercedes CLA45 intake system? Check out our product page for more details.

Mishimoto Mercedes-Benz CLA45 AMG Performance Air Intake

Mishimoto intake 3D render

When we last left off we had finished the evaluation of the stock intake system, and the design of our prototype had commenced. Our first component is the turbocharger inlet tube, which mounts to the compressor inlet. Check out a few shots of our 3D-printed design!

Inlet Tube

3D-printed prototype inlet tube

3D-printed prototype inlet tube

3D-printed prototype inlet tube

Although our inlet piece may emulate the stock unit in terms of ports and features, the two are actually quite different. Check out the comparison shot below showing the stock inlet tube and our prototype unit.

Stock inlet tube (left) and Mishimoto inlet tube prototype (right)

The stock tube essentially bumps from the filter size directly to the small OD of the compressor inlet. This creates a wall at the end of the tube which may result