S/C'd daily driver... intake question

What are the dangers of putting the filter in the fender on a daily driven supercharged car? I have a fender-well CAI right now and never had any problems, but it wasn't until I actually went to order a s/c that it was suggested it might not be such a good idea, because it might suck in water.

I thought there were a lot of people on here with supercharged daily drivers with fender-well CAI's, but maybe I just never paid attention and just assumed. I was browsing the tech section at KB's website and they talk about how exposed filters in the engine bay are worthless and bad for your boosted engine and blah blah. Anyway, what do yall think?

PS. It rains a lot in Louisiana.

'03GTinFLA said:

I'm asking myself this question lately too. I just installed my KB and the bottom of my filter is right at the bottom of the fender.

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Wow that's really low. I have a MAC kit and the filter is way up there. Like if I stand under the car on the lift (just high enough that I can stand straight up under it), and stick my hand up there, it's a reach to completely grab it.

DropTopPony said:

common sense tells me not to drive through deep puddles

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Well yeah, I don't mess with flooded streets. But heavy rain + dips/holes/****ty draining on ****ty Louisiana streets = some unavoidable splashes.

We had a rain a month or so ago, on the last day of classes I think at LSU, that stranded atleast 20 morons on some seriously flooded streets just outside of campus. On days like that, I have the option of hijacking my girlfriend's landcruiser. But I still need to be able to drive in pretty much anything but flash-flood warnings.

Looking at my MAC CAI, I don't see how I could get water in there without putting like half the car under water... or maybe speeding through puddles in reverse.

So are you saying I shouldn't worry about it? It was kind of a well-known, highly respected guy that made the suggestion, so I'm putting a lot of thought into this. But I don't want hot engine air keeping me from my goal of 400rwhp.