what piece are you refering to? There is no intake air warming unit on our cars. You are probably refering to the power module that is right next to the battery. There is a hose that attches it to the stock air box. The car will not run with the wiring disconnected from it. You should be able to remove the entire stock air box and put in a cone filter setup with no problem, plenty of people have done it. Did you have all the vacuum lines routed properly? A vacuum leak will cause the idle to surge up and down.