There was an discussion about using OEM air filters and using those special air filters like K&N filters.

What do you suggest using. I am thinking of getting K&N air filter but before I get it, I want to see what other people have to say about it.

I'd recommend the K&N (or other brand) filter for the simple reason that you'll use that filter for the rest of the life of the car. If you're planning on keeping the car a while you'll more than recover the cost of buying a permanent filter.

But don't buy it for the stated performance gains alone - you'd be disappointed.

Forget about the K&N, you have to be very careful not to over oil the filter or it will foul up the MAF sensor. Many have had problems with them. I suggest taking a look at the TrueFlow (trueflow.com) or the Amsoil EaA Nanofiber filter (http://www.amsoil.com/StoreFront/eaa.aspx). Both are excellent filters IMO.

I used K&N but I change them. They aren't that expensive and it pays for the longer life of your engine and for mileage.

I'm not really allowed an opinion on such things. That's something my mechanic and my car discuss and decide on. He's good, honest and the husband of a friend. So I let him have his way.

OEM all the way. K&Ns dont always last the life of the vehicle. They are basically made of surgical gauze, and that breaks down over time and can get a hole in it.
IMO, K&Ns are just too much of a hassle with the washing and reoiling. I change my paper air filter once a year and it takes me about 5 minutes to change.

You change your OEM filter once a year? that is insane, you are killing your car or truck. K&N is nice to have, I don't know how you could put a hole in it unless you don't take care of it. If you are oiling it you are just putting a layer on it, don't soak the *&@# out of it. Sometimes you can loose horse power though, so like the other guy said don't do it for the power. It is not hard at all to clean either, all you do is spray the cleaner on and let it soak for 10 mins then rinse and let it sit out back and dry over nite, spray oil on in the morning and your good to go. If that is too much of a hassel then your lazy. And whatever you do don't just do that twice a year, you will def loose power then. It gets dirty, do it every oil change, is it that hard?

WHOA! Calm down! You sound like my mechanic....

My guy handles all oil issues. I once came out of the grocery store to find him checking the oil (I had parked on an oil spot).

Gottcha...clean it or change it every oil change. Ok. Consider it done.

Sorry if I sounded violent, I am living in AZ against my will and I hate it here, but K&N all the way.

My opinion... have used a K&N with two cars and they're great! Definite increase in hp with my '91 Honda CRX with manual transmission, and even an increase in my 94 Toyota Carolla with auto transmission. As for cleaning and oiling definitely follow the instructions that come with the cleaning kit, and it says right in the instructions it actually works better as it gets dirty/dusty (yes, believe it or not)... there is a point however where it will get "dirty enough" to need cleaning... that point is not every oil change. I drive a 150 miles commute 5 days a week... I clean and re-oil every 3 months. My Honda had 350,000 miles on it, and died in a rear collision... the engine ran great to the end, burned little oil and had no problems. The only problem I ever had with a K&N was the front chrome plate fell off - a fluke occurance. I was able to fix that problem myself and modified my Toyota to use the same filter. It's at least 5 years old, and there are no holes or other problems with the filter yet.

K & N all the way... They are the only filters that our vehicles will ever have. They are really good. Always worth the money.. And if you don't know what you are doing, don't oil the filter yourself.. We been using these for 4 years now and never had a problem.. In fact, my Durango started getting better gas mileage once we put the generic in the trash and the k&n on!

Why doesn't anybody mention TRD air filters? I have one for my car and so far I just shoot compressed air to clean it out. Its still oiled and I had it for more than 2 years.

K&N are crap. I take them out and put them in the trash.
K&N are designed for higher airflow for racing. How do you get more airflow? By more surface area, or bigger openings. Hold your K&N up to the light and you can see what method K&N uses. Race engine get torn down and rebuilt every few races. A little dirt is no big deal with that kind of rebuild. Car engines don't. They have to last 200k+. A little dirt over a long period of time is not ring healthy.

I have dirt bikes and other off road toys. I normaily run UNI 2 stage foam filters. As a test, I swapped on a K&N for a good weekend of riding. It was a lot of fine silt, but nothing I have not done before.
I did the end of day cleaning and check on the air filter.

To my horror, the filter trapped a lot of dirt, but had also passed a lot. The carb and intake had a fine layer of silt. I have never seen that before with my foam filters. I had to turn the bike upside down, rotate the engine to TDC, and spray carb cleaner inside the engine to clean it out. And remove and clean out the carb.

Yes it was installed correctly and the messy grease was applied around the lip of the air filter. I found no big holes or methods of dirt infiltration. It's by design. I will never run K&N again. I have a UNI or the stock oiled paper filter all my toys.

In my Toyota truck, since I live down a dirt road, I run the stock fuzzy paper filter and oil it. I have the flapper style MAFS that is not affected by oil. I change it about every 3k. No cleaning, just toss it in the trash and pop in a new one. And it's dirty too. This combo seems to trap a huge amount of dirt. Next to a film of oil from the oiled air filter, my intake is spotless.

I lost the link where someone did a scientific bench test of air filters, K&N was near the worst, but I do have this test.
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/airfilter/airtest1.htm

More articles:
http://www.autoblog.com/2005/09/07/how-wel...r-filters-work/


This is the real test
The graphs are down the page some.
http://home.stny.rr.com/jbplock/ISO5011/SPICER.htm

K&N= better than oem buuuuuut you have to oil them and although they do let more air in the things is they let more debris in. Becareful when you oil the filter 'cause you can f-up your MAF sensor and it goes downhill from there. As long as you keep the maintenance up on it you should be good but just don't oil it too much.

AEM dryflow=synthetic meterial but reduces the debris better than the K&N but as the same time doesn't let as much air in so it's a double edged sword when choosing an air filter. Also you don't have to oil the AEM but you still have to clean it pretty much the same way as the K&N w/ the cleaning solution and all.

As far as all the other one's i can attest to since i've only used 2 filters and where i have mine is probably the worst place than most ppl should have there's but i haven't had any problems.

FYI, K&N does not make any Air Filters, nor Cold Air Intakes kits as of yet. Also, you have to pay particulr attention to having to clean the K&N Filters at least every 30k for Optimal Performance, or sooner if you live in a Dirt Filled area. Hope this helps, as I have used K&N Filters for the last 30 years on all of my performance vehicles with no problem.

S&B Filters are also very good and need to be cleaned the same as my previous statement on cleaning them. Howver , when the cleaning procedure is completed, only then spray on a light coat of fresh K&N Oil and let it sit overnight, then wipe the excess off the filter. To much Oil applied to the filter can and will cause MAF Sensor problems over long term, as many people over oil them, after cleaning them. So buyer beware and pay particular attention to the care and maintenance of any oil type filter system, including K&N, S&B etc.