Air Filter Cost?
Yeah, it is. It doesn't filter squat for a daily driver. I serviced mine regularly w/ K&N's cleaning kit and that was ultimately the problem with my truck's engine. It ingested the oil from the filter which became the binding agent for the fine particulate matter to adhere to INSIDE the intake. The crudded-up MAF was the reason I dug in to it further. One can only assume the engine was ingesting the same oily crud. Those filters don't 'filter' until they're essentially clogged up so why the hell bother on a DD that needs to go 200,000 miles? Think of a window screen at some greasy-spoon dive eatery that never cleans anything. That right there is a K&N type air filter.
K&N type air filters are the snake-oil of air filters IMNSHO. I think I still have that service kit floating around in the garage somewhere....free to anyone that wants it, just cover shipping.
Doesn't surprise me that Honda wanted an oiled paper filter. It is my understanding that their engine tolerances were always super tight. Even the finest of particulate in an engine with tight tolerances can be harmful. My garden tractor's V-Twin Kohler has a very heavy paper filter element with an oiled foam outer sleeve. The foam outer head-band so-to-speak is constantly cruddy. Over time the paper element absorbs the oil from that sleeve via ingestion and traps all the fine particulate matter that passes through the foam sleeve. I clean the large debris off the sleeve all the time and replace the filter element after many, many, many hours of operation. That engine is over 22 years old, has 820 hours on it cutting grass & plowing snow, has never been torn down and burns very little oil between changes.
K&N type air filters are the snake-oil of air filters IMNSHO. I think I still have that service kit floating around in the garage somewhere....free to anyone that wants it, just cover shipping.
Doesn't surprise me that Honda wanted an oiled paper filter. It is my understanding that their engine tolerances were always super tight. Even the finest of particulate in an engine with tight tolerances can be harmful. My garden tractor's V-Twin Kohler has a very heavy paper filter element with an oiled foam outer sleeve. The foam outer head-band so-to-speak is constantly cruddy. Over time the paper element absorbs the oil from that sleeve via ingestion and traps all the fine particulate matter that passes through the foam sleeve. I clean the large debris off the sleeve all the time and replace the filter element after many, many, many hours of operation. That engine is over 22 years old, has 820 hours on it cutting grass & plowing snow, has never been torn down and burns very little oil between changes.
Ron
2010 Kizashi GTS, CVT, iAWD (3/10 build date)
2011 SX4 Premium Hatch, CVT, iAWD (12/10 build date)
2018 Mazda CX-5 iAWD Touring
2014 Wrangler JKUW (GONE, traded
)
1991 Samurai, 5-Speed, EFI, Soft-Top (
sold)
2010 Kizashi GTS, CVT, iAWD (3/10 build date)
2011 SX4 Premium Hatch, CVT, iAWD (12/10 build date)
2018 Mazda CX-5 iAWD Touring
2014 Wrangler JKUW (GONE, traded
) 1991 Samurai, 5-Speed, EFI, Soft-Top (
sold)It wasn't dripping wet if that's what you're talking about, and, to my knowledge, oil doesn't 'dry' in the time intervals between servicing I'm talking about. Ancient oil turns to a hard greasy consistency as it attracts dirt, but dry? I don't think so. Regardless, if the filter actually filtered, then there wouldn't have been all of the road grime soot inside the intake manifold. It's been 12 years since I'd ditched that truck and longer than that since I'd touched the filter in it. Which, by the way, was a stock paper job after cleaning up the K&N mess. I'm a big fan of reading and following directions on things. So, whatever the instructions were for servicing that filter, I'm positive I'd followed them to the letter.
Just finished prepping the garden tractor for winter duty today including servicing its pre-filter. Wash, air dry, re-oil, install...GTG. Paper air filter element is still fairly clean and a bit oil soaked as expected with the number of hours it has on it. Inside of carb and choke plate is shiny clean as it should be.
Look, I'm just sharing what I'd found inside a perfectly good engine's intake system that was directly related to that filter after chasing the MAF sensor issue. Do with it what you will, but I can say with 110% certainty that I have not, and will never, put one of those types of filters in anything I own, DD or otherwise, ever again.
Just finished prepping the garden tractor for winter duty today including servicing its pre-filter. Wash, air dry, re-oil, install...GTG. Paper air filter element is still fairly clean and a bit oil soaked as expected with the number of hours it has on it. Inside of carb and choke plate is shiny clean as it should be.
Look, I'm just sharing what I'd found inside a perfectly good engine's intake system that was directly related to that filter after chasing the MAF sensor issue. Do with it what you will, but I can say with 110% certainty that I have not, and will never, put one of those types of filters in anything I own, DD or otherwise, ever again.
Ron
2010 Kizashi GTS, CVT, iAWD (3/10 build date)
2011 SX4 Premium Hatch, CVT, iAWD (12/10 build date)
2018 Mazda CX-5 iAWD Touring
2014 Wrangler JKUW (GONE, traded )
1991 Samurai, 5-Speed, EFI, Soft-Top ( sold)
2010 Kizashi GTS, CVT, iAWD (3/10 build date)
2011 SX4 Premium Hatch, CVT, iAWD (12/10 build date)
2018 Mazda CX-5 iAWD Touring
2014 Wrangler JKUW (GONE, traded
) 1991 Samurai, 5-Speed, EFI, Soft-Top (
sold)
I must say that my experience with K&N and similar oiled cotton air filters are very similar to Ronzuki's. I had them in my Impreza back in California. I'm also someone who reads instructions carefully and follows them. Even then, I had oil residue in my intake with a K&N-type cone filter. I used to have a K&N drop-in before that but it really did nothing in terms of notable performance gains. Hence, I took out the airbox and put in a cone type filter. That made some notable improvements in engine intake noise and faster revs, but I noted that it was not keeping things cleaner in the intake. Despite proper cleaning, oiling, and drying with genuine K&N products, I still noted that my intake was pulling the oil in from the filter. After that car, I decided to not bother with these types of air filters for a number of reasons.
Keep in mind that K&N was born out of offroad motoring and racing. It's a big thing in Riverside, CA where K&N is from. I used to live in the mountains nearby Riverside and used to offroad in the mountain/high-desert up there where the dirt is rather fine. They got started making high-flow air filters for dirt bikes and other offroad vehicles where a paper filter would often clog from the excessive dirt exposure and restrict airflow. K&N's oiled cotton filter design allowed for better airflow while dirty, trapping the larger dirt particles with the oiled cotton while passing air through. The street racing scene later adopted these types of air filters for their improved air flow.
I really think that K&Ns and similar filters only make sense for offroad vehicles and modified racing vehicles. For the daily driver, you're not going to really get much of a performance gain and you're compromising filtration quality for the increased airflow. While I don't think K&Ns are necessarily "bad", I don't see how the benefits outweigh the cons in daily driver vehicles. They were actually designed all around the idea of maximizing airflow when the filter was saturated with dirt. This makes a lot of sense for dirt bikes, ATVs, and offroading SUVs but not much for daily driver vehicles which hardly ever see a dirt trail.
Keep in mind that K&N was born out of offroad motoring and racing. It's a big thing in Riverside, CA where K&N is from. I used to live in the mountains nearby Riverside and used to offroad in the mountain/high-desert up there where the dirt is rather fine. They got started making high-flow air filters for dirt bikes and other offroad vehicles where a paper filter would often clog from the excessive dirt exposure and restrict airflow. K&N's oiled cotton filter design allowed for better airflow while dirty, trapping the larger dirt particles with the oiled cotton while passing air through. The street racing scene later adopted these types of air filters for their improved air flow.
I really think that K&Ns and similar filters only make sense for offroad vehicles and modified racing vehicles. For the daily driver, you're not going to really get much of a performance gain and you're compromising filtration quality for the increased airflow. While I don't think K&Ns are necessarily "bad", I don't see how the benefits outweigh the cons in daily driver vehicles. They were actually designed all around the idea of maximizing airflow when the filter was saturated with dirt. This makes a lot of sense for dirt bikes, ATVs, and offroading SUVs but not much for daily driver vehicles which hardly ever see a dirt trail.
2025 Mazda CX-50 Preferred Hybrid
2011 Suzuki Kizashi Sport GTS 6MT (Sold)
2011 Suzuki Kizashi Sport GTS 6MT (Sold)
Very interesting info about the K&N filter. Our car actually came with one installed. I didn't have a factory filter, so I haven't changed it. It's 25k miles that we've put on the filter, but I'll have to check the intake and see if I find any oil. In my experience in opening up the airbox, it's quite clean with zero residue.