You'll get a dirtier engine with k&n and it will b alot louder

 

WTF?! A K&N filter will not make your engine any dirtier than a paper filter. That is just nonsense. The K&N drop in filter does not make the engine ANY louder at all!

I have a K&N drop in filter in all 3 of my vehicles the entire time I have owned them. My Explorer now$ has 150k miles and has never had an engine problem.

As far as horsepower gains, you will not see a difference if your engine is N/A. The tests I have seen usually put the K&N at a 3-5 hp advantage over paper filters in N/A applications.

If you have a supercharger or turbo, the K&N will make a much bigger improvement, up to 15-20 hp, depending on the situation and car.

The only argument I have heard against using the K&N is that some people are afraid that the oil from the filter will contaminate the mass air sensor. I understand why people would think that, but I haven't ever seen it happen in my lifetime. I have to see it to believe it.

To each his own, but whatever you do, ignore posts from dopes like ZIMZIMMER46.

 

Forget the Kr@p & Nasty and get an Amsoil EaA

 

cut a hole in your airbox and stick to stock.

 

what about the aFe dryflow or whatever it's called? i considered one of those.

 

i have never had a problem with k&n... and i have had one in every vehicle i have owned some for a few years and i havent seen anything questionable.

 

In reality, there is very little difference in performance between a K&N filter or Amsoil or other oiled/dry cotton filter and a normal paper filter.

I remember seeing a somewhat amateur test online between a bunch of common aftermarket filters and OEM paper filters. The flow difference between the oiled cotton filters, dry cotton filters, and paper filters only varied a very small amount. But the biggest difference was that the OEM paper filter filtered significantly more particles from the air than any of the aftermarket air filters.

The other things worth noting was that not much money was saved with going with the reusable cotton filters since the initial cost was many times that of the paper filter, as well as the special cleaners and oils were required. Also there is the effort and time to clean and re-oil the cotton filters.

After reading that it pretty much convinced me an OEM paper filter is the best option for most situations.

 

in reality, there is very little difference in performance between a k&n filter or amsoil or other oiled/dry cotton filter and a normal paper filter.

I remember seeing a somewhat amateur test online between a bunch of common aftermarket filters and oem paper filters. The flow difference between the oiled cotton filters, dry cotton filters, and paper filters only varied a very small amount. But the biggest difference was that the oem paper filter filtered significantly more particles from the air than any of the aftermarket air filters.

The other things worth noting was that not much money was saved with going with the reusable cotton filters since the initial cost was many times that of the paper filter, as well as the special cleaners and oils were required. Also there is the effort and time to clean and re-oil the cotton filters.

After reading that it pretty much convinced me an oem paper filter is the best option for most situations.

+1

 

i have a new K&M drop in setting around, i forgot to send it back in the summer, i might put it in or up for sale

thanks

 

stick with stock OEM

 

And how many UOA's do you look at on a daily basis? I look at heaps and nearly every time you see high SI (dirt) the vehicle has a Krap & Nasty filter. Mine ended up in the bin, the only fit place for it.

 

my MAF was messed up from "recharging" my Krap & Nasty with that oil, so i went back to stock baby! (i had a CAI). and im about to cut a hole in my stock air box so everything will be good to go. honestly not that much difference at all, just not as aggressive sounding

 

It's almost like if people are unhappy with BMW's well designed air filter box and air filter performance. :rofl:

 

if you think about it the e46 box is almost a cai to begin with.... it is drawing air from outside with that scoop in the grille... and if you cut a hole in the box and draw a tube to the front... well there you go... only thing is its not as loud

 

The K&N filter is too much work. It's not great if you don't like the work cleaning it. The paper filter acts as a sound muffler also, and it's much better for people preferring a quiet ride.

 

Don't use the oiled filters. I've gone through about 4 LMM's before switching back to stock paper filters.
Even with pipercross foam filters I've wrecked 2 of them. Last filter was a K&N in an airbox, again LMM failure. This time resulting in a burned out catalyst.
You don't get much of a gain either, the claims ppl make are mostly done with dirty paper filters and clean performance filters. There were gains to be had on the M52 engined cars, but the M54 airbox made aftermarket filters just a sound modification.

 

Hi all !

Here is my personal opinion of K&N vs OEM air filter.

At the beginning, there was an OEM air filter on my car when i bought it.
I've been driving with that for 1 year, the air filter has been there for may be 2 years at least.

When service maintenance time came last summer, i decided to replace it by a K&N.
I was hoping to get a better behaviour of the engine when reving up, but i didn't notice nothing, may be the sound, that is a very very bit louder, but nothing sexy.

6 months later after the summer maintenance, meaning now, in december, i got suddenly a check engine light, while i was on highway, for an unknow reason.
I was afraid, coz was thinking about a major issue, or an oxygen sensor, or a ACC sensor...
I was in panic for my baby. The day after morning, i was calling the BMW dealer to get an appointment to repair my car. They had to call me back but nothing...

Then, i had read threads mentionning that K&N filter could create issues with the MAF sensor on this board, so i bought a OEM filter to this BMW dealer (they didn't call me yet at this time to save my car), and when i came back to the office, i replaced in the parking the K&N air filter by the OEM one, remove the MAF pipe, clean it quickly, and put everything all back.

I started the engine, and a small moment later, My check engine light disappeared!..

Was it a concidence?
or was it due to the air filter ?
from that experience, i would say YES, that's due to the K&N filter.
I was looking at the K&n air filter through a light source, i can see a lot of small holes on the filter, and these holes are big enough to let small particules to go by the air filter. whereas the OEM air filter is full of cotton, no chance for any particules to go through.

Moreover, i'm feeling that the car revs up quicker from low to mid range.
However, I think that in high rev, K&n migh be a bit more efficient... to be confirmed.

So conclusion, i'd prefer rather OEM air filter than K&N.

 

i've been using my K&N filter for a year and no issues at all...

 

I have been using mine for 2 years+.

 

Some said good some said no good, both side all had their reasons and proofs (they actually had used it), so which side are you going to take the advice from? If you don't mine about spending a little money, then just put one in and try it out, this is the only way that you can find out the K&N filter is suitable for your car or not, you can always switch back to stock if you don't like it (take only few minutes anyway). The key here is "If you have never tried it then you never know".

I Personally don't care about the K&N stuffs at all, but that's just me.

 

I have never tried and don't need to try. What's all that sh*t about cleaning, oiling, and douching ? It ain't worth my time.

 

I used K&N for 3 years, and used to be a reseller in China too...and I stopped since I have recieved a lot of complaints from people who bought from me telling me that the K&N filter caused many check engine lights and ruined MAF sensors...

Maybe its not the best in China's dusty driving environments......and I also had a few check engine lights telling me I had a signal problem from the MAF....

Whatever floats your boats, use the K&N if you like but for me, I'm sticking with my crappy OEM paper filter forever......

PS: I still have box load of K&N filters for a variety of cars, if your interested, PM me and I'll give you the part numbers, I want to get rid of them for cheap....

 

just advertise a 15hp gain, draw up a nice little dyno graph in MS paint, and you should have no problem selling them :rofl:

 

I just bought a K&N to replace my original. But after reading all this I'm thinking - why risk the chance of getting some problems from junk getting through it? Last thing I want is a warning light....

 

Dumb choice!

 

Use a dryflow filter. My oiled filter contaminated my maf, and made my car feel like a dog. Just (5 minutes ago, with cfc maf cleaner) cleaned it, and I'm back to tire shredding 1-2 part throttle shifts.

 

I have K&N air filter on my BMW and Ford Explorer for several years now. No noticeable performance gains. The real benefit of these filters are that these are reusable. As others have suggested, be careful not to over oil the filter.

 

I put a cold air intake system in my 1998 328 and it was great, but it had a paper cone style air filter, so I tried the K&N in my 2001 330.

I have been putting it in and taking out for the last 9 years . I have not had any issues with it but I usually don't keep it in for more than a month at a time. It does give the car better punch acceleration. I usually put in during the summer when I do most of my fun more spirited driving. But after sometime, for some reason it makes starting from a stop more difficult, especially on hills in San Francisco (I have a manual trans). The throttle response gets very touchy and it cause the car to surge. So I take it out and the car is fine again, until next summer.

 

You just posted, 'me too,' to a post that has been closed for almost 5 years.