Cleaning and oiling an air filter

thenightrider

Hi my car came with a pod filter from what i have read some of them need to be oiled when cleaned how would i go about seeing if it needs to be oiled when cleaned ?

jayok

Don't know about cars, but I've have wet air filters on a few bikes, I've had and basically you cleaned it at the service interval for the bike or if the conditions were poor upon inspection - i.e. it looked black.

Cleaning the filter was a matter of using special cleaning and oil kit from the likes of K&N.

http://www.knfilters.com/cleaning.htm

What car is it?

dgt

I used to do this regurarly. Wash with soapy water to rid of crud.
Spray on the K&N cleaning stuff for the smaller stuff.
Wash in soapy water again. Leave to dry overnight
Oil it and off you go

They say clean every 100km yet my one would be nearly black within 5k miles due to where it was positioned

pippip

Anyone know the importance of the oil. I have looked into getting one of these for my Audi a4 b6 1.8t but have read a good few audi threads mentioning the oil causing engine problems. Some seem to just use them without the oil.

CJhaughey

What exactly is the filter made of?
Is it oiled cloth K+N/BMC style or is it oiled foam?
Oiled foam should use special airfilter oil available from Motorcycle shops for offroad air filters.
To clean them you soak the filter in a bucket of kerosene or the proprietary cleaning solvent which dissolves the special sticky oil and allows all the grit and dirt to fall out into the solution. This takes a while to do and advisable to wait for the filter to dry before you re-oil it.
Oiled cloth use a cleaning fluid and re-oil

George Dalton

pippip wrote: »

Anyone know the importance of the oil. I have looked into getting one of these for my Audi a4 b6 1.8t but have read a good few audi threads mentioning the oil causing engine problems. Some seem to just use them without the oil.

I wouldn't bother getting one if I were you. They have little or no performance benefit, if you accidentally over do the oil they will damage the MAF and they are messy and time consuming to clean. Just use a standard air filter and change it regularly.

pippip

George Dalton wrote: »

I wouldn't bother getting one if I were you. They have little or no performance benefit, if you accidentally over do the oil they will damage the MAF and they are messy and time consuming to clean. Just use a standard air filter and change it regularly.

Cheers, just fitted a standard one today along with oil change and pollen filter.
From the reviews I have read online the performance filters don't have a very noticeable affect. Most seem to wonder whether they are feeling better performance or just imagining a difference, bit of a placebo maybe.

Matt Simis

George Dalton wrote: »

I wouldn't bother getting one if I were you. They have little or no performance benefit, if you accidentally over do the oil they will damage the MAF and they are messy and time consuming to clean. Just use a standard air filter and change it regularly.

It worth highlighting they come pre-oiled. I cant see how you would over oil it, on the K&N's anyhow the steps are pretty basic. You let it dry before using anyhow.

Jesus Christ

Most comments I've seen also say that performance gains are negligible; it certainly seems to be the consensus with my current motor.

Matt Simis, I think I saw a K&N sticker on your 7 and I know you drove it without one can you discern a difference?

randy hickey

Jesus Christ wrote: »

Most comments I've seen also say that performance gains are negligible; it certainly seems to be the consensus with my current motor.

Matt Simis, I think I saw a K&N sticker on your 7 and I know you drove it without one can you discern a difference?

Jesus is watching you Matt!

Matt Simis

Jesus Christ wrote: »

Matt Simis, I think I saw a K&N sticker on your 7 and I know you drove it without one can you discern a difference?

I put K&N panel filters into most of my things. The difference in the 7 is slightly more engine noise (which is nice as the V8 sounds sweet) and slight improved throttle response. Likely they make more difference on my 850CSi as its a performance motor with other mods.

For the price I have no problem paying for a marginal (or unnoticeable to a human) increase as I would like to think I have minimal as possible air intake restrictions. I'm of the opinion everything can and should be improved upon, stock is a blank canvas.


In theory if you keep the car long enough, they actually save money anyhow.

mathepac

I've put K&N filters into almost every forced-induction engined car I've had. petrol & diesel. As above they can save money in the long-term and may be more environmentally friendly than the disposable ones.

A couple of observations:

There is a tendency for some people to oil the clean side of these filters, which my effect the MAF sensor. Only ever oil the dirty side (the side facing away from the turbo / intercooler) and as above always allow adequate time for air-drying between washing and oiling

The construction of the these filters (cotton and steel-mesh sandwich) can prevent solid particles / chips of stone or grit penetrating as they are much stronger than paper-element filters.

mullingar

Most of those filters wont do anything for the performance, in fact it may reduce the performance if you also change the ducting if it incorporates the MAF sensor as the cross directional area will increase so the engine thinks its getting less air.

Anyway you just gotta luv the induction roar with a cone type filter if fitted to a decent 3.0+ petrol 6 or 8 pot engine. NEVER fit these to wheezy 4-pots

ianobrien

I've a ITG foam filter and I wash it in petrol, air dry and use Castrol Air Filter oil on it then. I typically leave it overnight to dry off after the petrol wash. Sometimes I'll water wash it after the petrol wash as well.

Mine is sitting on top of a large Weber carbs and thus I'm not worried about MAFs and the like. Also, an ITG filter was recommended by the engine builder. I had a shiny K&N chrome filter first and the engine builder threw that into the bin......