DO NOT GET K&N Air Filters!!!!!!!! They say they have excellent air filters and they do provide great airflow, but with all that airflow you've got to be sacrificing something, and what do you think that is? Well its filtration, it sucks up all that air and debris and gets thrown down into the block and valves and causes boreing (little holes and imperfections) thus cutting the life of your engine short. Also they say that the filter has to be OILED , well common sense can tell you that oil atracts things, and what should somebody be worried about when dealing with air filters..........hmm i wonder, so ironically you're attracting dirt to you filter by using the recharging system that you "HAVE" to buy from them. So what sense does it make to pay big bucks for something that isn't going to work and when you clean it all your doing is letting it get dirty all over again. take it for what its worth

 

As far as cutting down on the life of your vehicle I doubt that, K&N Is a well known company and they do many tests on their products before they go into production. If it was going to damage your engine Im sure they would have a warning or something on the package. I have run K&N Filters on every vehicle I have owned and never once had a single problem with them. The whole oiling thing is a benefit, it attracts the dirt so it does not go through your engine, instead it gets stuck in the air filter. K&N also has proof that the dirtier the air filter is the better it filters the air.and last time I checked you have to replace your stock air filter once and a while too so it would be the same putting a new one in just to get dirty again. That's the parts job, Duh. The benefit is the price. you dont have to keep buying filters, and hell if you get a couple of ponies from the part cool.

 

i totally agree bbscion05, the oil does attract dust and dirt TO THE FILTER not your engine... for proof, just take K&N or K&N style filter off your intake - provided you don't have the stock filter / intake system - as many of us have gone to cold air or short ram type intake systems, and run your finger along the inside of the intake tube.. you will see a very minimal amount of particulate matter on your finger, but not near as much as you would see with a stock filter given the same amount of miles in use. thing is to keep them slightly oiled, and clean properly and regularly. also, most people don't clean them properly and ruin the filter medium, then they don't re-oil them.. when they re-install them, the filters are now faulty, and let much more debris into the engine and that causes problems...
race proven technology is exactly that, race proven.. but hey, if you don't like a particular product, you have the option to NOT USE IT... there are a few different filter styles out there, and there are options for everyone. if you are one of those people that doesn't like to customize your ride, or try to get performance gains, don't, there is nothing wrong with a stock vehicle... remember most people still say that a vehicle rolls off the showroom floor one way, and should not be changed at all, because once you start changing parts, things get screwed up later on down the line.. bottom line is, the beauty of this community is that we are each individuals, and we are all looking to make our rides unique, although it gets hard to see that when every day i see posts titled "what is the best this or that" or "help me pick what rims to get".... thats another topic all together, but at the same time all feel like we are a prt of something. we are all free to make out own choices based on the information we have, and in my opinion, if you are using this forum it is your duty to share the information you have with others in the hopes of helping others make educated descisions, provided your information is true and correct.

 

Excellently quoted IH8ONYU. I like your style

 

lets say this K&N is the only air filter used in IRL racing! why would the IRL use something that damages the engine?
i also have used K&N in everything i have ever owned. a stock airfilter has a life of only 12,000 miles and will collect plenty of dirt. thats what en airfilter does " colects dirt".
the oil on the K&N does not collect dirt from out side your car or things you are driving past, only from the air that is getting sucked into your engine.
you should do some reserch befor spouting off about something you know nothing about.

 

if you don't like oiled air filters you can use the k&n dryflow air filter .

 

K&N has a dryflow now???? I thought that was AEM.

 

I would like to know if k&n is so bad how did the guy go 1million miles on his truck with it and NEVER rebuild the motor?????

 

I have a feeling this younganimater35 guy does not know what he is talking about. I will stand by K&N, they have been good to me.

 

if he hates K&N so much then he should stick with the OEM air filter...

he probly read it on another website and just copied and pasted it...

dude don't believe every thing you read...

 

what does this thread hafta do with the F/I section?

 

Increased airflow comes at a cost. In this case, it is less filtered air.

It is a good product...if you own a race car (no, no amount of modding will make a Scion a true race car) and run it on a track where 2/10's of a second mean something. For a daily driver, they are just not worth (HP or MPG gains) the damage they cause.

Heres a test showing how inefficient they are in air filtration when compared to traditional "paper" filters:
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/airfilter/airtest3.htm

Ultimately, it is up to you, but from my past experience, I will not run them on my daily driver.

 

K&N does not compromise on filtration, it filters better. K&N does not cause damage.
i have used K&N in every thing i have owned and have never hade a problem with them. come on you guys... learn the facts and the truth!

 

nothing. I will have it moved.

 

k&n filters are in no way harmful to a daily driver... those who are talking against K&N filters are talking as if they just make there filters with more or bigger holes.... they actually use 4 or 6 layers of cotton interwoven together. its the material and how they are put together that makes them flow better... and the oil just makes the "trapping" of particles stay put when they are in the fibers.

 

you are correct i was mistaken. but seriously k&n's are great filters. they made aem's filters for many years .

 

Unless you over-oil it. Then it can dirty up your MAF sensor.

 

That is another common misconception about the oiling. I watched a video advertisment of K&N explaining that in no way could overoiling your filter cause a MAF failure. I watched them put a whole can of Recharging oil on their filter, and then put it on a flow bench that flowed way more than a cars engine could ever pull, and the oil never moved from the filter. K&N said that they have had a lot of people call them and tell them that their filter caused their MAF to fail so K&N did some research and found that there was no way that the failure was due to the oil, or over oiling of their filters.

 

I never said it would fail....just get oily. I've seen first hand a nasty oily (not just dirty) MAF sensor from a 1zz powered Matrix. This guy drenched his TRD CAI filter when he serviced it. 10K miles later he was complaing of decrease fuel mileage so I checked the MAF. Sure enough...it had thick oily goo on the stream side of it. Plus that was on a CAI where the filter is located quite a distance from the MAF.

So, K&N can say that the oil doesn't actually cause the MAF to fail, but oil can still contaminate the sensor over time and decrease overall performance. Something a few moments on a flow bench probably would not show.

 

Did you not even look at the link I provided? It PROVES K&N filters less than a standard paper filter.