Ive had my cai for about 8500 miles now, and it could use some cleaning. Ive looked around and it seems the only way ive seen is with cleaning kits like the k&n kit.
I want to know if its necessary to buy one of those to clean it, or has anyone else cleaned theirs some other way?

I used one of those kits on another car and it made the filter lose a lot of its color and become really thin

 

i used the filter kit or you can let it sit in mild soap water but it will loosed color. the K & N cleaning kit comes with the oil that gives it its reddish tone.