Why you should check the air filter occasionally

[james_smart]

You should check the air filter occasionally. This may require a screwdriver. Look for the air intake, the hose is usually the biggest ones under the hood that does not connect to the radiator. If you hold the filter up toward the sky you should be able to see light through it. Bang it on something to knock some dirt out of it.

[RidingOnRailz]

Good tip!

My car was hard-starting during the last two months. Changed EAF for the first time since last winter, hard-starting gone.

[danielsatur]

Yep! You can find lost horse power by replacing a bad air filter + cleaning the MAF & IACT sensors.

[fredjacksonsan]

Change it every 15000 miles (25000km)* and you'll never have to worry.

Or get a K&N filter and clean it every 30000* miles.
















*more often if you drive in dusty conditions. Some people hate K&N.

[shorod]

The big caution with the K&N and similar oiled filters is you need to be very careful not to over oil them. If you don't get the oiling just right after cleaning, they can easily coat the Mass Air Flow sensor elements and cause fuel economy issues along with other driveability concerns.

-Rod

[fredjacksonsan]

Originally Posted by shorod

The big caution with the K&N and similar oiled filters is you need to be very careful not to over oil them. If you don't get the oiling just right after cleaning, they can easily coat the Mass Air Flow sensor elements and cause fuel economy issues along with other driveability concerns.

-Rod

Yup....because some eeediots can't follow the simple directions!

[J-Ri]

Originally Posted by james_smart

You should check the air filter occasionally. This may require a screwdriver. Look for the air intake, the hose is usually the biggest ones under the hood that does not connect to the radiator. If you hold the filter up toward the sky you should be able to see light through it. Bang it on something to knock some dirt out of it.

Never bang the air filter on anything to knock dirt out of it, when larger particles are caught in it, they can make a small hole in the filter material. Doing anything to remove dirt from them can potentially leave small holes that smaller particles can flow through.

Originally Posted by shorod

The big caution with the K&N and similar oiled filters is you need to be very careful not to over oil them. If you don't get the oiling just right after cleaning, they can easily coat the Mass Air Flow sensor elements and cause fuel economy issues along with other driveability concerns.

-Rod

Most of them also have fairly large holes in the filter, holes big enough to see through... I don't mean see light, I mean see how many fingers someone is holding up. Many air intakes that have K+N filters before them have a very fine coating of dust lining the sides... and the MAF sensor.


I'm not saying they're bad, they have their place, I have one on my truck. I also have a second paper filter. The K+N is great for catching a lot of the dust encountered while offroading (and not having to replace the filter after every-other trip), but the paper filter still gets very dirty.