My experience with K&N

[disturban]

Long story short I got a free (BRAND NEW) K&N for my wifes 2000 Bravada and installed it at 102,000 miles...now with 108,000 miles she comes home complaining that her truck is running bad. Well after scanning for trouble codes, checking plugs, wires, cap rotor ect ect ect I decided to check the MAF sensor. Sure enough it was black and all the elements was coated with burnt black oily residue. I contacted K&N about this and their response was I must have over oiled it...it was brand new with 6,000 miles on it I told them. They came back with the response that this could not have been caused by their filter because they have tight quality control and only apply a thin coat of oil in the manufacturing process...I call (manual word censor - mod)!!! I cleaned the MAF sensor and installed a paper filter and now the truck runs smooth as can be. It has 12,000 miles on it now and I checked the sensor again and low and behold it is still nice and clean, I suspect it will stay that way. Oh they also pointed me to this K&N article...I still call (manual word censor - mod)! http://www.knfilters.com/news/news.aspx?ID=422

Never again will I use one of their products!

One more thing too we had an average of 17.2mpg with the K&N and after switching back to the paper filter we are getting 17.8mpg...I think this could have been contributed to the dirty MAF sensor though.

 

[VK56VD]

Many have reported on here that nothing beats the filtering ability and keeping away from trouble than using a OEM or OEM equivalent air filter.

Fram Tough Guard air filters come slightly pre-oiled from the factory to help trap dirt but they are not re-usable filters. I remember buying a NIssan OEM filter at the dealership that also came slighly pre-oiled.

Most say to stay away from K&N and the used oil analysis prove it.

 

[MrBeachcomber]

Interesting experience so say the least; however, I have over 280K miles combined usage of K&N air filters on my two Vettes and never have had a problem with either MAF oiling from their filters. Obviously, based upon your post, YMMV.

I have seen individual Vettes come into the shop with MAF oiling problems using K&N filters. It usually boils down to one of two sources: over-oiling the K&N filter by the owner during the refreshing process; or engine oil vapor from the PVC system or worn rings. (The later condition is easy to spot as the entire intake system from the throttle body forward has a thin, oily black film covering the surface.)

When the shop installs a refreshed K&N filter, we always stand the filter up right for at least one half hour to allow any excess oil to accumulate at the bottom edge of the filter to be wiped off prior to installing the filter. (No matter how hard I try, I seldom get uniform coverage on the K&N oil using just one pass of the aerosol can.)

Hope that your problems are gone! If they come back, look for engine oil contamination as the culprit.

 

[bearda]

Any chance you looked at the MAF sensor before you installed the filter? I'm not defending K&N by any means (I went back to an OEM paper filter after seeing the silicon counts), but there's always the possibility that something else in that many miles fouled the sensor and it was a coincidence that it failed shortly after you put the filter in.

 

[saberz]

K&N filters are very good if taken care of properly. I used the cone and box filter in my Impala since it was new(now has 100k on it). The last time I re-oiled my filter and i left it verticle for about a month for excess oil to come out since the Impala was a driveway paperweight(BCM system was shot) and my brother couldn't afford to get it fixed until after a month.

In my Xterra, the K&N wouldn't seal/sit properly in the airbox, completely uneven so I removed it. After 1k miles it had caught a lot of dirt/debris but wasn't comfortable on how it was installed, so I switched to the OEM Nissan filter.

 

[asiancivicmaniac]

I've had K&N panel filters in two cars with 40-50k miles each and didn't have any drivability problems. Currently they're using conventional filters because I got lazy and didn't oil the filters after cleaning.

 

[disturban]

Originally Posted By: bearda
Any chance you looked at the MAF sensor before you installed the filter? I'm not defending K&N by any means (I went back to an OEM paper filter after seeing the silicon counts), but there's always the possibility that something else in that many miles fouled the sensor and it was a coincidence that it failed shortly after you put the filter in.
Unfortunately I did not look at the MAF sensor prior to installing the K&N however as the other member stated it could be caused by engine oil vapor from the PVC system or worn rings. I changed the oil every 5,000 miles since we bought this truck and during those 5,000 miles it does not use one drop of oil, it is right on the full mark, so I have eliminated that theory as the cause of the issue. I will keep a close eye on the sensor and check it at every oil change and see if it starts getting dirty again and report back if it does. I believe the K&N was the culprit though!

 

[Loobed]

Originally Posted By: disturban
Long story short I got a free (BRAND NEW) K&N for my wifes 2000 Bravada and installed it at 102,000 miles...now with 108,000 miles she comes home complaining that her truck is running bad. Well after scanning for trouble codes, checking plugs, wires, cap rotor ect ect ect I decided to check the MAF sensor. Sure enough it was black and all the elements was coated with burnt black oily residue.



If you got it for free, there is no warranty claim since you have no receipt.

K+N filter oil will not coat the MAF sensor with BURNT black oily residue.

I have had a K+N filter in my truck for 60K miles and never had a problem with the MAF sensor.

The problem is either from another source or it was over oiled.


You should clean the MAF sensor every 50K miles or sooner. i usually do it once a year

 

[09rexwagon]

It wasn't burnt, it was oily from the K&N oil and black due to the dirt that the K&N lets in (since it doesn't filter very well) sticking to that oil and turning into a sandy/dirty/oily sludge.

 

[Loobed]

Originally Posted By: 09rexwagon
It wasn't burnt, it was oily from the K&N oil and black due to the dirt that the K&N lets in (since it doesn't filter very well) sticking to that oil and turning into a sandy/dirty/oily sludge.


I assume "Durham, NC" is North Carolina. Do they have black dust their? Here we have brown or gray dust. I have driven my truck with the K+N filter through dust that was as fine as flour or baby powder and would coat a windshield so you could barely see. I never had a problem with dirt ingestion. You might have not had a good seal or the seal was defective. With the filter laying on a flat surface, is the seal and pleats relatively straight and flat? I have seen one K+N 14" x 4" round filter where the seal had a molding defect.

Anyways, If you are unhappy with the K+N, toss it.

 

[JustinH]

I'll stick with the paper filters and replace them every year.

 

[Nayov]

Have a K&N in the Sentra and love it. Been in for 75,000 with no problems.

Had one in a Ranger and it did absolutely nothing for power or anything else.

 

[Ken2]

In any case, why bother with a K&N or any other so-called "performance" air filter? If the filter does allow more air to flow through, that only happens at max rpm and wide open throttle. Otherwise the engine isn't pumping a lot and the throttle is...ummm...throttling (?) the air flow.

 

[lookatme]

Originally Posted By: Ken2
In any case, why bother with a K&N or any other so-called "performance" air filter? If the filter does allow more air to flow through, that only happens at max rpm and wide open throttle. Otherwise the engine isn't pumping a lot and the throttle is...ummm...throttling (?) the air flow.
Thats a good question but think of a motor as a big air pump sucking air in and pumping it out. While the stock filter might be capable of flowing well enough for a stock motor it is still sucking the air through that filter. Now if it is restricted in the least little bit the motor has to make up for that restriction by working harder on the intake stroke. Kinda like breathing through a straw, sure you can do it but is it comfortable? You have to work harder dont you? It would be easier to breath through a toilet paper roll huh?

 

[tom slick]

But if the filter is more than adequate from the beginning what benefit is the k&n? k&n is making an assumption that every filter design is flawed.

to use your straw analogy, you can breath through a 3 inch pipe comfortably, does a 6" pipe make you breath more air?

 

[river_rat]

+1
Everyone should maybe take a look at the air filtration test on the home page of this site.
The air resistance of the intake is almost completely on the intake piping to the engine rather than the filter element itself.
I feel like if a fella wants to grind up the engine early for a teeny-tiny amount of air flow, he ought to just remove the filter altogether and save the $50 or so.

 

[postjeeprcr]

Taking about a person breathing through a pipe and a car doing the same is comparing apples to oranges. Also no tests on this site cover every situation nor would I really call them scientific or conclusive. I am amazed how much peer pressure there can be online from people you will most likely never see or meet. It seems like people can not have independent thought.

 

[sprintman]

When you can pick an engine running a K&N from a used oil analysis you know they are not much good.