K&N Air Filters - Anyone have any comments on these?

I just bought a K&N Air Filter for my 2005 Accord EX 4 cyl, and I didnt have
it put in yet, but I am soon when I have the oil and filter changed also. It
was $35.99 but I am told it can increase HP and make the car run alot better
with much better performance and better mpg. There are 33,500 miles on my
car and it was due for an air filter, so I wanted to go with one of the
best.

Also I put an STP fuel system cleaner in the tank, and I was wondering if
anyone had any thoughts on these also? I hear that they treat up to 21
gallons and they are okay to use ever 6 mo or so. I usually use a fuel
injector cleaner, but this is a little new to me.

 

don't put it in, just use honda filters. k&n filters let through
significantly more grit than any other filter - this will decrease your
engine life accordingly. they're fine for racers as they don't expect
long engine life anyway, but it's unlikely you'll see much difference in
performance compared with a clean factory filter unless you do extensive
engine work. with factory filtration, you can get 300k+ miles out of
that motor. google is your friend - there's real-life testing reports
out there on filtration performance. there was a link from tegger.com,
but it's broken.

my, you /are/ susceptible to advertising aren't you! it's just a
solvent/detergent, just like any other fuel component cleaner. use is a
good idea. paying extra for differentiation that doesn't exist is not.

 

Possibly you could go on the K & N site and see that they promise no
increase in HP or MPG for the filter alone, but do for CAI kits.

I had a K & N filter on my truck for ages. Didn't see any increase in
MPG or performance, but on the other hand, did not experience the
negative effects that you would expect if the filter was not working
acceptably as a filter. No excessive ring, cylinder, valve wear
manifested as oil use or compression loss, no seal leakage.

BTW, with regard to warranty, Toyota offers Borla as a factory option
which includes a high flow exhaust and a K & N style filter. It is
badged Borla, but has the same sticker that K & N uses and looks a lot
like a K & N or one of their competing permanent, oil impregnated
filters. I would suspect it is private branded to Borla. I don't
think Toyota would void my warranty because of a factory authorized
options. According to K & N no other manufacture will either. I'm
waiting for non troll evidence that this has been done.

I believe the fuel cleaner is unnecessary if you use a good fuel.
Some have injector cleaners as additives. Chevron/Texaco has techron
in my geographic area.

My $.02 worth

Frank

 

Then go with OEM.

K&N MIGHT get you one hp or so, but this will come at the cost of
greatly accelerated cylinder bore and ring wear. K&N filters allow quite
a lot more grit to enter the engine along with that extra air.

K&N filters also are susceptible to accidental over-oiling, which can
damage the mass-airflow sensor, a critical part of your emissions
control system.

K&N filters were originally designed for racing, not road use. In racing
you want every fraction of a hp you can wring out of your engine, and
you do not care if the engine is still running past the checkered flag.
Road-car users generally want the exact opposite of that.

You do not have to use anything at all, especially in a car that new. By
EPA edict, modern gasolines are chock-full of detergents already.

Now, if the car sits undriven for long periods of time, or is driven for
many very short trips where it never gets up to full operating
temperature, it would be wise to administer a bottle of Chevron Techron
once a month or two.

 

that may be true of other vehicles, but not honda. honda uses pressure
sensors and a programed flow map, not a mass sensor - insensitive to
this kind of issue.

 

Some Accords do use MAFs. I ran into this one before so I checked.

 

which ones?

 

Like the '03 and up SULEV ones.

 

i looked on majestic's site and see only map sensors - through 06, i4 &
v6. map is manifold air pressure - not an air mass.

 

http://corporate.honda.com/press/article.aspx?id=2003112035861

 

ok, i found it - it's in the air filter assembly, not the manifold or
throttle body. kind of hard to believe that maf is more sensitive than
map, but hey.

 

Okay so what is the verdict? I have a 2005 Accord Ex 4-cyl and its auto. Its
not a SULEV, its only an LEV. Personally I really don't see how having more
free air flow is going to make that much difference and I cant imagine that
it would damage anything, but I'm not a mechanic just a guy who likes
hondas.

 

it's not the air-flow, it's the grit-flow that accompanies it. reduced
filter efficacy [marginally] improves airflow. is that what you want?
because that's what you'll get - that's how a k&n filter works.

 

I'm going to keep this car another 9 and a half months, and I am just
looking for some performance as well as getting a new filter. As long as the
car is going to be okay, I would like to use the K&N filter. I am planning
on the Civic Si at the end of this lease in March 2008. The man at the Auto
Zone who sold me the filter seems to think the filter is a great one and
that I would notice a big improvement.

 

The damage is not caused by having a free flowing air filter.
The damage is caused by having an air filter that lets abrasive particles
get past it. Leave it stock; it just isn't worth it.

 

er, are you going to declare this when you sell the vehicle???

and you'll notice an improvement with /any/ clean new filter!
seriously, the airflow pressure difference is minuscule. the airborne
particle load is more than double.

 

He was lying to you. The improvement is about 2% tops, not enough to
notice.

 

Been running a K&N Filtercharger in my 98 civic since 70000kms. I now have
over 275000kms, and compression is still 190 on all 4 cylinders.

I also drive on a TONNE of gravel.

t

 

the chance of you having identical compression on all 4 at that mileage
is slim to zero. i therefore have a hard time buying the rest of the
story - particularly as particle ingestion/engine wear is a well known
relationship.

 

So
Fucking
What?

A statististical sample of one is less than worthless.

"Ah been running on no air filter at all since I pulled the car out of a lake
twenty years ago and I still have perfect compression on all 4 cylinders. "
Makes you want to run out an emulate the idiot, doesn't it!