Have you ever cleaned your filter?

If so...how? k&n recommends using their cleaning kit, which has a cleaning solution and oil to put on before/after washing it out

see: K&N Air Filter Cleaning Instructions


is this necissary to use? i'm assuming so if i wan't to reuse the filter again...

lastly, does anyone have a good website/shop to buy these kits from (cheaper the better). thanks

 

I use the K&N replacement filter in my truck and yeah its necessary to clean and recharge the filter once it gets dirty. Make sure you don't plan on driving for awhile once you decide to clean it because it takes a long time for the filter to dry out before re-oiling it. I bought a second one so I always have a clean one to swap in right away when the dirty one gets re-cleaned.

Oh and I bought my kit off Amazon for $9 or $10.

 

good idea and thanks for the info!

 

Quicker drying= put it in front of a fan NOT a heater!
But K&N says 50K miles between cleanings, but more often (~25K) if you're in dusty conditions. I clean mine religiously- get back lost power and fuel economy, and so forth Mark W.

 

yeah i'm at about 28-30mpg right now, looking for any/all possibilities as to why my numbers are so low

 

You can buy those recharge kits at motorcycle shops

 

Has the fuel economy steadily dropped, or dropped suddenly? How many miles on the car?

If it's steady droppage, something's wearing or clogging. Air and fuel filters are my first bets. After that, check your spark plugs and PCV valve. And, of course, check for proper tire pressure- Mark W.

 

the first time i cleaned a k&n filter i read the instructions but still did every step the wrong way and had to go buy a new filter. and if you spray to much oil on it, it wont work right. you REALLY have to pay attention to the deatails on the proper way to clean them, and take your time. having an extra one for this purpose is always good. it's what i've been doing for years now. put the new or spare one on then clean the other and have it ready to go for next go around.

 

I don't mean to be negative, man, but I've been cleaning K&N's since I was 14, and have cleaned LITERALLY hundreds of them. I've only seen three fail- one where an off-roader sucked a rock through it (thankfully, his throttle butterfly stopped it or that would've been a BAD day), one where a guy used a high-pressure hose to wash it out, and another where it had over 300,000 miles on it. Each time, K&N replaced it under warranty, even when it was no failure of theirs. You have to be trying pretty hard to screw it up. Unless you're the type who uses a whole tube of toothpaste per brush, any bonehead can handle this- Mark W.

 

as i said in my post it was my very first filter which was 14 years ago and when someone skims how to clean the filter things will go wrong. not knowing anything about cars back then i used the wrong soap, scrubed it to hard used a high preasure hose and ignored all the dents from rocks and pebbles all over it and sprayed way to much oil on it on top of the fact that i did not let it dry first before oiling it. and seeing as most people know nothing about cars, wil probably clean it in a simillar
fashon the first time. and you havent seen that many filters fyi because i used to work in a few shops for years and have seen as many ruined k&n filters as you've ever put in or cleaned. they are not as indistructable as you make them out to be. you would be suprised how many ways people find to ruin those things. so stop being so condisending like you know everything there is to know about air filters and we are all stupid, thanks-The Bonehead

 

Listen man, this wasn't meant as a "crap on you" post. I'm just saying, I HAVE worked around cars since I was 10 years old. I HAVE put in at least 153 K&N air filters (cars my shop BUILT, not just changed the oil on, but built, plus 11 of my own, personal vehicles, not including a single other car that I've worked on- just going by numbers I can read from my files). Maybe it's just the people you're working around, but I simply haven't seen that many ruined.

A note about my shops (I've owned between 1 and 3 for the past 9 years): we build high-performance, dual-purpose street, and out-and-out race cars. These cars are beaten to the extreme on the track, but babied in their downtime. Due to my relationship with my customers, virtually none of them do their own maintenance. I offer them $0 (labor) oil changes (they bring their own filter/oil), because that way, I offer a LIFETIME warranty on every car I sign my name to. Now, I build mostly 4X4's, which are certainly the harshest vehicles on the planet on virtually every part, especially the air filter. While many run a pre-filter or bowl-style filter, each and every one I sign my name to runs a K&N filter. As I said, only ONE failed from hard use in this application, where he didn't run a pre-filter or any kind of screen on his snorkel, despite my advice (or it had fallen out). Either way, my experience stands.

Just because yours is different doesn't discount my own personal experience. Like everything in life, experience is what a person sees with their own eyes. Again, I'm not some 14-year old typing utter bollocks on the internets to get attention. I'm a trained, certified professional who's been there, and done that. I'm not trying to be *condescending*- if I came across that way, it was NOT my intent. I am on forums to learn, and to teach others from my own knowledge and experience. No worries, ya? Mark W.

 

i got 25mpg last tank and decided to change my plugs (i had just reently changed them a few months back to some plugs i didn't really want to buy in the first place--don't ask lol)

anyways, ive got my fingers crossed these new plugs will come out better... so far, things are starting to look that way, but we'll see. i purchased the air filter cleaner kit anyways, just in case

 

Hmm. Rule #1 of working with cars- if you change something, and something else goes to pot, change it back Which plugs did you put in? Sounds like your Fit doesn't like them. Check the gap, and that they're tightened in properly before discounting them as junk, though! Mark W.

 

they were AC delcos i believe and I might have overtightened (didn't strip anything though). i removed them all and one plug looked abnormal (more blackish) than the others.

i changed to some E3 plugs and it seems to be running a little better so far..

 

Yeah- Delco for Honda, not so much... I'd recommend NGK or Denso- Mark W.

 

Hondas don't seem to like much non-OEM plugs... i have a friend who's a mechanic in the canadian touring series, and they race a FA5... but they've tried lots of different plug brands... the best are the stockies... this is also a tip they got from Lombardi Honda... a huge racing team!

 

I clean mine out every third oil change. It's easy with the recharge kit. I start it before doing any other work so it'll have time to dry. Spray on the cleaner, let it sit, hose it off from the inside out, let it dry, spray on the purple, your done!

 

As for the non-OEM plugs trip, very true. The ONLY time I've seen a reason to go outside of OEM is with monster compression (12.5:1+), or high-boost FI- Mark W.

 

how long do you generally let it sit and dry before spraying the purple?

thanks!!

 

Really, not being a jackass when I say- until it's dry. I put mine in front of a fan set to medium, and finish up whatever else I'm working on, then grab it. Usually 10 minutes or so. May not take that long, but drier is better. If it's still wet, there's more of a chance of the oil dripping through, which is where some may have issues with killing sensors if they over-oil the filters- Mark W.