A couple questions on air filters.

I took my Fit in for an oil change and tire rotation to the dealer. They called me and mentioned my cabin air filter was clogged and I had oil in my air filter. I cleared the cabin filter fine and checked on the air filter and found this:












I know that's not normal, but any ideas on what could be causing it? My Fit only has 11,811 miles on it.

Any opinions on K&N filters? I ordered one, but I have a couple more days before it ships so I can still cancel. Are they worth the premium or am I better off just buying one from the dealer (cheapest local option at $26)?

Thanks in advance.

 

are you sure that's oil? from the pics it looks like it's just really dirty to me. it looks powdery/flaky and accumulated most on one side of all the filter media folds. and the pattern looks normal for how dirt/dust accumulates on filters.

i'm assuming you drive in a lot of snow/dirt/mud since you're in alaska; it could be just that your car drives in dirtier conditions so your filter got really dirty (your engine bay in the background of the picture does look pretty dirty)?

 

I was just thinking that myself. I think it was ingrained in my mind that there was oil in there because that's what the tech said. When I touched it and looked in the compartment it just felt like dirt and dust buildup. Maybe I'm just being paranoid

Thanks. Would you happen to know anything about the K&N filters? My dad was an army mechanic, so I learned basic stuff from him. Growing up he always bought, and still buys, Fram air and oil filters.

 

haha you're welcome, yeah i think your filter is just dirty.

i used to use k&n filters but switched over to using an AFE filter. k&n has very high flow, but poor filtration, so a lot of junk gets through into the engine. the AFE filter is dry, not oiled like k&n's, but it's also cleanable/washable.

the higher flowing filters have poorer filtration, while the low-flow filters have the best filtration.

 

It could be mold.

 

Uh, why would oil be out of place? Shouldn't that be where the PCV system dumps it?

 

Filters come from the factory with some oil in them to catch particulate. What you're seeing is just a dirty filter. The PCV system doesn't connect to the intake...

 

If it isn't-my bad. My k-motor'd CR-V dumps it right onto the the filter so that's what I assumed was going on. At any rate, my factor GE filter looked exactly the same when I changed it out. I wouldn't be alarmed.

 

You're mistaken, I haven't studied the pcv system on the Fit yet, but PCV typically pulls vacuum from the intake manifold after the throttle body, meaning you should not have oil in your filter.

 

When I swapped out my intake for a K&N panel, it was a little bit dirty like yours (12k miles on the car at the time) with dark black spots. It smelled oily, but I guess the PCV isn't near the filter, so I don't know. I thought it looked way dirtier than it should, but being that it was from the bay area originally, I chalked it up to a result of sucking in emissions from the highway for all of it's life. I've changed filters at 40-50k before, and they weren't black. Kinda peculiar.

 

Er, uh, like I said in my last post-if it isn't-my bad. Just pointing out this isn't my first oily air filter Honda and the other one's been running fine for 8 years now.

 

Bingo! Many cars/trucks with a hot wire MAF sensor immediately downstream of the air filter suffer a CEL on condition a few thousand miles, or sooner, after fitting a K&N. Oil from the filter coats the wire and then dirt that the filter lets pass clings to the oil and insulates it, throwing the readings off. High silicon (dirt) and iron (wear) detected by Used Oil Analysis is also common.

 

K&Ns have excellent filtration by aftermarket performance standards. To deal with the MAF issue, get a can electrical cleaner spray and carefully spray out the element every once in a while, or as you notice a degradation in performance. I don't think particulate matter is the problem with these - just contaminated MAFs from oil vapors. I've run them on all my cars, and never picked up a hint of external contaminates with a "white glove test." Just blow by, like on the Fit. What is up with the oil on the stock filters? Seriously.