I need a new air filter! Mine is dirty and my gas mileage has gone from 30 average to 26. I can't decide on what to buy. My options are:

HKS air filter : because I want to keep my car with all Japanese parts, all the way down to the last nut and bolt.

Honda OEM filter: See above

K&N drop in filter: This filter is obv. the best but it's an American product, and I like my car being ALL Japanese parts. Plus it's the most expensive and right now I have to cut corners. I know $60 vs. buying more filters later is counterproductive, but the extra $30 bucks over the other filters means having gas money to get to work that week or something.


Has anyone had any experience with the HKS drop in filter? Or even Mugen or Spoon for that matter. I read somewhere that those filters are either hard to get or not available at all, plus they suck and kill performance.

 

Go with the honda oem one. I have no experence with any of them. Wait are u talking about the intake air filter?? If so why not upgrade to a short ram intake. U can make one for about $60 at autozone or pepboys. I have one and works great. But if its not ur thing stick with oem

 

I never unstood the deal with short rams... Lets place the filter as close as possible to the exhaust manifold to try and absorb as much heat as possible... But meh thats a whole different topic...

As your obsession with japanese parts, sure JDM is great and all. But K&N makes a very good filter and will last you alot longer, but there are some advocates of K&N filters due to having to oil them and covering the inside of your intake manifold in that oil. Either way you cant go wrong with any of them. But in my opinion OEM is the way to go.

 

personally i would go with the k&n filter for now cause you can wash it when it gets dirty and save money instead of having to buy new oem filters all the time.

save your money and get a full on intake later on down the road.

 

I read here that the spoon one will drop one horsepower. weird.

 

How do you measure 1whp? That could just be dyno error. I mean thats about 1%...

 

K&N for me. I'm a big fan of stock intakes. I'd like to see a stock fit do a couple of runs against a fit with just an intake, just for fun.

 

I'd go with the OEM filter. Even if you did gain a bit of power from a K&N filter, it wouldn't be noticable.

 

k n n drop in filter ftw! its only like $4o and lasts forever

 

The better driver would win.

 

It's not that it covers the inside of the intake mani with oil, it's that the oil can get on the intake sensors (MAF, IAT, etc.). If you properly lube the filter after cleaning it, this shouldn't be a problem. Some people tend to over oil them.

 

No HP gain for sure. I bought the K&N b/c I wanted better MPG's. I did start getting better MPG's, but it's questionable as to whether or not it was due to the engine fully breaking in, me learning to drive better, the air filter, my synthetic oil, or a combination of all. K&N will allow more air to flow through than the paper OEM filters, but with more airflow means more chance for contaminants to fly through too. But just because there's more chance doesn't necessarily mean that it will. Didn't stop me from putting them onto my last two cars.

I agree. Even if it was The Stig vs. The Stig I don't think there would be a significant difference.

 

no difference, ESPECIALLY with a fit. but with the k&n filter, wash it every 30k miles, and itll last forever

 

lol you guys are crazy

the fit came choked from the factory, my 1st mod was an intake and there was a big difference

not in HP necessarily but just in terms of responsiveness and drivability

 

wooo hoo for less torque haha

 

k&n after your oem one is no good

 

the k n n filter doesnt give any performance advantage. but if you were looking for bolton performance, get a mustang.

get the k n n filter for the advantage of it lasting forever

 

You can go with the HKS, Spoon, Mugen, or Blitz. I did read that the Spoon filter has some negative effect. And i saw some test where the HKS foam filters dont filter dust/dirt well. The Blitz one looks good though. Mugen one is probably good too, but expensive.

 

the k&n filter is NOT $60. its less than $40 shipped from most places

 

no idea. it was in a thread titled something like "which drop-in filter?" a couple ppl said it. just passing on what i heard.

calculator said .91xx% (i was curious)