Air Filter Change

[C180AMG71]

This is the biggest air filter i've seen in a car. Upgrading to a lovely K&N one next week where I will only have to wash the filter every 10,000 miles and it saves me the cost of a new air filter come service time. Also the K&N will let the car breath more easily as its less restrictive compared to the standard one.

 

[Broomel]

I wonder why merc spend millions on development when you can just fit a performance filter like a k and n.

 

[whitenemesis]

Unless you enlarge the inlet pipework, the engine can't "breathe more easily". The air filter is not the most restrictive element in the intake system.

If these 3rd party filter options were the great panacea they purport to be, don't you think the manufacturers would fit them?

They have their place but not on a standard car..

 

[SteveFromAvantgarde]

K&N filters were originally designed for carburettor engines where the air filter box was replaced by the filter itself. It allowed a greater fuel air mix to be adjusted on the carb itself giving the engine better power. Of course it will drink more fuel.

Now in the days of mapped fuel injection, quantity fuel flow rates and other sensors running the engine at its optimum, I fail to see how a K&N type filter gives any benefit at all.

 

[190]

If the OEM filter is bigger than usual then due to it's large surface area it will have a low pressure drop. It's probably designed that way to extend the change interval to 40,000 miles.

My 79 BMW motorcycle has a large OEM air filter. Someone conducted a proper flow test study comparing OEM with a K&N and proved that while the K&N had very low initial pressure drop there was no benefit as the OEM filter had been designed with more than enough capacity for the engine. Of much more importance was the fact that until it became dirty the K&N filter efficiency was very poor. It passed 10 times more dirt than the OEM filter.

 

[C180AMG71]

K&N arrived today & just fitted.

 

[markjay]

K&N market themselves these days as the green alternative to disposable air filter (though it is not clear how much pollution is caused through the manufacture and disposal of the K&N air filter oil and cleaning solution, and the containers they are supplied in...).

But this should not be dismissed offhand, keeping in mind that car manufacturers moved from the old metal canister based oil filters to paper element oil filters for this very reason (and the half litre or so of oil that went in the bin trapped inside the old type filter). So who knows maybe car manufacturers will introduce K&N-style reusable air filters in future?

 

[whitenemesis]

Maybe but all those fleet owned cars being serviced at the dealer, how much it it going to cost to have a technician clean a reusable filter? Or cost to have them collected and recycled/cleaned by a third party?

 

[markjay]

Maybe but all those fleet owned cars being serviced at the dealer, how much it it going to cost to have a technician clean a reusable filter? Or cost to have them collected and recycled/cleaned by a third party?

That doesn't matter, because it's all about appearances...

 

[C180AMG71]

Dealers won't use reusable air filters like a K&N cos of the amount of money they would lose for each service.

 

[whitenemesis]

Dealers won't use reusable air filters like a K&N cos of the amount of money they would lose for each service.

It would put up the cost of servicing...

They won't use them because of the cost of cleaning them and the time taken. There would be variables like how well it had been cleaned, how much oil had been applied etc.. etc..

Far more cost effective to replace with something disposable, one use only.

Currently they only change them every 4yrs(?), they would have to clean and re-oil every year.

Never happen