K & N Air filter

[presbo]

I have a '08 Avalon V-6 and was wondering if I should get a K & N air filter for the engine? Will it give me any better MPG? How often do you have to "clean" it?

[shajbot]

Depends on where you drive. In the dusty country side like mine I would look at it every 3K miles. If your road is clean then maybe 5k.

[Tom in Tacoma]

Based on my experience (2-trucks and a Mustang with K&N's) you won't see any appreciable fuel mileage increases. The K&N's actually filter better when they're somewhat dirty. I often went 15k miles without cleanings. As a rule of thumb I'd say you wouldn't need to clean them any more than you'd have to swap out a conventional paper filter.

But the one thing you'll have for certain - a filter you'll never have to replace!

[presbo]

Thanks guys.

[marstil]

I read an article last year that really tore apart the K&N filters. I wish I could find it again but, alas, I cannot. It said K&N didn't filter nearly as good as paper filters and let larger particles thru the filter and, thus, into the engine. I can speak of my old Chrysler 300M. I used a K&N on the car for 150K miles and it was using a quart of synthetic between 4k oil changes after awhile...kind of excessive, methinks. Talked to a couple of mechanics and they felt that the larger particles entering the engine had opened up the clearances resulting in the high oil use. I never could see any blue smoke at start-up so I don't think it was valve guides or anything like that. (It's possible the Overhead Cam engine doesn't even have valve guides...I don't really know.) I can't say whether the K&N diagnosis is true or not but I quit using the filter on the 300m and won't put one on my Avy. By the way, I never really got any better mileage on the 300m using the K&N.