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MG MGF Technical - Have you cleaned your K&N?

Has anyone felt the need to clean their K&N filter yet?

It occurs to me that in the 15 months or so since I fitted mine I have scarcely looked at it - let alone cleaned it. It is hard to notice if response, or whatever, may have dropped off a little over the months - so has anyone done it and noticed any difference?

Peter.
Peter


Yes. Only last week.
It looked really dirty so I cleaned it.
It wasn't as dirty as it looked.

Having said that, you can 'feel' the difference. Think it's the sound that's changed and the rest is in my head.

Wasn't a real need to clean it, but I feel better. :o)

Cheers,
Paul.

Paul

The K&N recommended sequence for cleaning is each 50 k km (30k miles), is it ?

Dieter
NE-WZ77
Dieter Koennecke

Hi,

Why not look at

http://www.knfilters.com/cleaning.htm

Regards, Kes.
Kes

I doubt that the rate of blockage will be significant before 50,000 miles, in a UK climate. Specifically dusty conditions, such as living near a quarry (or desert) will alter this.

The colour of the filter is not a guide to the unit being blocked. It will go black very quickly. I suggest that most people will be unable to go more than 30k miles without cleaning it, so I suggest that this should become a 24k mile 2 year service item. In reality I very rarely need to change standard air filter elements before this point either.

Rog
Roger Parker

>so I suggest that this should become a 24k mile 2 year service item. In reality I very rarely need to change standard air filter elements before this point either.

I thought this was normal with regards to MGF servicing anyway? I say this as I noted the filter was not included in the 12,000/12mth service.

http://www.blitzer.demon.co.uk

Home of the F'ers Gallery and MG Dealer Guide. :)
Paul Lathwell

Have a look at:
http://www.knfilters.co.uk/kn_hi/filtercare.htm
http://www.knfilters.co.uk/kn_hi/cleaninginst.htm

which is the UK site rather than the US.
James

Hi,

Yes, that's a much better site (I was a little too quick to post my offerring). There's also Kinnor's site at http://www.knairfilters.u-net.com/ if you want to order, especially as there's an MG discout at the moment.

Regards, Kes.
Kes

>>I doubt that the rate of blockage will be significant before 50,000 miles, in a UK climate. Specifically dusty conditions, such as living near a quarry (or desert) will alter this.<<

Got disagree with you there Rog- a very rare occurance indeed.

I have found tha I need to clean my filter every 14-16k miles. I went to 18k miles and discovered that the side of the filter exposed to the cold air ducts was caked in mulch collected from the road (dirt, rotted leaves etc). Cleaning the filter made a significant improvement in performance.

Even if you don't clean the filter very often, it is certainly worth your while making a visual inspection of the filter every 12 months, and perjaps just brushing off any loose debris.

Rob
Robert Bell

Interesting cmparison Rob. Clearly the overall set up in your case is more vulnerable. I have over 100,000 miles with one particular K&N element in a number of 16 valve Maestro fittings and a clean at one engine change which equated to about 60,000 miles didn't show any change or that much dirt. A couple of cone filters in different applications also have followed a similar pattern.

Now I think that what you have experienced is confirmation that the cold air ducts do draw from the underside of the car since that is where all the much and crap is. This is more an issue of where the cold air is drawn from as on the examples I refer to above the cold air pick ups were away from ground level and not directly in line with any direct stream of air/water/mud/leaves etc. With your filter blocking up on the cold feed side I expect that you would see/feel a difference when the filter was cleaned.

Now that leads to another issue. If the cold air pipes are able to channel so much debris up then perhaps this is an area for further change. I know the issue of damage through contact with the road surface has arisen before. This is another consequence of the proximity to the road surface of the pipes and another reason to look into any other viable positions.

The increase in diameter of the air pipe could reduce the velocity of the air so that it is less able to lift debris in such volume, and the increase in size of the filter surface would also help in this direction.

I think if the cold air pipes efficiency of a road sweeper can be reduced then I would expect to see very long extended periods between filter cleans and come back to the adoption of the 24,000/2 year cycle as it does indeed match the standard maintenance schedules.

If there are those reading this who operate a cone filter without cold air feed pipes from the underside of the car, it would be very enlightening to hear their experiences.

Rog
Roger Parker

I have moved my K&N (see other thread) and it has done only about 3500 miles since original fitting but is still quite clean.

However I noticed that engine bay is very dusty so perhaps it has something to do with how close the tubes are from the filter - mine were about 2 inches from the filter surface and is now about 3 inches.

As I said some months ago what the *F* needs is a 'snorkel' sticking up above the hood - not a brilliant solution:-)

Ted
Ted Newman

I have lost one of my pipes when a squirrel tried to look up it at 50mph!
I was thinking of using one wider diameter pipe, made into an oval at the bottom end. Anyone tried this?
Cheers
Gareth
BTW, no, the squirrel didnt make it.
Gareth

Ted, I have noticed that the engines on a number of the early cars are all covered in a heavy layer of dust. As these are using standard induction I don't think the K&N is having any real bearing on this.

Gareth (Ted)

I trust it wasn't a Green Squirrel!!!

Rog
Roger Parker

This thread was discussed between 19/10/1999 and 25/10/1999

MG MGF Technical index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG MGF Technical BBS is active now.