K&N air filter maintenance.... Who does what and how?

[ungeheuer]

Like the title says  

Who has the best, least messy, easiest, most effective K&N air filter cleaning and re-oiling maintenance tips?

All your wisdom welcome and appreciated  

[booger]

1) fill appropriately sized plastic tub full of hot water with some Dawn dishwashing liquid
2) put filter in this tub, swish it around & let it sit for a couple minutes
3) pull filter out & rinse under tap; let dry completely. Might take a day.
4) apply oil to top of pleats both sides; use deliberate and linear motion to apply from bottle being careful to not apply excessively. The oil will wick to the meridian
   line of the pleat ensuring 100% coverage
5) if aerosol, do a quick masking exercise with some newsprint overlapping the filter rim only and spray in linear fashion careful not to apply excessively

Key thing to remember - if you missed a spot the oil will migrate there given enough time. No MAF means not much will happen if you apply excessively, but there will be a mess in the airbox. I have three oiled filters that I rotate out so I always have a freshly prepared filter. I store the fresh oiled ones in ziplock bags. If you apply too much simply stuff a paper towel into all the pleats on one side. Usually through wicking action this will fix it. Just like that Dr Seuss story with the pink ring around the bathtub.

[d3vi@nt]

I pretty much just follow K&N instructions and wear disposable gloves; spray with the cleaner from their kit, let sit 10 minutes, then rinse in the kitchen sink. Let it dry thoroughly, then apply oil. I prefer the oil in the squeeze tube -less messy. The spray oil is a bit harder to do evenly and will of course have overspray.

[stopintime]

I have decided to 'never' do it again. My first cleaning was at ~180,000km with a kit. Nearly no dirt in the bucket. On other bikes I've seen people use air pressure with much better result.

So, despite my only limited experience, I think that much of the dust goes through 'race' filters = not much to gain from cleaning them.

[Howie]

I have decided to 'never' do it again. My first cleaning was at ~180,000km with a kit. Nearly no dirt in the bucket. On other bikes I've seen people use air pressure with much better result.

So, despite my only limited experience, I think that much of the dust goes through 'race' filters = not much to gain from cleaning them.

Yep!  I ran Piper Cross foam filters.

[ducpainter]

I have decided to 'never' do it again. My first cleaning was at ~180,000km with a kit. Nearly no dirt in the bucket. On other bikes I've seen people use air pressure with much better result.

So, despite my only limited experience, I think that much of the dust goes through 'race' filters = not much to gain from cleaning them.

They actually 'filter' better when they're dirty.

[d3vi@nt]

I have decided to 'never' do it again. My first cleaning was at ~180,000km with a kit. Nearly no dirt in the bucket. On other bikes I've seen people use air pressure with much better result.

So, despite my only limited experience, I think that much of the dust goes through 'race' filters = not much to gain from cleaning them.

Recommended cleaning/re-oiling interval is 30-50,000 miles. I wonder if by 180,000km, the filter oil had dried out and become ineffective?

They recommend against using air pressure to avoid damage to the filter. I could see it being effective at removing larger particles, but don't see how it could remove the oil along with the particles/contaminants it supposedly traps.

All that said, I'm not an engineer and don't pretend to be one and there's tons of debate out there regarding their effectiveness.

Anecdotally, I run a CAI and K&N filter on my '14 VW Jetta GLI that I bought new. I felt improved throttle response over stock and I can tell when it needs a clean and recharge -typically at least once a year/10k miles. The CAI of course lets larger than normal things onto the filter. I've got close to 50k miles on it without issues. Only time will tell, but who knows whether any failures could be attributed to the air filter. I run one on my '99 ST2, as well.

[koko64]

The K&N method. Rinse from inside out. I like the spray can. Outerwear covers in soapy water and rinse. 20,000kms ish. Dries quick in the Aussie Sun.

[ungeheuer]

Thanks for the advice fellas   

Any mechanical directions that come with a Dr Seuss reference will do me just fine 

[Charlie98]

I'll second the 'don't oil it too much' comment.

When I bought my XR many years ago, I got a K&N for it.  Because nothing exceeds like excess, I oiled the absolute... uh... crap out of it.  More is better, right?  Wrong.  Going up through the gears, and mind you, the XR isn't a revver... I would hit an RPM wall and engine would almost die, like a switch was thrown.  Swapping the factory back in, and it was fine.

I use the K&N cleaner just because I have it... but the suggestion of Dawn dish soap in a bucket is probably a better one.

Do not use compressed air to try to blow it out... it doesn't work with oiled filters.  Compressed air can damage the filter, dry or oiled.

These days, I still run the K&N in the 650... just with a bit less oil.  Because it takes 6 hours and a 12-pack to unearth it, I just run factory Ducati air filters in my Monster, and call it a day.

[booger]

Slight threadjack but has anyone come across a filter that they like better than the BMC/K&N/DP oiled type? I just run the oiled type because that's all I've known to do. I got the race exhaust, the DP ECU flash map, and the chopped airbox lid with the oiled type filter. Is there a better filter that wont let so much dirt in but still allows the bike to "run right"? I use the oiled type but I never liked 'em because they let more dirt in. Any experience with MWR by chance?

[Howie]

Slight threadjack but has anyone come across a filter that they like better than the BMC/K&N/DP oiled type? I just run the oiled type because that's all I've known to do. I got the race exhaust, the DP ECU flash map, and the chopped airbox lid with the oiled type filter. Is there a better filter that wont let so much dirt in but still allows the bike to "run right"? I use the oiled type but I never liked 'em because they let more dirt in. Any experience with MWR by chance?

As I said before Pipercross   https://www.thepipercrossshop.co.uk/collections/motorcycle-filters   

I have yet to remove a K&N filer without seeing dirt on the engine side of the filter.  Nate's comment on the K&N filtering better when dirty is the truth.