How often should I change both engine air filters?

F

Fire0nic3FX

Member
I was wondering how often do you guys recommend I change both engine air filters? Last time I changed them I had 23K miles and that was a year ago. I'm at 34K now by the way. I took them both out today to have a look at them and they appeared to be slightly dirty, but not too bad. I've heard of people recommending to change them every 1 year/12,000 miles, which ever comes first.

By the way I'm not going with K&N air filters after all the problems I've had with them clogging up my throttle bodies and MAF's with the heavily oiled filters. Besides I have a brand new pair of OEM filters here:tup:
 
Whatever the service manual says or if they are really dirty, than earlier would be my recommendation! :)
 
Imo, if you can see that the filters need changing, it's too late. I like to change mine every 15K fwiw.
 
I just checked out the factory service manual and it doesn't specify a service interval for the engine air filters. It says to change them more often if you drive on dirty dusty roads as necessary. I'll wait till my next oil change then and do the filters myself.
 
Aaron you don't drive down dirt or dusty roads so I would not bother until every 15,000-20,000 miles.
I'm changing mine next week and mine look clean but I have 18,000 miles on them.
 
tchuck said:
How long did you run the K&N filters (Mileage)?

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I forget, but it was only like a couple hundred miles. After that my idle kept fluctuating and was all over the place. I ended up checking the throttle bodies and it had their oil all over it. Need I remind you that I never oiled the filters myself. They were already pre oiled from the factory. I cleaned everything up and put the OEM filters back in. That solved the problem and it hasn't turned up since then.
 
Fire0nic3FX said:
I forget, but it was only like a couple hundred miles. After that my idle kept fluctuating and was all over the place. I ended up checking the throttle bodies and it had their oil all over it. Need I remind you that I never oiled the filters myself. They were already pre oiled from the factory. I cleaned everything up and put the OEM filters back in. That solved the problem and it hasn't turned up since then.
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I remember that you didn't oil them, that's not my point. It just strikes me as odd that so many people run them without issue (Myself included, and the air in my intake tract travels around twice as fast as it does in yours) and yours caused such a severe problem in such a short time. Even If I believed at all that the K&N oil could possibly be pulled by a 3.5L V6 from the filter all the way up a 3' long dual intake tract to the TBs, I still would have a hard time buying that enough oil could transfer to cause TB issues that soon. I'm not calling you a liar, I just think it's possible that your symptoms were not related to the K&N oil. Correlation is not causation.

Did you perform an ecu reset after you installed the filters?
How soon after the install did the rough idle start?
Where did THIS occur in the K&N filter timeline?
Do you still have the filters?

So that was the only problem you had right? Just one instance, a couple hundred miles after your first installation?
 
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tchuck said:
I remember that you didn't oil them, that's not my point. It just strikes me as odd that so many people run them without issue (Myself included, and the air in my intake tract travels around twice as fast as it does in yours) and yours caused such a severe problem in such a short time. Even If I believed at all that the K&N oil could possibly be pulled by a 3.5L V6 from the filter all the way up a 3' long dual intake tract to the TBs, I still would have a hard time buying that enough oil could transfer to cause TB issues that soon. I'm not calling you a liar, I just think it's possible that your symptoms were not related to the K&N oil. Correlation is not causation.

Did you perform an ecu reset after you installed the filters?
How soon after the install did the rough idle start?
Do you still have the filters?

So that was the only problem you had right? Just one instance, a couple hundred miles after your first installation?
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It's all good man. I know what your saying :-).

After I installed the filters I didn't do an ECU reset cause something like that isnt necessary I think. The rough idle started about a month after I installed them. I'm pretty sure it was the filters that started it because the gunk that came off the opening of the plenum and throttle bodies were a dark reddish brown. The same color K&N's oil looks like, but just dirty. I no longer have the filters though. I gave them to my buddy with a G.:wink (2):
 
I've been running my K&N filters for 4 years never had a problem out of them i clean them air dry them and oil them and pop them back in with no issues.
 
SIDE FX said:
I've been running my K&N filters for 4 years never had a problem out of them i clean them air dry them and oil them and pop them back in with no issues.
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I just got my hands on a set and put them in this past saturday.. its a very nice upgrade.
 
Hell yeah they do... is it just me, did you notice an immediate difference between the OEM and the K&N, just how the engine responds?
 
I did notice the difference Dee1234 when i installed them with no issues or problems at all.
 
I read the article it was interesting reading i haven't encounter any problems iv'e been using them about 4 years now the oil is no dirty not having no engine problems to each it's own thanks for the info Pinstripe.
 
SIDE FX said:
I did notice the difference Dee1234 when i installed them with no issues or problems at all.
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I noticed the difference immediately, its literally night and day.. Im glad I got them, its a nice mod.

I did my first oil change today (at 1900 miles). Im gonna flush the differentials at 3,000 and rotate the tires. Then my "break-in" service will be complete.
 
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