Hi All. Has anyone here had any experience to speak of? Specifically looking for anyone with 50K+ miles running the K&N drop in panel high performance air filter and their learning? Own a 2013 TL Advance FWD with 55K miles and I’ve owned it since new. I’ve just purchased one and thought if I would’ve bought when I replaced the first filter at 12,000 miles I would have now started to save money. My car runs so smooth, fast, and looks great. Plan on keeping it until the wheels fall off. Please share any/all experiences?

 

I've used K&N air filters on two vehicles and never noticed any difference. I can't say I regretted it though since it was practical to have a reusable filter. It pays off in the long run. But as far as performance gains, I didn't notice any that I can speak of.

With my 4G, I've decided to stick to OEM filters after watching a few vids on YouTube where various air filter brands were tested for their filtration ability. So airflow wasn't the focus but rather, the filtration efficiency of each brand of filter. Most of them were relatively close - OEM, FRAM, Autozone, NAPA, WIX, etc. However, K&N came back dead last. By far the worst filtration of them all. And from what I could tell, the oil was applied correctly (which is one of the key ingredients in the filter capturing particles).

Based on that and the lack of performance, I saw no reason to spend the extra money and introduce more dirt to the engine than necessary. If there was a significant performance increase, I could see justifying the increased crap getting through since it probably won't have a really significant effect on wear - though it would definitely have some effect on wear, no matter how marginal, since particulate matter introduced to the cylinders inevitably results in wear to cylinder walls, piston rings and valves. It's just physics.

 

don't over-oil it and it'll be fine! The recharge kits are for more than 1 recharge!

 

Moral of the story: buy two of the store brand when they're on sale. Replace regularly.