Cleaning a K&N panel filter

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Vanny
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Cleaning a K&N panel filter

Post by Vanny »

I've had a K&N replacement panel in the car for around 5 years now, in both petrol and diesel cars. I originally bought it at a FrenchCarShow possibly in 2006 when the car was running a 1.9TD engine, and it hasn't been cleaned since!

I noticed on the last rebuild that the filter was looking decidedly black, so i ordered a 'recharge' kit and gave it a good ole scrub!

This is how it started;

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Black, furry and otherwise grim. Its a mixture of solidified diesel fumes, soot, grit, dead insects and bits of tree. All in all not good for breathing, and probably not to wonderful for the emissions. The kit was bought from the eVil bay for about £10.

Image

I set about cleaning it, initially following the instructions, but not for long. The instructions say spray the cleaner on, give it exactly 10 minutes and gently rinse it off, repeat if required. Well what a load of rubbish. After the third 'soak' i dialled the pressure up on the rinsing water (opened the tap a bit more) and ramped up the flow temperature (opened the hot tap), i also grabbed an old paint brush to get right into the crevices. 20 minutes later i had something that actually looked half way to clean. I applied the oil (included in the kit) and left it to dry.

The final cleaned filter looked like this;

Image

It's not perfect, there are still blackened patches, but it's much much cleaner. I don't have any easy way to measure the airflow through the panel, but i would imagine it is an improvement. It might be possible to get it that bit cleaner, but i was concerned about damaging the filter and not knowing it until too late!

Simplz!
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Re: Cleaning a K&N panel filter

Post by mat_fenwick »

If you hold it up to the light can you see little pinpricks shining through? Reason I ask is I bought a K&N clone for mine, and it *may* have made a difference but I didn't like the fact there were tiny holes in it! The theory is that dirt will stick to the oil, but dunno to what extent.
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Re: Cleaning a K&N panel filter

Post by MULLEY »

haha 5yrs, yeah, it was never going to be clean as per the instructions, if you do it once a year perhaps. As long as its just tap water pressure, then it should be fine. I cleaned an absolute horrible one that looked like it was growing stuff in it, needed quite a bit of cleaning, i used an old toothbrush (soft bristle type) to help with the dark patches that didn't come out 1st time & it looked pretty much like new.

Once cleaned it should certainly be quite a bit better, make sure you don't over oil it though & if you have just use some kitchen towel to soak up the excess. I really like these filters, purely for the eco benefits of not having to check them away. I usually just give mine a hoover twice a year & then if its looking particularly dirty after a couple of years, then give it a full monty clean. The hoover seems to work quite well, quite powerful dyson.
2002 C5 2.0 HDI Estate - Jasmine - Now SORN
2011 Mini Cooper D Clubman - SOLD
2016 Mercedes A180D Sport - Auto refinement
1992 TZD Turbo - Bluebell - My daily
1991 Gti 16V - Blaze - crash damaged, will get repaired.
1990 Gti 8Valve SOLD - looks like it's been scrapped
2002 Mini Cooper S - SOLD - i miss this car
1992 TXD - Scrapped in March 2014
1988 CX 25 GTI Turbo2 - SORN
1996 - AX Memphis 1.5D - Dream - SORN

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