are TRD air filters worth 60 bucks? does anyone know if they actually enhance any performance or anything?

 

It does yield a little more airflow than a stock filter. I bought it mainly because it's reusable and washable. If you add up the cost of filter changes over the years, the trd filter will pay for itself if you drive alot like I do. I have 26500 miles on my 04 IS. It will be due for a filter cleaning soon.

 

What do you think of K&N"s?.....they seem to get a lot of hype in the auto press.

 

K&N is a good filter, just not for the IS. For some reason it just didn't do it for my car. I actually lost power. Others have reported the same thing as well.

I read somewhere that the TRD filter is made by K&N. Not sure if this is true or not though. It's probably just internet chat room rumor.

 

k&n doesn't always add power. on quite a few cars i have read it reduces the power a bit. the main benefit for the filter is only that it's reusable

 

I have a K&N drop in on my Solara...have over 40k miles on it. The TRD drop in yielded more HP from comparos and tests on .net for the IS obviously.

 

Is there a difference between TRD Japan air fiters vs. TRD USA air filters? I've heard somewhere that the USA one's are K&N and the Japanese one's are red instead of the dark cherry red color. Anyone know?

 

TRD (Japan) and TRD USA are in fact different companies.
TRD is related to Japan, while TRD USA is an attempt from Toyota/Lexus USA division to bring more aftermarket parts to the US customers, and TRD USA is merely a procurement office and does very little new R&D, if any.

and the answer on your question, The TRD Japan airfilter is totally different than TRD USA.

 

actually the trd japan air filter is not reusable as the trd usa one. save yourself the money and get the trd usa one.

 

To enforce the last two posts, yes this is correct. TRD Japan > TRD USA.

 

Does anyone who has the TRD US Air Filter actually notice any difference from stock? Slight increase in mileage or slightly louder engine sound? I'm assuming there has been no problems with check engine lights, etc since it is a Toyota part? Thanks in advance!

 

You will definitely notice a different in sound. A little more throaty when you get on the accelerator. Nothing bad at all. No problems with CEL's since it does not obstruct or drastically change airflow for the MAF to read. To be honest I haven't noticed any changes in mpg, but I have washed and reoiled the filter on many occassions since I got it new. I'm up to 53,500 miles on my 20 month old 2004 IS300.

 

Thanks for the quick response! Sounds like a no-brainer to me for $60 at L-tunedparts. A bit more aggressive growl is exactly what I'm looking for.