Redeemed07

Had them in other cars before, does any of you fellow LS460 owners noticed any difference in power gains or sound?

Shad034

I've no evidence to support, but I've heard anectdotal issues with them causing issues with the MAF and gumming up the intake due to the oil used on the filter. General opinion from what I've read is stay away on this car.

satiger

iTrader: (1)

I have K&N on ES and GX for last 8+ years. No issues what's so ever. There is no fuel economy or power gain per se but I use them for easy maintenance. Will switch to K&N on LS when ready for engine air filter change....

Nospinzone

Use the oil VERY sparingly.

roadfrog

I can give you two personal examples and many 3rd party examples of why they're bad.

In 2003 i ran K&N in my F350. I sent a used oil sample to Blackstone which came back with a warning that there was high levels of "silicate" in my oil. As you know, silicate is sand. Needless to say, that is a very bad thing. This was on a factory oiled filter. A few years later, I had another Blackstone test done one my 1988 Mustang GT 5.0 - it too returned with higher than average levels of silicate. That was the end of K&N for me.

As for 3rd party examples, many members on the Diselstop.com forums wer experiencing simlar test results on their oil along with reports of MAF oiling.

At the end of the day, what are you trying to achieve with a K&N? Better performance? No. Lowering cost of maintenance? Yep ...approx average is 285 dollars over 250k miles, lol. Better for the environment? Meh...MAYBE to the landfill, but not to air quality if your MAF isn't working properly due to it being mucked up with oil.

And then there's the SCIENTIFIC proof that they don't work properly, and they can easily be found by using a Google search. I have many times attached tests where it was shown how much foreign material gets past the filter. You can't have "increased air flow" and NOT have increased blow-by.

here's some reading for you:
https://ac.els-cdn.com/S221201731630...b9eefcdc3b2b7a

http://duramax-diesel.com/spicer/index.htm

https://www.bobistheoilguy.com/airfilter/airtest3.htm

RR601

Never understood the fad years ago with K & N filters. A filter that lets more dirt thru but sells for a premium. They have to be good at marketing to pull that off.
Makes as much sense as punching holes in your factory filter to increase air flow.

mckellyb

If your MAF is 'broken' by an oil-bath filter, said filter is over-oiled. It's easy to do this, honestly, and it's been claimed

An oil-bath filter will not let more dirt through, either, unless it's used in a very dusty/dirty environment.

Even then, oil-bath filter + paper air filter, and you're golden. Many lawnmowers have this setup, and as someone who had a Snapper with the dual-stage, oiled foam over paper, air cleaner, I learned keeping the oiled foam fresh meant the paper filter would never get dirty.

But then, laziness would kill the party, and if the foam filter because dirt-filled, the air filter didn't last long, at all.

On the other hand, I've had K&N filters in multiple high mileage vehicles, for many tens-of-thousands of miles, one close to 200K worth of miles, and not one ever had an engine wear issue. Engine wear presents itself, without oil testing, as oil consumption/lower power/lower compression. I've never had a vehicle which had both a K&N and these symptoms.

I've had others which had this happen, but they were beaters, and meh...who cares.

For the LS, oiled over paper pays off after paper set of filters #3, which is about 60K miles, or thereabouts. I plan on having mine for quadruple that, at least, so I'm going K&N when the time comes. Drop-in, none of that retarded cone garbage.

"Yes, please turn my OEM CAI into one which sucks underhood air."

No.

Roadfrog, that Duramax forum link looks very suspiciously dangerous.

satiger

iTrader: (1)

Well said Kelly. Didn't want to post it early as it can easily turn into another warranty vs non-warranty, oem vs non-oem, air vs non-air types of thread . But you took words out of my mouth.

Been using K&N and specially on ES its now more than 10 years with 200k miles on the filter!. Did an oil analysis on ES few times, everything were within the specs even for such a high mileage car. Those reports can be found on ES forum.

Before k&n, I have used OEM and other brands. But k&n stands out as a well constructed filter. Since I started using k&n, every time I touch and feel paper based filter it feels/looks cheap to me. I appreciate good design/construction and pay premium for that.

My cars are serviced and Lexus/Toyota dealerships. Non had raised that as a concern yet. Interestingly one time (10 years back) I asked Toyota service guy about any issues using k&n in long run and brush me off and said its just another urban myth!

Protholl

Agreed.. use the oil as it designed/required by K&N and you'll get a bit more airflow, a bit less cost for replacement filters.. and a bit more roar when you mash the fun pedal. If you use the K&N filter oil like spray paint... your mass airflow sensors will pay the price.

mckellyb

I've had a drop-in K&N in Princess, the RX, for going on 100K miles. Last time I cleaned it, the filter had been in there for an easy 7 years since I touched it last. The car wasn't driven much, and it's not like oil evaporates. Eventually, I cleaned and re-oiled out of guilt.

As it is, my wife drives it only about 5K/yr.

Satiger, thank you for the kind words. I tend to shy away from thread like this unless I can back up my statements with first-hand knowledge/experience.

I'm going to have my wife's RX300's oil tested in a couple thousand miles, so probably June, or so. I considered doing the transmission's oil, too, though the problems it had about 15K miles ago never reappeared, so it's merely that trans is ultra-picky about oil level. The engine oil is likely a couple of years old at this point, but meh, Mobil 1. I'm much less concerned about acidic blow-by compounds escaping with M1 vs. dead dinos, which is the primary reason for time limits...oil can hold these nasty compounds only so long.

I've always changed the RX's oil, Mobil 1, @ 10K. I'm sure I'll be able to bump that out to 15K, but it's only a 5 quart sump. Should be 7.5-8, IMO, but there's no easy way to expand the pan or add capacity unless I go with a remote reservoir...not gonna happen. The first owner, from who we bought her @ 32K miles, also insisted on M1 changes.

Instead of testing the trans oil, I'm just going to swap all of it out for Castrol synthetic import stuff. The LS loves it and it's been a month, at least, so I'm comfy going for it on the RX. One final filter change, too.

Johnhav430

I used them exclusively on my 1998 Maxima from brand new, and faithfully cleaned/reoiled, etc. This went on for about 10 years. I watched my mpgs like a hawk--everytime it dipped, I cleaned reoiled. Thing was, this was getting to be very frequent, maybe every 2-3k. I suspected that this "it filters better when dirty" was bunk. Instead of reading the writing on the wall, I bought a new K&N panel, and now I did not need to clean/reoil every 2-3k anymore, more like 10k. But the same thing repeated.

Then, that report came out where some guy tested filters using was it a million dollar test machine, which K&N cannot afford so they had no way of refuting, and the report pretty much proved it's a myth. His report showed that OE was the best.

Why did I even use it? Because there was a grid in 1998 showing K&N could add 2 HP, on the forum. I would and will never use a K&N product again, I think it does not do what the mfg. claims, and it's been proven...my .02