Comments on: How to Change Your Car’s Air Filter

By: PRM

PRM — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 14:51:06 +0000

K&N filters that use oil – do not over-oil them after cleaning. Modern engines have an air mass/temperature sensor downstream from the filter that can be severely affected by an oil film caused by excess oil on the filter.

By: Erik

Erik — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 13:01:29 +0000

I’ve gotta say to those touting their fancy two-initial named filters, K&N’s just aren’t worth the price. Everyone I know has used one at some point in their car-owning/maintaining life, and they’ve all said the same thing. No more horsepower than normal, fuel efficiency is the same, and its a pain in the ass to clean.
The only thing it maybe does is get some smaller particulates from getting into the intake, and even then you should clean your intake at least every 40,000 miles. You’re only adding work to yourself.
Also, just a bit of advice, open-air filters only increase performance on some cars. And they can actually decrease performance on others. The problem is that they can pull heat from the engine bay into to the intake. Hot air is less-dense than cold air, causing poorer compression. Poor compression causes less torque, and so on and so forth. Just something to keep in mind.

Also, I’d like to know where you’re getting your $20 oil change. Here, in North VA, oil changes run about $40-$60. Which is precisely why I do mine myself.

By: James

James — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 06:24:36 +0000

As a ASE Master Technician I can say that “most” air filters are easy to change however some are a pain in the %$@#. Read your owners manual and get a shop manual (Shop = Official repair manual from the manufacturer).

By: Matt "Wiggy" Wiggins

Matt "Wiggy" Wiggins — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 17:27:31 +0000

I second the idea posted above to go w/a K&N. Might be a little more spendy up front, but when you realize you’ll NEVER buy another one, it’s a sound investment. Just don’t think that b/c you don’t have to replace it doesn’t mean you don’t have to clean it, though.

By: Shawn

Shawn — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 01:31:17 +0000

It’s quite amazing at how much mileage will drop with a dirty, paper air filter. It’s well worth the $10 and five minutes it takes to change it.

By: Tarcas

Tarcas — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 20:50:51 +0000

I would contend that this is the second-easiest car maintenance job. The very easiest would be checking the air in your tires, however that can take a good deal longer to do.
Either of these would be an excellent first step toward DIY auto maintenance. Following on the list would be changing the oil and changing the spark plugs. The most complex job I’ve done myself was replacing the thermostat (which also entails a coolant flush.) It took a while, but wasn’t terribly difficult. The hardest part was finding a way to get the bolts out when you can hardly get a wrench on them. (the shop wanted $40 for the thermostat alone. I paid $40 for ALL the parts I needed, and now I have half a gallon of antifreeze left over for later.)

Gabriel: You’re right about that. My grandpa used to jerry-rig a hood release wire so you could pop the hood from under the car, and taped a spare key to the hood strut. When I accidentally locked the keys in the car while playing around when I was little, he wasn’t even mad. Just popped the hood, untaped the key, and opened the door.

By: Eric Granata

Eric Granata — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 17:50:58 +0000

I had to buy a new (used) car recently and after a national chain quoted me $40 to replace the filter, I cracked the stinking car manual (lots of great stuff in there) and did it myself for about $10. I could not believe how easy it was!

I remember changing the air filter on my old car when I was a kid and don’t know why I ever started letting someone charge me a premium for it!

Thanks for the tip and reminder, Brett. I’d love to see more posts like this!

By: Brian Driggs

Brian Driggs — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 16:55:26 +0000

I always enjoy seeing automotive content on AoM. Turning your own wrenches is about as manly as you can get.

I am fortunate that all my vehicles feature clip-on air filter boxes, however those have been replaced for years by aftermarket induction systems. K&N generally offers a drop-in replacement for the stock airbox, but it is the open filter element systems which provide the greatest improvements in efficiency and power (bonus: they sound better too).

As Marc the Engineer suggested, cleaning the K&N can be a messy affair (ironic), but to make things easy on myself, I’ve just purchased three filters and always have a clean one ready to go on a moment’s notice. That red oil can be such a PITA, but ever since I started keeping a box of blue, nitrile gloves in the garage, my life’s been much cleaner. :)

By: DR

DR — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 16:23:01 +0000

To work on your car you need two, maybe three things:

1) Time
2) Perseverance
3) Chiltons / Haynes / Some repair manual

If you’re smart enough to use a computer you’re smart enough to fix a car. Follow the instructions and be prepared for it to take 5 times longer than you think it should. You should have another mode of transportation available to you.

You will have to buy tools, but they arguably “free” in that usually what you spend on a tool and parts is less than what you’d pay a shop to do the work for you. The real question to ask yourself is: Do I have the time and energy to devote to fixing my own car?

If the answer is yes, replacing the air filter is a great way to get started. It’s easy on most cars, requires very basic to no tools and can be done in less than 30 minutes.

After doing my own work for the past 4-5 years I am loathe to let a repair shop touch any of our vehicles. Trust me on this. Ever been to your great-aunt’s, neighbor’s house to “fix” their virus-laden Windows 98 box? That’s how most mechanics feel about your car. They don’t care about it and it shows in the work they do on it.

The one *partial* exception is the oil change places. If you change your oil on the manufacturer’s schedule, using the cheap oil and filters doesn’t really hurt anything and it’s hard to say $15-$20 oil change is expensive. Considering the retail price of oil and oil filters, plus your time purchasing the supplies, doing the work and then *properly* recycling the oil, you are better off getting oil changes at shops. However, there is something to be said about a sunny weekend afternoon spent working on the car that you don’t get from taking it to a shop…

By: captainmeta4

captainmeta4 — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 15:56:44 +0000

i have an infiniti g35. The filter is in a vertical orientation (not horizontal like in the pictures) and once the metal clips are unclipped, half of the casing is still screwed into other stuff and can’t be removed.