Are K&N oil filters a good choice?

Pretty tough to beat a wix or hastings for quality and performance. Just my opinion, but with most k&n stuff, I think you pay for a lot of marketing smoke blow along with the product.
 
I haven't had any experience with the k&n oil filters, but have with their air filters.

I found out the hard way that some oems will not cover repairs to an air sensor downstream of the air filter. Filters, such as the k&n which use oil impregnation will tend to seep oil into the intake and coat the sensor. GM will not cover replacement of the sensor, and it will cost in the neighborhood of $300+ to have them install a new one.

This, of course is on engines equipped with efi, not carbuerated engines.

For those of you who are not aware, the napa gold oil filters are made by wix.....
 
It's my opinion, you can decide if it's worth it or not, no they are not a good choice. They are just too dang expensive. K&n doesn't manufacture them, they use champion labs who also manufactures filters for other brands and you can get a better filter with the same or higher surface area of filtration for a lot less money. Their literature touts attributes like construction, materials, and that nut you can use to wrench one off easie peesie, but not much on performance like what standard they meet for dirt catching and holding; though they do say 99%. 99% of what is not stated. All automotive filters that meet oem's spec or warranty will meet a required sae standard.

As noted wix, which also is what napa and carquest uses for their house brand; purolator either the standard "l" prefix filters or their "pl" prefix filters for less than 1/2 the cost of a k&n. Purolator has been around for many years and can be had at most stores that have decent hardware/automotive sections.
 
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I guess the first question to ask is -- what is your "philosophy of oil changes"???

And, how is a k&n oil filter going to aid that "philosophy"...

If you change your oil and oil filter every 3000 miles; then, a k&n oil filter is not going to provide any real benefit (imo).

If you change oil every 5000 miles and expect to change it every 10,000 miles with the k&n oil filter -- it May be a test you do not want to perform... Or, at least a worthwhile test from a cost viewpoint.

Any quality oil filter will do (yes, there is a difference in "materials" -- many (20?) years ago, someone in the corvair club cut apart a number of different brands of corvair oil filters - and there is a significant difference in the construction.).

In the past, I have used ac pf2 (now it is no longer a full quart "size" oil filter), penzoil pz-1 and I actually used one k&n a couple years ago. I switched to wix last year based on comments on this forum.

Since I change oil and oil filter every 3000 - 4000 miles, I see no benefit to using a k&n.

Interesting comments on k&n air filters...

I have used k&n air filters on the modified carbs of my corvair for 25 years -- obviously, no sensors to "foul" / no computers.

I just find them a real pita to clean and re-oil, so I hardly ever do it.

Actually, I put a stock replacement k&n air filter in my t/a about 2 years ago (28,000 miles). Have not cleaned and re-oiled it yet...
 
scott h said:
18? Ouch! They are only 10.95 in my area. I run the k&n oil filters, I've had bad luck buying napa filters in my area for some reason.
Scott
Click to expand...

There are several variations of "napa" filters, all from different manufacturers. Care to explain which filter you refer to and what happened??
 
The napa gold was the only one I've used. It hasn't happened every time, but more often than not. When using the napa gold filter my oil pressure gauge will vary from 35 to 55 psi at road speed, running a k&n it will stay at 55 at speed. And no it's not the oil pump or bearings. The last time I used the napa one and it started doing that I swapped in the k&n right away and it stopped. Only does that with the napa filters and I've used ac filters with out that problem but there real hard to find anymore:icon_crying: .
Scott
 
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