New study shows 0 impact of a clogged air filter on fuel injected cars

[Baltothewolf]

I don't care what anyone says, but a Clogged air filter is not good for your car.

[oil pan 4]

The worse thing is called media migration. That's where vibration or filter ware just causes chunks of dirt packed filter media to break free and be ingested by the engine.

[oldtamiyaphile]

If the engine looses power, there's going to be a point where you need to floor it more often, that means fuel enrichment and worse MPG.

[vskid3]

I think some people are taking the term "clogged" too literally. There's a difference between having a sandbox in your airbox and going an extra 10k miles between air filter changes (I'm sure many quick lube shops would love for you to replace it with every oil change). The biggest take away for me is that freer flowing filters like K&N are very unlikely to increase your mileage, so you might as well stick with the OEM filter.

[Xist]

Very unlikely to increase mileage, but guaranteed to allow more stuff into your engine.

[Baltothewolf]

Originally Posted by Xist

Very unlikely to increase mileage, but guaranteed to allow more stuff into your engine.

Oh please

[oil pan 4]

On bitog forum vehicles with K&N type filters tend to have 3 to 5 times the Si content in the oil as compared to paper filter vehicles. Used oil analysis tests after using paper then K&N and back to paper air filter tests have been done.

If you are a stupid redneck or ricer kid that blows up their vehicles engine every 20,000m or less then K&N is perfect for you.
If you want to keep your engine going past 100,000 miles or have a turbocharger then use paper.
If you drive in a dusty environment use paper.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by oldtamiyaphile

If the engine looses power, there's going to be a point where you need to floor it more often, that means fuel enrichment and worse MPG.

And frequent over-revving also increases overall wear and tear of the engine in the long run.