Are all air filters equal?

Time to replace the air filter for the first time on a 13 V6. Is any one better than another?

Buy from a dealer, auto parts store?

KN a good idea?

 

I've always had good luck with OEM.

I've read a few horror stories about guys with non-oem including K&N.

 

+1 OEM

 

What about the AFE pro dry? I thought that was a good one cause it's high flow, not oiled, and washable

 

Just buy the OEM filter from cheapest place you can find it. Don't overthink this. There's no real advantage to filers that flow 'more' as the factory filter flows more than enough to keep up w/ the engine. It will also filter best.

Many aftermarket filters do flow more air. But more air means bigger holes which means bigger pieces of stuff gets through with more air.

Regardless, you factory air filter can flow more air than the factory engine could ever need or use. It's when you start forcing air i.e. supercharger, turbo that you might exceed the factory paper filter.

 

yea oem DON,T GO WITH K&N WET i had it on my for awhile and had to clean my MAF twice the last time it looked like it grew hair on it and after that i threw it in the trash

 

STAY AWAY FROM AFE DRY!!!!!!!!!! I am having my Head Gaskets done on my 05. When the mechanic got into the engine and found the LARGE AMOUNT of DIRT in my Intake he wasn't impressed. I am going back to OEM.

 

OEM for engine. Anything else for cabin.

 

OEM

it's impossible to have more airflow with the same amount of filtering. So a lot of aftermarket filters may have more "flow", but at the cost of throwing dust into your engine

 

Napa gold

 

WIX

 

Not true, if you can increase the surface area of the filter you can increase flow without sacrificing the filtering ability of your filter. Hence why I LOVE the Donaldson dry filter in my Volant CAI. It's basically a very high end diesel engine filter adapted to fit in a CAI box!

My vote is still OEM if you have a stock Tacoma. Oiled filters are like asking to have to buy a new MAF sensor every year, plus they plain old suck at filtering if they are not lubed 100 percent correctly.

 

Just installed URD TCAI. Love it. I got 23 MPG on my way to work (12 miles, 50 mph the whole way). I usually get around 21. The sound at WOT is amazing. I definitely recommend. My intake temperature is always the same as ambient unless I'm idling, then it'll rise about 3-4 degrees > ambient. Stock intake would rise to over 100 degrees when idling. Gotta love it.

 

x2 for aFe

 

OEM / End Thread.



Same thing with Oil Filter too

 

regarding K & N air filters I have been using them on all my vehicles including my 2006 Tacoma, I recently removed, inspected and cleaned the MAF sensor. I looked at it with a magnifying glass and found no sign of oil residue I cleans it on a coffee filter and no noticeable dirt was seen. I think the key is to use a light coat of oil per instructions and they work fine, honestly I have not seen any significant difference in MPG or power but I have not had to buy any new air filters in a long time so saved money there. I can get about 20 mpg if I drive real gentle and keep it below 70. However, that is difficult so 17-18 is what I usually get driving 75 or so.

 

K&N let more air through by filtering it less. They are somewhat tricky to oil correctly and the gains are almost non-existent. I'd stick with OEM.

 

I bought the cheapest one they had at AutoZone. Think it was an STP. It looked better quality than the OEM that came out and it was $18.99. I like to replace them every 10k miles since I live on a dirt road.

 

Better