Air Filter Question

chriswildman

Active Member
Sep 19, 2018
29
1
hi guys, im debating swapping my standard air filter for a K&N or pipercross panel filter, is it worth it? will it make the car sound any better or run any better?
 

Speedbird

Active Member
Aug 10, 2018
268
135
Personally, I wouldn't bother. Any gains would be minimal, and there are stories of the oil in the filter clogging MAF sensors.
For the price of a performance filter, you could just change the paper OEM one every year which will probably be far better for the car.
 
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hallsy67

Active Member
Mar 11, 2010
116
108
Bristol
I would just do the standard air box mod. It allows a bit more air in the filter but as said it would be minimal gains and noise with just a new panel filter.
 

silky16v

#VagDoctor
Jan 26, 2017
92
33
remove snow grate, open up the slam panel feed to the airbox, fit aftermarket panel filter (ITG or Ramair)
 

LouG

Active Member
Dec 1, 2017
1,319
481
Nelson, New Zealand
My brother and I had Pipercross filters on our bikes, both disintegrated within 10,000 kms. I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole.
As for aftermarket filters in general, I'm not a fan anymore. The possibility of less efficient filtering, outweighs any slight hp gain.
 

Jaco2k

AWD FTW
Mar 11, 2018
1,037
633
Tampere, Finland
www.youtube.com
What MAF sensor on the EA888 Gen 3 engine

I don't know about this car, but I have personal experience of getting a MAP sensor destroyed by a K&N panel filter, and that was oiled from factory.
At least for me, I don't think it is a good idea to put oil on a place that is supposed to receive only air - sensor or no sensor.
In the long run, something will get clogged.
 

silky16v

#VagDoctor
Jan 26, 2017
92
33
I don't know about this car, but I have personal experience of getting a MAP sensor destroyed by a K&N panel filter, and that was oiled from factory.
At least for me, I don't think it is a good idea to put oil on a place that is supposed to receive only air - sensor or no sensor.
In the long run, something will get clogged.

Yes I agree any form of wet aftermarket filter will affect the MAF but the multi layed ITG or Ramair style are pretty good at this as it’s the first layer that should be oiled

But on the EA888 engine this isn’t an issue as it is MAP based
 
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black_sheep

Active Member
Mar 10, 2013
1,256
585
The pipercross panel filter that I have has three stages of filtration, due to the different densities of foam used. You should only liberally oil the course gauze foam on the bottom of the filter, therefore the two additional layers of more dense foam (i.e. additional layers of filtration) should catch the oil - not had any issues with the MAF sensor in any of the cars where I've used aftermarket filters and followed the instructions for cleaning/reapplying oil, including leaving the filter for 24 hours after oiling before placing back in the car. For what it's worth though, I don't think that the aftermarket filters significantly improve the performance over stock paper filter - slightly less restriction at lower revs was my only observation.
 
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martin j.

Active Member
Feb 11, 2007
1,996
889
Fife
Cheers TOB, so I need to remove the snow grate and make some holes in the box to allow more airflow, and then create a better turbo pipe, easy enough, well the first two maybe, the last, Mmmmm some thought req’d.
 
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