Citroen XM - K and N Air Filter

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Wed 14 Apr 2004 10:23
Citroen XM - K and N Air Filter - rg
Hello Folks,

I inherited one of these filters fitted to my 2.5 TD '97 XM.

I suspect that my Citroen indie did not change this on the last couple of services, as there are specific instructions on the filter housing, namely:

"Clean every 50K miles by soaking in K and N filter cleaner. Do not soak in petrol. Treat with K and N filter oil"

So are these things actually any better than standard in terms of air flow and effectiveness? Or would it be cheaper to replace with a standard disposable filter, rather than investing in some cleaner and oil? And from where would I buy some of this cleaner and oil?

Comments, observations, and advice most welcome!

Best wishes

rg
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Wed 14 Apr 2004 10:48
Citroen XM - K and N Air Filter - SjB {P}
Debated here before. If you select the Forum Search link on the right of this page, and then specify K&N in the Technical forum, you'll quickly find all the hits.

To summarise my own experience however, for the eight years that I ran my MG Metro from 1984, and nigh on 100,000 miles that I covered in this time, I used the same K&N filter, and never cleaned it. Filtration abilities appeared constant throughout, and when I took the cylinder head off at 90,000 miles, the bores were clean as a whistle. No scratching or other signs of foreign object ingress.

Why didn't I clean the filter?
Two reasons.

1) Living in the UK is not the same as living in the middle of the Sahara in terms of making the filter work.
2) With the high filtration surface area/capacity of a K&N, I was more likely to do harm than good in trying to clean it.
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If you cover no more than 100 miles per day and have easy access to a charging point at home or work, then an EV is ideal for you.

Is an electric car right for me?