My buddy swore his $20 air filter trick would save my engine

My friend Dave kept telling me to slap a cheap K&N knockoff filter on my '98 Jeep Cherokee. Said it would breathe better and I'd gain 10 horsepower easy. I did it last month and my MAF sensor got covered in oil within two weeks. Now I'm back to the stock paper filter and my engine runs smooth again. Anyone else have a friend give you car advice that ended up costing you more in repairs?

3 comments

3 Comments

graceprice1mo ago

A lot of people don't realize those cheap filters are made for engines that already burn a little oil, not modern ones with sensitive sensors. Your MAF sensor just wasn't designed to handle that extra oily air coming through. Dave meant well but he was basically telling you to run your Jeep on a fad diet instead of just feeding it what it needs.

river_hall441mo ago

Has anyone actually had a MAF sensor fail from an oiled filter though, or is this just internet fear mongering? I ran a K&N on my old 5.3L Chevy for over 100k miles and never cleaned the MAF once, truck ran fine. These sensors are tougher than people give them credit for, they're designed to handle some oily air from the PCV system anyway. Plus you're acting like the filter is dumping half a quart of oil into the intake, it's just a light coating on the media. If you mess up the re-oiling then yeah you'll have problems, but that's user error not the filter design. At the end of the day a modern engine with a properly oiled gauze filter is going to be just fine, people have been running them for decades without issues.

willow_garcia7d ago

Did your old Chevy ever throw a code for lean conditions after a heavy rain?