A few years ago, I had a SA recommend using paper replacement filters for cold air intakes. He tuned cars (rally and autocross) and in the super dry/dusty climate we are in, he suggested that it was a better practice than cleaning/oiling the K & N's. He suggested changing every 5,000 miles or so with the oil change. Anybody doing this? I also wondered if the Forge foam filter was available (or similar) and how they were.

 

I dont know if you want a paper filter for dry/dusty conditions. The powersports OEM I work for recommends the complete opposite of what you posted. We have gotten engines back, completely destroyed because of dust ingestion.

You "could" use a paper filter if you had a good pre-filter on or a different intake on.

 

Thiis is a topic that has many different beliefs. I've been told if you have a turbo and a oiled filter, if you over oil the filter by any amount, it can be pulled to the turbo blades and when enough is collected on the blades, through it off balance and destroy the turbo. Yet many people use the oiled filter. I know of one that used the Banks oiled filter on his diesel turbo truck and it did happen causing him to rebuild his engine when metal sucked through the intake to his cylinders.

If you use the paper filters, they say it works better as time go by and filter better than the others.

If it's in a very dusty condition, yes, a prefilter is the best to have with either wet or dry filter.

Personally, I gave up on it all and use aFe dry reusabe filters. I can clean it even if on a trip in my hotel room and be new/dry the next morning, ready to go again.

 

No Mini experience -- yet -- driving in that area in those conditions but I have driven in high desert, and low desert, and everything in between, sometimes in the middle of dust storms with a number of my cars over the years and all car engines reached big miles (140K+ (2 cars, one a V8 the other a direct injection turbo-diesel), 320K+, 160K+ (with a twin turbo-charged engine), except for a few cars I simply fell out of love with and got rid of before they accumulated big miles) and never had any problems from the paper air filters. I left the stock air intake system intact and changed the filter element based on miles.

In some cases I was probably remiss in not changing the air filter more often especially after covering maybe 4K miles -- for instance most of the time driving back and forth between the KC MO area to the SF bay area -- most of it in pretty dusty conditions but the engines in all cases were just fine and not manifesting any signs of any problems with dirty air.

In your case since you are there all the time you probably want to change the air filter more often. If the car is equipped with a cabin air filter don't forget this too.

Just to be thorough, be sure you are careful removing the old filter to avoid dumping any dirt into the air box. When in doubt have a shop vacuum to remove any thing that falls into the air box.

(Recently changed an air filter on one of my cars. The air filter design has the filter fitting into a plastic tray that then slides into place and seals on top of the air box. The filter element has a foam covering. The air intake is in a particularly dirty location and when I went to change the filter it was filthy. The filter change was long overdue, too. The top of the filter element was covered with leaves/trash. I could not help but knock some of this off and of course it fell into the air box. I did not have a shop vacuum handy but made up a ball of sticky tape and used this to remove all that fell into the air box. Or so I thought. After a while the CEL came on. Long story short tech didn't find any air leaks in the intake system but removed the new air filter -- it was ok -- and found some leaves in the air box and in the tube that runs from the air box to the intake manifold. Some leaves were up against the plastic screen just ahead of the MAF. The screen is there not to act as a filter but to improve air flow for the MAF. The leaves were interferring with this and were the cause of the CEL.)

When you install the new filter be sure you get the filter element fully installed on the air intake tube or in the tray with no gaps that could allow in unfiltered air. Be sure you don't tear or poke a hole in the filter.

If you want to go to the trouble an oil analysis can help you know how well the air filtration is working. A high siiicon reading in the oil is a sign the engine is ingesting dirt.

 

This is our third MINI in this location (15 years). No problems but am tired of having half the filter constantly dirty and have to clean/re-oil.

AnOldBiker,

Is the filter you use
aFe POWER 21-35508 Magnum FLOWPro DRY S Air Filter

on the cold air?

 

My Mini is new and far from needing to change the filter yet. But I have the aFe 31-10256 on hand to install in my lil 3 banger when needed.

I have them on every other vehicle I own. I have been driving my Dodge Cummins cross country and had to clean the dirt out of the filter several times from the debris. And have used it in there for 5 years now. Being careful cleaning as they say, it looks brand new and many more years to come.

I know many prefer other brands and style, and that's ok, but I'm sold on these.