Best Method for Cleaning the Air Filter?

[eyedee]

I was looking into cleaning products for my RE-A air filter, and to my surprise, I could only find a K&N recharge oil kit for about £13.  Is there another solution or cheaper way of cleaning a filter that can be recommended please?

Cheers all  

[Gerry M]

I used a piper x kit on mine, think one of the vendors has replacement filters for RE-A units

[eyedee]

How much was the Piper X kit Gerry M?  I seem to remember enquiring at RE Worx about a replacement filter and my jaw hitting the floor when Geoff gave me the price.  I think a replacement filter was about £50 - £70!  I bought a whole K & N 57i Induction Kit for less than that.  :mad:

There must be a cheap and easy way of cleaning a filter.  Some sort of chemical agent from Halfrauds or the like?

[petemillis]

THE recommended and best cleaning solution is mineral turps (you know, turpentine substitute) that costs pennies per litre. This is safe to use and doesn\'t cause any damage to the foam.
Dry foam filters don\'t filter very well, some foam filter manufacturers (and gauze filter manufacturers) use light oils to oil them and improve filtering efficiency - but these can contaminate AFMs and also don\'t keep the foam coated (as the oil gets sucked off). THE BEST filter oils to use are the tackified filter oils (from Silkolene, Putoline, and FilterFix and also Amsoil I believe). These do not contaminate AFMs as they cannot be sucked off the foam (unless the foam has been over-oiled)

[Gerry M]

think it was £15,

[eyedee]

I finally got round to cleaning the air filter this weekend and it turned out to be a tougher job than expected.  I\'m mainly referring to purchasing the cleaning agent and tackified oil from a high street retailor.  Petes advice was golden and a great help, but having spoken to over 30 car spares, auto factors and nearby halfrauds stores, no-body had ever heard of Tackified Oil for recharging air filters!  I\'d previously found distributers of Silkoline Tackified Oil on the internet, but I really needed to do the job the next day so that was no good.  

I also had problems findin Mineral Turps, having visited 4 DIY stores.  The first three only sold White Spirit and Methalated Spirit and had never heard of Mineral Turps before.  The fourth store explained that due to new regulations, turps is not so widely available in the UK (), not illegal, but large DIY centres do not stock it so as to avoid legal proceedings due to harm to the user and the following legal action (), but they did stock turps substitute which is not as damaging to your health.  He couldnt explain any more than that, even when I asked him what exactly was so bad about turps, or what happened to action such a harsh response from the DIY superstores.  Anyway, he didnt think Turps Substitute was mineral based but assured me it would not damage foam material, so I bought a bottle of it.

By the next day I had given up searching for tackified oil and so resorted to purchasing a Pipercross Air filter (clean and recharge) kit from Halfrauds for £12.  After cleaning the accesible dirt from the filter with a soft brush, I emersed the foam using the whole litre bottle of Turps Substitute and proceeded to clean it which after 5 minutes left the water a grey colour with a bit of grit.  I wasnt satisfied, so I went on to use the spray on cleaner which came with the Pipercross kit and WOW, the water was black and full of dirt particles!  After drying the filter, it was clearly far cleaner and to my surpise was originally a dark red colour!.  Then just a case of spraying the Pipercross oil on and refitting to the car.

I guess the moral of this story is, don\'t bother searching for cleaning agents and just go and buy a pre packaged filter cleaner in the first place  :rolleyes:

Thanks for all the help though everyone.  I did learn a lot from the experience which I think is nearly always a good thing.  

[Gerry M]

I just used it cos it was all i could find up here in the hills, my filter turned out to be green & no black.

[petemillis]

Turps substitute is the mineral turps and is what they sell in B&Q. To be most effective you need to squueze the filter foam in it as it\'s not so aggressive as some other cleaners. It\'s probably that what did all the hard work first  Foam filter oils come from motorcycle stores and Silkolene is always in stock at most of them.
What I usually use though is the Putoline Action Cleaner kit as you get a couple of nice lidded buckets and a metal rack that sits in the one full of cleaner. This means the same cleaner can be used time and time again as the dirt falls underneath the rack.

[eyedee]

Hey Pete,

Just goes to show what little staff at these DIY supercentres need to know before being given the responsibility of advising customers as to which product will be suitable for which job.  I know Homebase are not a motor store, but the assistant didnt even know that Turps Substitute was Mineral Turps!  Ah well.  I\'m pleased that I used the turps substitute anyway as it can only have helped.  I squeezed the filter vigorously for some time but had to stop as it was damaging the foam.