Dave

My wife already handled the comment about me and reading directions, so don't bother with that. I installed my k&n last May, and have since put about 3500-4000 miles on the car. All winter I figured I was due for a cleaning, but A) it's cold out, and B) being a few hp short in the winter , with the skinny tires on , isn't a bad thing. Now it's nice out, the Fuchs and RE-730s are back on, and the first NNJR autox of the season is next weekend, so it's time to get to work.
I opened the "recharge kit" box, pulled out the cleaner and directions, glanced at the latter, and gave it a good spray. I had read the "spray it and let it sit 10 minutes" part, so I figured I could read the rest during the 10 minutes. SUPRISE, the survice interval is 50,000 to 100,000 miles, and "a little dirt makes it work even better" (or something like that).
Should I have not cleaned it? I would think that k&n wants to sell oil and cleaner, so there's no reason to overstate the service interval. What interval does everyone else use?

IceShark

You probably could let it go longer, though I clean mine frequently because with my 951 and that snorkel deal I pick up all sorts of gravel.

I think the only clean every million miles thing is marketing directed at long haul truckers. Get a freer flowing K&N filter and let it get real dirty so it finally blocks as many particulates as a normal paper filter.

triscadek

I've had K&Ns on several motorcycles and cars and generally cleaned them once a year or if they looked too bad and I just couldn't stand how dirty they looked.
Seems like a common woman thing to whip out the old "Did you read the directions first card". They don't either.
I have learned on motorcycles that you can over oil these filters and restrict the air flow. Took a while to figure out why that bike ran too rich all of a sudden. <img src="graemlins/c.gif" border="0" alt="[ouch]" />

Luke

I used to smack out my K&N panel with evrey oil change. There's usually at least 2 bees in it.