Cleaning air filters?

[telliman]

wats the best way to clean air filters? have a dozen only a couple hours old.

[merv]

Foam ones?

If so go buy some filter cleaner and oil in spray cans from your local bike dealer and follow the instructions.

Otherwise if you're a cheapskate wash them with petrol then clean them thoroughly under the hot tap, dry them in the sun and then apply a small amount of good thick oil like EP90 and work it in thoroughly squeezing out any excess.

[ArcherWC]

depends what oil is on them

[ShiFty268]

There is two ways to clean the filter.You can either buy a air filter cleaner and oil kit like no-toil. clean the filter with the soap they provide and hot water, then wash all the soapy water out with fresh water and let it dry in the sun(do not wring out the filter, can squeeze but don't twist it).Direct sunlight breaks down the foam in the filter so dry the filter under a rag in the sun so the filter doesn't get direct sunlight. the other way is to clean the filter with a solvent like petrol or kerosene, wash the solvent out with soapy water (dish washing liquid) then fresh water and leave it to dry. Once the filter is dry it's time to oil it up. There are many ways to do this.(1) tip some oil over the filter inside a plastic bag and massage the oil through the filter until you have a good cover.(2) put gloves on and tip some oil over the filter and massage it in till good cover.(3) tip all you air filter into a container (ice cream) fully soak the filter and then squeeze the excess back into container for next time, i havn;t tryed this way i just massage it in it works fine for me.Remeber the more oil you have in the filter doesn;t mean the better becasue to much oil restricts air flow. The last step is greasing the edge of your filter so it seals with the air box you can use special air filter grease or i just use normal grease.

Washing your filter with a solvent is said to break down the the foam in your filter so using a special soap it probably better. You have to use a solvent or the special soap to get the oil out of the filter. It's really up to you using the special soap will probably cost you more but then you won;t have to replace your air filter so often. I really don;t think solvent will really hurt them to much just wash the filter out good with dish washing liquid. I used to clean mine with the no toil soap. But last week i just brought a liter container of bel-ray foam filter oil and i just going to use kerosene to clean my filters.

If these air filter are for a non performance bike like and xr250 or something like that i would just clean filter in petrol or kerosene and rub in the normal engine oil instead of buying filter oil which cost quite a bit.

Hope this helps.