K&N Airfilter for 14 A2 Exclusive

M

MikeTheSpike

Member
Anyone experience in replacing the airfilter of an A2 1,4.......

I want to buy a K&N air filter to replace the original and was wondering if this is easily done and if one of you has experince with the increased performance with anK&N filter.....

Can you do that yourself or can only the Audi dealer do this....

Regards....
 
Changin Airfilter

Search the forum on this one, been covered loads. Long and short of it....its a pain in the A** requires you jack front of car up from memory!
 
Correct - jack up the car, remove undertray, bend lower lip of bumper out of the way then change filter.

I've just received my BMC filter which will go in at the time of service - someone else can fit it!!
 
I have heard it said that you have to be very careful with this type of filter, too much oil on them and it b****rs up the MAF sensor, Pipercross are supposed to be better - less oil used
the Audi air intake system on most models is well designed in the first place
 
K&N filters rarely give you any performance gains, their main advantage is that they can be reused and can make your car sound a bit different - there are tests available if you search the web that show normal manufacturers air filters give better flow as long as you change them at recommended intervals.
 
lyndonbuck said:
K&N filters rarely give you any performance gains, their main advantage is that they can be reused and can make your car sound a bit different - there are tests available if you search the web that show normal manufacturers air filters give better flow as long as you change them at recommended intervals.
Click to expand...
Agreed. Generally, a better air filter with greater flow will always lead to an improvement in performance, however, from my own rolling road experiences in the past, there's hardly ever any great difference between a clean standard paper filter or a K&N/other equivalent. This is especially true when you're talking about vehicles with low power outputs - there's not much to be gained in the first place. I'm opting for a BMC simply because it will be more suited to cleaning and hence my long 30,000mile service intervals.

My only issue with the A2 on this matter is that the air intake and associated pipes are very restrictive. The air flows under the bottom of the flip down grille, up and over the oil filler cap, through a small hole, through 90 degrees, down through another 90 degrees, through the air filter, back out the airbox and through yet another 90 degree turn, then makes another almost 90 degree turn before even reaching the MAF! Now, that's where the airflow restrictions occur!!
 
My last rolling road test with a K&N filter was on my TT - it was in a reasonable state of tune - First RR test with normal Audi airfilter was 276.8bhp, second RR with K&N was 259.5 - thats over 17bhp lost. I appreciate the Turbo engine relies heavily on air being cool for best performance, but having had this on first hand experience I wouldnt touch one.

The newer Cold Air Intakes are supposedly much better, but I have no experience of this.
 
Ok, so K&N's marketing is better than the actual product.....

Your response adresses 3 dont's :(

1. No increase of performance of the A2
2. Timeconsuming operation to change the filter
3. Bad for the car (because of the oil)

But:

I have put one in my A4 Avant TDI 2005 with 103kW/140Bhp (+/- 30Kmiles) and although I miss the noise increase (sportive sound!) I have the solid impression that the engine picks up faster and runs better.
Bare in mind that the replaced airfilter was very dirty and still the original factory one. I just got the A4 and apparently this was never replaced by the previous owner....

So I am still confused.... :confused:
 
They will have some positive impacts upon some cars when you have a good supply of cold air to the filter. As soon as air becomes warm there will be a detremental impact upon performance. I think it equates to something like 1deg rise in intake temp for a turbo car is almost 1bhp loss in power!
 
MikeTheSpike said:
Ok, so K&N's marketing is better than the actual product.....

Your response adresses 3 dont's :(

1. No increase of performance of the A2
2. Timeconsuming operation to change the filter
3. Bad for the car (because of the oil)

But:

I have put one in my A4 Avant TDI 2005 with 103kW/140Bhp (+/- 30Kmiles) and although I miss the noise increase (sportive sound!) I have the solid impression that the engine picks up faster and runs better.
Bare in mind that the replaced airfilter was very dirty and still the original factory one. I just got the A4 and apparently this was never replaced by the previous owner....

So I am still confused.... :confused:
Click to expand...
1) Should be: Probable minimal increase of performance on an A2
2) Yup, it is timeconsuming
3) 'Bad' for the car because of oil - only if too much oil is applied to the filter at some point in the future when you re-oil it.

On your A4, and indeed any car, as the airflow through an 'enhanced' filter will be greater the effect of this is that the engine will be more eager to rev given it has a less restrictive air intake, this doesn't necessarily translate into 'more power' but rather 'a better driving experience'. But bear in mind, your A4 has one extra cylinder so demands more air in the first place - thus the impact of greater airflow will be more noticeable... ;)
 
I thought I would add my 2 pence.

I'm too long in the tooth to think a K&N filter will give me an increase in power. However I'm not stupid enough to think a paper element can last 30,000 miles with the A2TDI service intervals.

A paper element is extremely efficient but, and it’s a big but, the performance drops off rapidly. Also a paper element will absorb moisture, and perform poorly with only a moderate dust and moisture increase.

Alternatively the Foam filters are renowned for their "high dust environment performance" however I don't live in Nevada or travel from Paris to Dakar

The K&N will not be the highest flowing filter in the world because of the oil content, but it will be a consistent flow for very long period of time and comes with a million mile warranty.

For most of us it is a fit and forget item. That will perform better over a longer period
Its also cost effective as I got a discount at the time of service (from Audi)for not fitting a filter or labour.
 
Agreed - a K&N doesn't outperform a new OE filter, but it will do this after a few thousand miles, or a winter, whichever comes first.

I had K&N fitted to my courier bike, which covered 1/4 million miles on the same filter, with a wash and re-oil every 25000 miles, so I can testify to their fit and forget qualities.

As Emm says, you'll likely get a service discount and you'll certainly save money in the long run.

Cheers,

Mike
 
they did a lot of tests with the skoda octavia vrs on the briskoda forum and they found the best set up was the oem air box with all the fins removed inside the air box to improve air flow and a oem filter this was all tested with vag com
 
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