Postby disallow » Mon May 28, 2012 6:33 am
I use a K&N Filter Charger. Have had it for about 4 years now. I had one for my 98 civic as well, used it for about 7 years. Only issue I ever had was when I over oiled it once on my civic. Caused a CEL. Cleaned, reset the CEL, and it never came back. But the Honda used a MAP sensor, not the MAF that our Nissan's have, so I got off easy.
Some will say that the K&N allows larger particulate through the engine than a paper filter. Over time, the theory is that this will cause cylinder wear, and decreased compression. However, I ran the filtercharger on my 98 civic for over 250000km, and I run plenty of gravel roads (though not deserts like Mar1). My compression was completely factory til the day I wrote the car off, so I'm not sold on this theory, except in extreme situations like high silicate sand areas (Nevada, Utah, etc).
Be very cautious to apply the correct amount of oil to it. Too much, and you'll foul your MAF sensor. Too little, and the efficiency of the filter goes down (filters less stuff) by orders of magnitude.
Also, don't clean it too often. The more you wash it, the more the gauze degrades. Filter efficiency actually goes up (filters more stuff) when it has some dirt in it, and because it has less restriction, you can allow this filter to get dirtier before taking action to clean it.