[Schantin]

I was completing the 50,000 mile maintenance on my 330i this morning. I had ordered a new Dinan cold air intake dry filter element, as my original one is almost 2 years old with 40,000 miles on it.

I live in NW Texas, so it is a bit dusty here. However, the original filter was much filthier than anticipated.





I was going to do some research and see if there is a way to clean the filter I removed from the car. If anyone has done this before, I'd love to hear your $0.02 on the best way to clean a dirty dry air filter.

[BMWBruce]

By the way your filter looked, it might have been in need of replacement anyway, but I don't see why these would not be serviceable. The element is cloth and not paper. Also it is oiled (which gives it the blue color). If you buy an air filter cleaning kit online or at a auto parts store, they typically have a cleaner, oil and instructions.

I know the Dinan filters are oiled be because I have cleaned mine before and the actual filter element is a grayish color. The color comes from reapplying oil. Also I had no issues with it afterwards.

[peelerec]

K&N sells a filter cleaning kit that comes with oil as well, in blue or red to match most aftermarket filters. That’s what I use on my dinan filter.

[BmwDriverStockholm]

I'm using a K&N cleaning kit; it's easy to clean the filter. Actually, MST claims you need to clean your filter every 20k km (~15k miles) and replace it after 60k km (~45k miles).

A dirty filter can take a few horses from the engine because it's more difficult to move the air through the dirty filter. Also when your filter is that dirty and dry, particles (dust and such) might go inside the engine and cause some extra wear and tear

[helmet91]

Speaking of the Dinan air intake... Where can you get more of the little pins that secure the lid? I was hoping there would be a little baggy of them in the box with the filter I bought. I ordered from Turner, but I think Dinan drop ships so hopefully I didn't miss out on them.

Should be good for a year or so as the intake came with an extra set, but it'd be nice to figure out sooner than later.

Dinan_Engineering

[Schantin]

Originally Posted by helmet91

Speaking of the Dinan air intake... Where can you get more of the little pins that secure the lid? I was hoping there would be a little baggy of them in the box with the filter I bought. I ordered from Turner, but I think Dinan drop ships so hopefully I didn't miss out on them.

Should be good for a year or so as the intake came with an extra set, but it'd be nice to figure out sooner than later.

Dinan_Engineering

I replaced the plastic push pins with small bolts and nuts. I had too many issues with the original pins falling out.