That's not quite the case on how K&N's filters work. They actually filter better the dirtier they get.
When I used to run a K&N, I was absolutely anal about keeping it clean & oiled using K&N's "FIltercharger" kit because I too believed then that they filtered better when clean & oiled. Then a friend noticed my K&N when we were offroad & suggested we take a look inside the air tube between the K&N and throttle body, and the inside of the throttle body. Then he suggested I wipe my fingers inside the air tube & throttle body. OMG, the inside of the air intake tube & throttle body was absolutely gritty/grimy/dirty. I was both shocked and pissed at how much dirt was inside them, I knew instantly how I had been lied to by K&N.
I was running the K&N then only because I had installed a York compressor for an on-board air system and the factory air intake box would no longer fit so I didn't have the option of going back to it. So instead, I immediately added K&N's Precharger prefilter on top of the K&N as soon as I got home.
When that didn't fit well enough to keep the dirt from coming in from the side and bypassing the Outerwear, I then added a foam Unifilter over the top of the Precharger. Between the two, the amount of dirt getting past the K&N became less frightful.
This is my K&N looked like with the two prefilters I had added pulled back so they can be seen... the last photo shows the York compressor which was why I couldn't just go back to the factory air filter as I would have preferred.
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