HLG600

Hello,

I have a '97 SL600 and am wondering if anyone can help. I have recently installed two K&N Filters on my car. Anyway, they had to be changed and K&N is a proven brand for hundreds of different vehicles. However, I want to make sure that it will benefit my car, as opposed to being a detriment to its performance. If anyone has ever hear of any issues with these filters in particular (on the R129 SL600 or any V12 Benz), please comment on this thread.

Also, I am currently searching for a reliable ECU upgrade and exhaust upgrade. If anyone knows of a reliable brand, please inform me.

Thank you.

LeaUK

I have read that K&N filters may release oil onto your MAF sensors over time and therefore damage the Hotwire. I wouldn't risk it personally, especially if you have 2!

Lea

C43AMG

Kleeman & Renntech for your ECU upgrades - although there are many of them out there.As far as the K&N issue - they are great filters and have a long history as a reliable product.The issue with the MAF sensors has come from 2 reasons - # 1 - over oiling them and then throwing them in and going out and running the car at full throttle and sucking the oil in and ruining the MAF. #2 - these cars seem to have issues around 50-60k mileage with the MAF sensors.Alot have people have purchased some of these vehicles used around this mileage - changed the stock filters to K&N and had the MAF fail and all of a sudden its the filters fault , o so. I've run K&N on every vehicle I've owned and never had a problem.

Bigdot

i have KandN in 5 of my cars.

never had a problem


mark

LeaUK

The subject of K&N often comes up and it fascinates me every time. Here's the official statement from K&N - http://www.knfilters.com/massair.htm

But, common sense always prevails and so I wonder why the designers of powerful sports cars didn't/don't choose K&N for production vehicles. It can't be cost as the SL was THE most expensive roadster of it's time and in equivalent money would cost somewhere around 130,000GBP today - that's more expensive than a DB9!!!!!!!

But the K&N was never chosen.....

Just my curiosity still burning......

Lea

Lincoln

How many stock vehicles have you come across that use a renewable air filter element??? None that I can think of.

How many car companies, even in their performance cars, use the absolute money no object, best parts on their vehicles??? None, it's all about suppliers and budgets.

I don't think K&N is the best but the performance improvments they provide on SOME engines is real. Typically, the K&N doesn't filter quite as well as the OEM paper filters but this is common sense. More flow from something occupying the same space...

I've used K&N or BMC (when a fitment is available) on most of the cars I've owned in the past 15 years. I've not had any MAF problems on these cars including my 02 M5 which is known for MAF problems.

LeaUK

I hear your comments and your personal experience but why doesn't ANY manufacturer use renewable filters - because there is a possible a risk of engine damage if the 'user' over oils? Maybe? Because the pollution filtering performance is less than the design goal? Or they want to make 'huge' revenue on replacing OEM filters every service?

Maybe we should ask the Powertrain developers?


I'm sorry, this I have to disagree with. The cost of the filter is absolutely negligible when selling high cost sports vehicles to the rich. When companies only sell 50-100 cars, performance is the focus NOT cost.

This obviously doesn't worry you - but it worries me and so I want to give others a different viewpoint.

Lea