HAHA! Problem solving 101 - If you did something, and then it doesnt work. 90% of the time its what you just did.

1) Pre-Clean the filter. Use a brush to gently get rid of any debris on the filter
2) Spay on the cleaner. Let it soak for 10 minutes - not 8 not 6 but 10 MINUTES.
3) Rinse off with LOW PRESSURE water - Dont use one of those spray nozzles on your hose you wash your car with. BIG NO NO!
4) Let it dry naturally. Shake off the excess water. It will probably dry overnight. Dont use a blow dryer! Its cotton and it will shrink if you do! Dont use compressed air! This will blow holes in it!

Make SURE your filter is dry BEFORE applying the oil

5) Re-Oil with the filter. I prefer the areosol can not the squeeze bottle by K&N. Its more even.
6) Re-install.

The other steps are optional

7) Never post a negative comment about a Honda product on a Honda forum and expect help.
8) Banshee's also use K&N filters - the same steps apply

 

I never blamed anything on Honda Just that this 400ex is giving me alot of little problems. Oregondunepatrol, thanks for the directions, I followed all of those directions when I cleaned it last night. I got the directions off the K&N site. I didn't think that it was my filter that made it run that way because I was expecting it to run alot better w/ the filter (you should have saw the dirt that came off it when I cleaned it![img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-shocked.gif[/img]) Hey happy new years everybody and try not to get pulled over by cops tonight!

 

UNI filters are better.

 

How do you figure?

 

I guess that is an opinion, but consider this. I personally talked to one of the guys from HMF when he came into my work and he says UNI all the way. With his $18,000 Raptor, he constantly noticed a film of dirt that always made it past his K&N(yes, even when clean and properly oiled). He then switched to UNI and says it's much cleaner.

He ran his quad on the dyno with K&N and with UNI and there is no detectable difference between the two.

Hmm, this leads me to the assumption that the UNI is better because it filters better and offers the same airflow as the K&N.

 

I agree K&N's don't filter very well. Whenever my shopmates and I have a 400EX that comes in smoking prematurely, the first thing we look for are the K&N stickers. An unoiled foam filter is worse yet, crap goes right through them. You can find the evidence in the intake side of the carb easily enough.

 

A friend of mine said his K&N actually filters better when it has a layer of dirt on it...LOL dirt to filter out dirt!

 

that is what k&n states

 

Does it?? Wow, I am going to rely on a filter to filter my dirt hehe

 

For my type of riding the K&N with a prefilter is the best. All this talk about cleaning filters all the time is nuts - Just get a pre-filter and you'll have a lot less cleaning to worry about. The condition of the main filter is paramount. I dont know of anything that hold up better to riding conditions over time than the K&N. I realize that a lot of the race guys use foam filters - but they clean them all the time. All that cleaning will break down a filter in a hurry. The K&N is designed to last a really long time - If you have a pre-filter - clean it and you wont have to worry as much about cleaning the main filter.