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K&N Air filter whistling

Tomster

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Hey everyone, Has anyone ever noticed their K&N air filter whistles under load? Brand new, the filter did not make this sound. The filter is clean. The mechanic at the dealership told me that aftermarket filters sometimes do this, but I wanted to see if anyone else has had any experience with this issue.

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MikeMM

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My stock filter will whistle under low-midrange RPM (2-4K) with minimal load. Usually only happens if I hang in 1st or 2nd gear maintaining a low speed. Sounds like a whooshing or sucking sound.
 
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Tomster

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It was driving me nuts. I didn't know what the noise was. Recently, I was showing the car and told them to give it a light rev while I had the hood open. There it was, a sucking whistle coming from the air filter with each depression of the throttle. I called K&N, and they have never heard of this before. I was advised to buy one of those filter cleaning kits and then re oil the filter.

This happened to my '16 track pack under identical circumstances (two separate filters, two separate cars).

I'm swamped right now, so I'll have to get around to it next week. If anyone has any similar experiences, please let me know what you did to fix it.
 

MikeMM

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It was driving me nuts. I didn't know what the noise was. Recently, I was showing the car and told them to give it a light rev while I had the hood open. There it was, a sucking whistle coming from the air filter with each depression of the throttle. I called K&N, and they have never heard of this before. I was advised to buy one of those filter cleaning kits and then re oil the filter.

This happened to my '16 track pack under identical circumstances (two separate filters, two separate cars).

I'm swamped right now, so I'll have to get around to it next week. If anyone has any similar experiences, please let me know what you did to fix it.
I'm fairly sure I read a thread on here about this exact issue. Most people just either deal with it or avoid low load in low gears. We have a high compression engine moving a lot of air so it's going to bottleneck at the TB when its partially open pretty much no matter what. Sorry I'm not much help.
 

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My stock filter will whistle under low-midrange RPM (2-4K) with minimal load. Usually only happens if I hang in 1st or 2nd gear maintaining a low speed. Sounds like a whooshing or sucking sound.
It's fun to listen to that whooshing sound.
 
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Tomster

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I don't like it because it didn't do that when it was new. Secondly, it sounds as if there is a constriction and the reason I went with a high performance air filter is to avoid just that.
 

MikeMM

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I don't like it because it didn't do that when it was new. Secondly, it sounds as if there is a constriction and the reason I went with a high performance air filter is to avoid just that.
Did you do just the filter or get the whole CAI?
 
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Tomster

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Tomster

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Did you try re-seating the filter? I'd test that to eliminate it as the cause of the whistle. I'd take the filter off, clean inside the neck of the the filter and also the air box where the filter attaches. And definitely clean the filter if not already done.
 

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Not a fan of oiled filters. Go easy on the re-oiling if you go that route @Tomster, you don’t want to mess up the sensors. I’m sure you know that...

Curious you went w the K&N after you had the issue with the first car. How did that resolve or did you sell/trade in w it still whistling??
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