Today I received new oem air filter from honda direct and decided to replace filter element. Last time I had filter replaced about 17 months and 22/23k miles ago. I could not believe how dirty it was. It does not help that area where I live is very dry with a lot of road construction going on.
Below are two pictures of old filter

Wow I clean my K&N about once a year and its never that dirty.
Must be durty down there.

I didn't think a filter could get that dirty in that time. Have you been flatracking it or something?

I saw that with my OEM filters. I live in farm county. At 5k filter changes, I would find lots of bugs, dirt, and even bird feathers.
I clean the K&N every oil change. 3k miles. Still dirty. This shows that both filters do a good job.

Does anyone clean their OEM filter? I was stuck one night with a filter that look much like this one, and decided to try soaking it in varsol rather than putting it back and waiting till I could get a new one. Worked like a charm.

marty

I believe it's o.k. to shake off losse dirt or vacum oem filter but I never did it with my bike filter. It's too much work to get it out so I just replace it with new one. It only costs $27.00 from Honda Direct Line.
The 25 miles long strech of highway I use to get to work is being widened to 3 lanes in both direction. There is a lot of dust generated by construction plus we have very little rain.
The bird does run better with the new filter