Josh writes:

Dear Sajeev,

I can remember many times where I’d hear, in passing, someone say that K&Ns and other performance air filters were actually bad for my car… daily or otherwise. Their argument was always that the performance filters allowed that 1 percent of dirt to get through. This argument came up again as Engineering Explained did an air filter comparison. His tests showed a small increase in power at a very minor risk of extra dirt (which seems to be less than 1 percent in many cases).

My question is: If an engine is an air pump and you’re filtering the majority of the dirty out, who cares about the 1 percent that gets through and enters the combustion chamber? When was the last time you heard of an engine dying due to dirty air? (Read More…)

But wait…there is less???

Sajeev writes:

As the Christmas Spirit draws near and Pistonheads relax with thoughts of good vehicular cheer…screw it, I’ll get to the point:

Can timing chain rattle on start-up magically resolve itself after a mere tune up? (Read More…)

Phil writes:

Hello Sajeev,

I have a question related to maintenance on a 2011 Kia Optima SX Turbo. It currently has 45k miles, and I have owned it for only 4 months (had 20k when I took ownership of it). As you can see, it is driven a whole lot, almost exclusively on the great interstates of the Southeastern US of A. I average 5-6k per month. I am an outside sales rep. and drive from SC to MS and everywhere in between weekly.

My question is this: (Read More…)