All you have to do is wash the k&n off with dish soap to get the factory oil off of it, and then you'll be fine.

 

first things first....
your reading wayTOO much information over the internet and scaring yourself for no reason what so ever.
there will always be people out there that all they do is find little fualts in things they personely dont like and try to spread the word on that little fualt and make the situation alot more bigger and scaryer then it realy is.......

the 3 main types of airfilters are paper, sponge and oil.
paper filters, which are OEM, are basic, throw away, cheap and crap.
sponge filters are very exspencive, rear,and are ment to be very good, i have never had the chance to see one yet tho.
and oil filters. yes, KnN are known to have "bigger wholes" in their filters (i dont know how true that is still) thus letting in more and bigger dirt in to the intake. the filter itself will stop a certain amount of dirt and the oil acts as a glue and stops all the tiny dirt/dust from getting past the filter.

personely, i never noticed much of a performance difference with a flat panel KnN. and that KnN no dought cost you $50 right? why not pay $75 and get a KnN cone with a chrome pipe off ebay instead, best bang for the buck.

heres some reasons to get a KnN........
air intake becomes louder. you will gain a low pitch rumble from a KnN filter, even louder if you go with a KnN cone and pipe instead of a KnN flat panel.
More MPG. the biggest topic now a days. you 'might' gain some MPG, but it all depends upon how you drive.
more HP. differs to certain cars tho. you might get a2HP gain from a KnN flat panel. around 10HP if you get the KnN cone and pipe.
better throttle responce. many say its a placebo tho, you hear the loud rumble so it goes faster. again, you will feel a much better throttle responce with the KnN cone.

on another note......
i got a KnN flat panel and put it straight in from the packet and ran it for a year with no problems what so ever untill i upgraded it to the KnN cone and chrome pipe which i have had in my car for about 2 years now and have only had to clean it once and again, no problems at all. no problems with the MAF clogging up or anything. like ive said, you reading too much on the interenet and scaring yourself.

a rule of thumb tho for the KnN filters is thatwhen you buy a KnN leave it out of its plastic wrapper for about 24 hours to let any excess oil dry off and then install it in your car and you shouldnt get any problems. its the excess oil that "could" clog up your MAF sensor.

hope my essay helps a few people here and puts things straight.

 

then whats the point of buying a KnN?? if he takes the oil off a KnN filter then he wont be fine.

 

I think what allot of people here are missing is the bottom line. And that changes from one person to another. I for one, ONLY want the performance I couldn't give a cats *** about noise and in my books, the quieter the better. Why attract a cop? I usea K&N flat panel filter and to me that's enough. No need to make a mod that will affect it's resale value (yes contrary to popular beleif, modding your car affects it's appeal to the masses and not everyone wants a tricked out car) because let's face it, we're not gonna have our cars forever and anyone who thinks this if fooling themselves. So with me ranting on about the bottom line, here is my bottom line.
[ul][*]Oil filter allows better air flow. Better air flow = better performance (.5 HP or 50 doesn't matter it's still an improvement)[*]I have noticed no ill effects from using one.[*]I don't mind cleaning it from time to time.[/ul]

These factors are what led me to buy one.

 

good point regarding the cone CAI kit. unfortunately K&N doesn't make one for the 07 2.0T (my car) though, or do they?

 

hey guys, good feedbacks, thanks

I just want to say that im neither for it or againt K&N air filters. i just recently decided to change the air filter since i dont know when it was last changed and i herd from a friend of mine that they are good filters and i purchased one.. then i did some research and found out all this info abut it then decided to go back to a regular one since ppl were having some negative feedback on them.

Yes there is way too much stuff on the internet to read about and sometime ppl dont know what they are talking about and that leavess others to be confused . in this case if i didnt read anything about it i wouldent have even bothered going back to regular filter, because yes performance was much nicer and kinda noticed it had a nicer sound to it.

but i wll check out this k&n cone pipe that was mentioned, to see if it will work with my car and ect.
but as far as the k&n flat filter i guess its just one of those things you have to try to see how it works for u.

2001 a4 1.8t sport fwd.

 

Pretty much everyone here has said the regular filters are crap. Isn't that negative feedback?