My K&N's have 10,520 miles on them and they are as clean as the day I installed them. Should I clean them anyway or at least re-lube them?

 

From the K & N web site:
"All of our air filters are washable and reusable. They can be easily cleaned and oiled using our K&N Recharger kits and returned to your vehicle up to 25 times. We recommend you check your air filter every 30,000 miles, however, under most street conditions the filter will not require cleaning until 50,000 miles of continuous use. And yes, we’ve heard the stories of customers who ran their K&N filter for 100,000 miles without a cleaning, but we believe cleaning after 50,000 miles to be the most beneficial service life without sacrificing air flow."

So at 10K miles, you shouldn't need to do much.

 

I put K&N filters in all of my cars and haven't cleaned any until the cars are close to 50,000 miles. Even with that mileage, most of them were fairly clean. But then again I don't drive in dusty conditions, which may prompt you to clean more often.

 

these are my k&n's at 10,000 miles. wow...are they dirty.

my mileage per tank went from 300 to 250-ish (city driving) over the last month or so. i pulled the filters and are they in need of a big time cleaning.

before...



after...

 

I pulled my K&N's at 10,000 miles run time, concurrent with a scheduled oil change. They looked a lot like Andrew's. You can actually see the air flow pattern over the filter from the dust that is caught. It is easy to pull, clean and "recharge" the element with the kit. Just do it and protect your ride. For me its more than a matter of how long can I go before I have to change a filter. Its a matter of how can I best protect my machine.