I recently put a K@N air filter on my Tacoma. The filter part of the unit is held on by a house clamp and it fell off. It may have only been off for a few minutes or it could have been off for a week. I live in dusty central Oregon, and I’m wondering how much damage I may have done to my engine. I have already changed my oil and filter. Is there anything else I should do?
Tighten the clamp better this time, and pray. Hopefully not much got sucked it, but there’s not much you can do about it now.
I’m hoping to get an answer from someone how actually might have some real knowledge or experience. I mainly want to know how bad the damage may be. How much of the engine life could I have lost.Tighten the clamp better. Thanks!
there’s no way to to tell how your engine was affected short of tearing it down
It is very unlikely that any engine damage has been done. There is no cheap test for it either. Assuming the check engine light did not turn on, is a good indication that you have not yet suffered any damage yet.
On the other side of the coin, the K%N’s require you to clean and re-oil the filter. If you don’t do the job just right you risk damaging your car (often the MAF) and in any case a freshly cleaned and properly oiled K&N will pass more dirt than a stock filter.
It would appear that you may have a number of modifications and may be one of the few who may be able to benefit form the extra air flow. Be very careful when cleaning and re-oiling that filter.
I remember back in high school, many of my friends used to drive around regularly with their air cleaner removed. They did it because they liked the sound when they accelerated hard and because it felt like they got more power. None suffered any damage they were aware of.
However, back in the auto mechanics school I went to, I remember studying how much dirt a construction vehicle inhaled while running at a dusty job site. It was significant. The classroom discussion then turned to how great a cylinder hone it must be to have the piston rings grind all that dirt into the cylinder walls.
In your case, if it’s only a week, I wouldn’t worry about it.
Joe
Very unlikely ANY damage occured. More and likely you may have shortened the life of a sensor…but not much else. I’d change the oil though. Dirt through the air filter is one of the biggest ways oil will get contamenated.
As for the K&N filter…It’s NOT much better then running without a filter anyways. Total waste of money.