4 weeks ago I bought an approved Fabia vrs from a Skoda dealer. Finally got around to checking the airfilter last night and to my surprise found a dirty looking Green Cotton Filter (I think, certainly not the yellow/orange OEM one) So much for the car having a full service and 100 or whatever point check bufore buying! Makes me wonder if the oil was actually changed too?

Anyway I've been and bought a standard OEM filter (£16, ouch!) to replace it with, shall I chuck out the Green Cotton filter or clean it up ready for the next air filter change?

Green cotton don't actually give any performance gain just a slight different sound so if you want oe quality then stick with oe it will let far less crap through!

1) There's a sticky about how air filters work in "Maintenance and Performance" which may help inform your decision.

2) I've no experience of cotton gauze filters, but most people I know treat filter foam ones as disposable rather than cleaning them.

3) You won't get much extra power out of just a performance filter, maybe 1bhp or so, but you do get a brighter pickup.

4) For what value of "full service"? ISTR that the air filter is only scheduled on the 4 year/40k service (which is far too long), so were you expecting a new cambelt as well?

There is abit of a frackas (in various threads on this site) about the "high flow" clean and reuse filters......mainly with the VRS engines as they are accussed of letting to much air/dust into the turbo and erroding the turbine blades....leading to turbo failure.....

P.S. I have a "high flow" CAI kit that I built myself using a Green Cotton "Twister" filter and it runs on my car fine......but I have a non turbo petrol engine...so different!

4 weeks ago I bought an approved Fabia vrs from a Skoda dealer. Finally got around to checking the airfilter last night and to my surprise found a dirty looking Green Cotton Filter (I think, certainly not the yellow/orange OEM one) So much for the car having a full service and 100 or whatever point check bufore buying! Makes me wonder if the oil was actually changed too?

Anyway I've been and bought a standard OEM filter (£16, ouch!) to replace it with, shall I chuck out the Green Cotton filter or clean it up ready for the next air filter change?

A dirty cotton filter will actually filter much better than when clean, cotton filters are absolutely fine on non-turbo engines without MAF sensors like the 1.4 16v, they still don't make any difference but at least they don't do any damage.

1) There's a sticky about how air filters work in "Maintenance and Performance" which may help inform your decision.

2) I've no experience of cotton gauze filters, but most people I know treat filter foam ones as disposable rather than cleaning them.

3) You won't get much extra power out of just a performance filter, maybe 1bhp or so, but you do get a brighter pickup.

4) For what value of "full service"? ISTR that the air filter is only scheduled on the 4 year/40k service (which is far too long), so were you expecting a new cambelt as well?

Nope, wasn't expecting a cam belt in the service, although this was done anyway as it was due. The sales blag that comes from the Skoda people is full service and a one hundred and something point check that everything is tip top when you get the car. Fair enough that Skoda say the air filter is good for 4 years/40,000 miles (that really is way too long) but I would expect them to at least inspect the air filter, to make sure it has one at least! It's a 60 second job and if/when they saw a 'performance' filter which is supposed to be cleaned and re-oiled every now and then, I would have expected them to remove and replace, especially given the condition this was in. Looking at the service history it would appear it was fitted early 2009, it might not have been looked at since.

Anyway, filter is removed and heading for the garbage, and new OE fitted. Should I be able to see some orange from the rubber seal on the outside of the filter box, only along the edge where the clips are?

Thanks for all your replies

Edited 29 September, 201114 yr by hyte1

if/when they saw a 'performance' filter which is supposed to be cleaned and re-oiled every now and then, I would have expected them to remove and replace, especially given the condition this was in.

And if you had purposefully bought a £40 panel filter with the intention to clean and re-use rather than forking out for a new filter every 6months/year - how pi**ed would you be that the dealer has removed it, put a standard one in, and charged you for the privilege without even consulting you?

Might just be me, but if I saw a non-standard part in a car, then I'd assume that it was put there for a reason rather than go replacing it?

And if you had purposefully bought a £40 panel filter with the intention to clean and re-use rather than forking out for a new filter every 6months/year - how pi**ed would you be that the dealer has removed it, put a standard one in, and charged you for the privilege without even consulting you?

Might just be me, but if I saw a non-standard part in a car, then I'd assume that it was put there for a reason rather than go replacing it?

Not just you!.......When I've had K&N panel filters in the past I've had to tell them NOT to replace it (bin it).........other than that what you must remember is that they only do what is on the check list.....if "replace the engine air filter" is not on the check list for that service they won't even look at it!!

Obviously if you took the car in for a service, that would be different, of course you would expect them to leave your performance filter. However I purchased the car on the understanding it has had a multi god knows how many check and a service at the time of purchase, therefore no maintenace was due for 1 year or 10,000 miles.

However I purchased the car on the understanding it has had a multi god knows how many check and a service at the time of purchase, therefore no maintenace was due for 1 year or 10,000 miles.

Sometimes that bit of paper only confirms that it has been serviced/checked to the min spec......even if the service intervals are totally stupid...eg when I purchased my car new in 2001 they stated at the time that the timing belts only needed replacing every 60,000miles or 6yrs for my AUB engine........five years later they changed that to 40,000miles or 4yrs due to the large amount of belts that were snapping under the 60,000miles or 6yrs limit!!!!

The Skoda multi point check has no check of the air filter in it. That is left to the sevice schedule.