Air Filters

[fg1234567892000]

As the weather slowly becomes nicer, my thoughts turn to pulling out the bike from winter storage. When trying to decide what post-winter storage maintenance I should do, one of the ideas was to clean/replace the air filter.

Which is my dilemma. Should I simply clean the air filter, or replace it. I have a 2003 GZ250 with ~8000 miles on it. Some of the threads here mention how little cleaning the air filter actually does, and I don't want to drop a significant amount of money on an air filter if I don't need it. Opinions?

[Viirin]

before someone beats me to it - clean from he outside/in or you'll ruin it

my bike is of a similar age and milage and i just clean mine every 5 or 6 months just in case - i still don't notice any huge difference in performace when i do so i'd say save your money unless it's badly damaged

Vii

[alantf]

Originally Posted by Viirin

clean from he outside/in or you'll ruin it
save your money unless it's badly damaged

:plus1:

[jonathan180iq]

Inspect for problems. (severly dried out, trapped leaves, terribly dirty, etc.)

Replace only if problems are not fixable.

[Water Warrior 2]

Remove and inspect the filter for damage, bugs and other nasty bits. Keep in mind the air flows from the inside to the outside of the filter. Bassackwards but it works. Be sure all seals are in good shape and put a light coating of grease on the seal areas.
Lightly tapping the filter on a flat surface should knock out any loose stuff. If you can then shine a light throught the filter material you are probably good to go.