> -----Original Message----- > From: jrobbins@xxxx [mailto:jrobbins@xxxx] > Sent: Sunday, November 07, 1999 2:20 AM > > Does anyone know the proper K&N air filter number for the DMC12? The correct answer is: there isn't one. But if you're determined (like I was) to have a K&N filter, it can be done! It will take a little work, though. Before I attempted this, I saw in the archives how someone had taken a close-fit K&N filter and found that it fit perfectly upside-down in the air cleaner assembly. DO NOT DO THIS. While it seems to fit, there is no air seal around the filter and there will be plenty of blow-by (and thus, DIRT in your intake). Now, I did use that K&N filter with the closest fit, which turns out to be model 33-2002. (The 33-2043 would be WAY too big, btw). It is almost identical to the correct filter, except it is about 1/4 inch smaller in each dimension. This means that when it is correctly installed, the upper and lower halves of the air cleaner assembly do not seal against the outer rubber gasket on the filter. It looks like it will, but because of the smaller dimensions it tends to just get pushed off-center or down into the lower half (and again you'll have blow-by). So what I needed was a way to take up the extra space created by the smaller filter. I tried to take the outer gasket from the old filter but it made the whole thing too thick, and didn't really work anyway. Having watched many episodes of MacGuyver, I started tearing through the garage and settled on some plastic lawn edging. ("Better Homes and Gardens," part number WIN-20) Please don't run out and buy the 20 feet of this stuff, you should be able to find something similar. The way I used it was to cut two lengths of it that matched the shorter dimension of the lower half of the air cleaner assembly. The idea was to wedge the filter into the box along the shorter edges, and propped up to the top of that lower half so that the seal would mate with upper half and get a good seal. The lawn edging was initially too thick, but the tubular section of it could be compressed and reformed until the filter fit inside snugly without being crushed. Then I trimmed to bottom of the edging until the filter sat at the correct height. It was tricky reintegrating the two halves of the air cleaner assembly, due to the slightly smaller size of the filter, but I eventually got the filter to seal. Or, at least, it felt like a seal since there was adequate resistance of compression of the two halves. I suppose the truly paranoid amongst you could throw some RTV in there for good measure, given that K&N says you can go 50,000 miles before you have to take it out again to clean it. Anyway, the trick is to prop up the filter to the correct height and centered in the lower half, so any material that can be cut to fit would be good for this purpose. I guess the real solution would be to have some sort of collar or sleeve that would fit around the filter and help provide the seal, by my garage is regrettably not that well equipped. I really don't know if the K&N is worth all this trouble, but this should give a few ideas to those of you that wish to try. But keep in mind that ANY air leaks around the filter will negate any of the K&N's benefits and contaminate your intake. So be careful, and good luck. Gus Schlachter Austin, TX VIN# 4695