i will add here one more thing.
for any series of pulsar use the t spanner with caution specially while tightening.
why? well the bolts are mounted on plastic air box and pulsars air box are very notorious to get cracked at the edge where the bolt is bolted.so moderate twist is well enough to secure this.mind this ,if the plastic breaks,the whole set of the air box need to be changed.

also in ug 3 s service manual from bajaj says use of kerosene and 20w 40 oil only,diesel is not mentioned on service book.

very well explained with diagrams

Petrol For Cleaning

I Have a pulsar 180 classic and the last time i took for servicing to a service center of bajaj the mech used petrol from my tank to clean my air filter.

On the subject of air filter oils, I would just like to say that I have found, at least with motorcross/enduro bikes which are subjected to a lot more dust, that the best oil is simply air filter oil, normally available from dealers. It is specially formulated, extra tacky but penetrates well through the filter and doesn't restrict airflow.

However, my motorcycle maintenance improved no end after I discovered BIODEGRADABLE air filter oil, such as Notoil oil (No Toil Biodegradable Filter Oil). In summer I clean my air filter once a week, and I have found No Toil to be the greatest improvement to my weekly motorcycle maintenance. Not only it is obviously much better for the environment, but it also does a great job at filtering dust particles, and allows you not to mess about with solvents such as petrol when cleaning the filter, which is such a great benefit... You can use normal washing machine powder to clean your filter! If anything like it is available in India, then it's definitely worth looking into it.

Interestingly foam air filter manufacturers, such as Twin Air, do not recommend cleaning their filters with petrol because offroad bike air filters often comprise of two or three pieces of foam glued together, and petrol can damage the glue and expose unfiltered air into the engine. Again, I can stop praising biodegradable filter oils...

to clean sensor

Hi all,

First of all hands to rahul for presenting us a superb guide on how to clean the filter.
And the most important thing i did it myself yesterday..

I would like to know one more thing.In the article you have mentioned to clean the sensor.May i know how can i do that?I have cleaned the filter but the sensor blinks at intervals.
Waiting for your reply...

I have a Pulsar Classic. Is it anywhere mentioned in the manual that we should apply 20W40 on the filter after cleaning it? I have always wondered about this every time I went to the mechanic to get the bike serviced.

At one end, we are running towards free flow air filters and on the second we are even clogging the foam filters with the application of oil?

My Pulsar is more than 7 years old now and the air filter is regularly cleaned and oil applied, does the filter need to be changed if there is no visible damage to it? It has never been changed all this while.

Same for my case. They dont bother about that...we cannot expect them to bring kerosene/diesel for us.

to clean sensor

Hi,

Very good DIY.

One quick note - you have specified in the article to clean the sensor.How we do that?

Also hats off to you...i did this for my pulsar...

Guys, can someone tell me what the company-recommended way of cleaning the air filter is? Do we really need to apply 'engine oil' on the foam after cleaning it with diesel/kerosene. I understand that it helps catching the dust better, but then it also reduces the flow of air to a great extent.

I am asking this because I have bought a new foam-type air filter today and will be changing tomorrow myself. Shall I apply oil, because I am taking it to Ladakh and the bike will eventually be gasping for air. There is a compromise in applying the oil, that is why the question.

If company wanted us to apply oil on filters, why do they themselves give us dry filters and not filters soaked with oil?

PS: My mechanic has been cleaning the filter with petrol and applying oil all these years. Now, I am changing the filter just for peace of mind.

Rahul u r a god for me ..i had seen the service center mechanic handle my bikes pulsar 150 cc air filter during service center before reading this post and i knew something was not right... man u shared a grt info with detailed pics .. must have taken a lot of efforts for you to do so..
i'm very happy to see these thread as it is very helpful and i can do things the way i like it.. thanks a again

oh !! thanks to oldfox..man if rahul did the HARD WORK u surely toped it up with some very very helpful info..

1 q's though thus the 150cc pulsar 2010 model has a air filter sensor also as i did not see the mechanic clean that..

Soakin in oil

As per almost all bikes manuals , we have to soak the entire filter in oil and squeeze out the excess. In kerala I think almost all local mechanics use petrol to clean the foam filter. They are so lazy that they put some oil on the top of the filter and will not check the oil is spread evenly.

The best oil to apply, as OF said, is the 2T oil. It will never be mentioned in any manual "that we should apply 20W40 on the filter after cleaning it."
Second, by applying we are not CLOGGING the filter. Thought the air flow is restricted but it is negligible if proper quantity of oil is applied. Infact by doing this we are helping the filter in doing its job more efficiently.

You can keep it for long but its good if you change it periodically. Like for P220 I get a new filter after 15-18K kms. After all it does not costs me a fortune and is easy to install too.

Didnt get you? We are not cleaning the sensor. We are just cleaning the filter so that sensor does not cause the warning icon to blink.

Answered

If you check the filter once you get your bike back from service station, you will find oil applied on it. They do not give bikes with dry filters

Petrol is very hard on such thing. It will shorten the foam's life

Thank you

Thank you so much, all these days whenever I cleaned the air filter I used petrol to wash the foam

I also noticed that even some mechanics do the same! and they take out at least 250ml of petrol from the tank and they do the cleaning.
Although they dont use all the petrol they take out, they sometimes just spray it into the air filter chamber.

I will use kerosene from now on, Thanks once again.

I'm afraid I have the same question as 2 other people in this thread: How do we locate the sensor ? What does it look like?

@enfro you are saying there is no mention of the sensor cleaning, but there is The air filter blinking signal on the dashboard can appear even if the filter is clean and properly inserted, so there might be some dust or dirt on the airfilter causing it to blink. Any guidance would be appreciated, thanks !

I took a few shots of the air filter sensor, it's located inside the air box, you can see it once you have removed the airfilter sponge & grill :



It's held by a small bracket screwed on the rear airbox wall:



But to access the screws, you have to either take out the air box (requires taking off the foot-peg assembly) or have super tiny hands that can slide between the rear hugger and the air box. I don't think it's possible but who knows...

The air filter sensor wire is plugged to a green plastic plug, you can see it from the battery side of the bike (left side), it's on the right of the battery, near the rear seat wire.

I am still confused as to how to clean the sensor like it is indicated in the first page of this thread, without taking out the air box ?