The air filter in a mini bike has to be changed whenever there is too much dirt on the filter which has resulted in its blackening. Other indicators for changing the air filter include too much of exhaust misfiring, power lags, and reduced mileage and horsepower.

#1 Air Filter is Blackened
The simplest and easiest sign to look for whether you need to replace the air filter in your mini bike or not is to look up the air filter. Just open the air filter lid and remove the air filter out from the mini bike.

Now, check the air filter for how much dirt it has accumulated. If the air filter is blackened and has too much dirt to clean up, then it is time for you to replace the air filter in your mini bike.

Usually, the color of air-filter will be either yellow or white. Most importantly, the filter will definitely be of light color. This helps us in gauging the amount of dirt accumulated on your filter.

If there is too much dirt, the filter will be blackened. The turning of light color, mostly yellow or white, to black gives us the indication that the filter has accumulated too much dirt.

Now, if the dirt is of lower levels, i.e., the filter has not blackened, then you can clean it. However, if the dirt accumulation is too much and the filter has blackened, then you need to replace your old air filter with a new one in the mini bike.

#2 Too much of Exhaust Misfiring
Another major indication that your air filter in the mini bike needs to be replaced is when there is too much of exhaust misfiring.

Exhaust misfiring occurs when there is unburnt fuel coming into the exhaust system. This unburnt fuel comes in contact with the air and detonates to cause misfiring.

Now, the exhaust misfiring or popping can also occur in high air flow exhaust system mini bikes. However, the presence of unburnt fuel is always required for detonation.

This presence of unburnt fuel occurs mainly because of insufficient air-fuel mixture entering the system. If the air-fuel mixture is rich, i.e., fuel is more than required and air is less than the required quantity, the fuel won’t burn completely due to insufficient supply of air.

As a result, some of the fuel enters the exhaust system unburnt. When this fuel meets the air present in the exhaust, they burn and detonate to cause misfiring.

Since lack of sufficient air is the foremost cause for such a detonation in the mini bike, the air filter needs to be checked whenever thee exhaust backfire occurs too much.

And for this reason, too much of exhaust backfiring and popping signals that the air filter needs to be checked and might be damaged.

#3 mini bike Mileage and Horsepower has decreased
One of the important aspects in mini bike mechanics is the engine combustion. Higher capacity engines usually consume more fuel and produce more horsepower. Lower cc engines consume less fuel at a time and produce lesser power.

However, when you have a damaged or non-functioning air filter, the horsepower generated by the mini bike decreases.

And along with that, the mileage of the mini bike decreases as well.

If your mini bike horsepower and mileage has reduced in the past week or so, then it is a very good indication that the air filter needs to be checked.

This reduction in both horsepower and fuel mileage is because of insufficient air-fuel mixture entering the combustion chamber. The damaged air filter won’t let sufficient air into the inlet valve and injection system.

As a result, a rich air-fuel mixture enters the engine. But due to insufficient air, the fuel entering the engine wont burn completely. There will be lots of unburnt fuel that goes as a waste. Thereby resulting in lower horsepower and mileage.

So, if you are experiencing reduced horsepower and mileage in the mini bike, then the air-fuel mixture entering the engine is not right. And when air is the problem, the answer most definitely for the issue is air filter.

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