Yeah, I noticed that I was getting a lot of bugs, dust, etc. on my filter in the warm months and, like you said, powder snow made it wet the first winter I had the truck. I finally removed the foam piece between the airbox and inner fender and then cut out the intake hole in the side of the airbox. That took care of both issues and I haven't pulled the filter minder since ... my 2¢

 

Another thing to watch out for if you have ANYbody else check your filter is that they know enough to pull the filter out and look at the BOTTOM of it .... where the air comes in, NOT just pull the cover and look at the clean side. Sounds elementary but some lube/oil guys are not what you'd call 'highly trained'. A guy I know had been having his '01 serviced regularly at a 'jiffy lube' and they 'checked' the air filter every time BUT when the truck started throwing a fit we pulled the filter and it was like ..... uh ..... well ..... it looked like a wee bit of paved road on the bottom side! They had, I guess, been just popping the cover and ..... GOOD TO GO! Anyways, it seems like you're getting your problem solved so I'll just shut up now

 

i would presonally stay away from the k&n. had it on for 20 000 km and i didn't like it. didn't notice any power diffence and decreased fuel miallege. im just using the factory mopar air filters. i get them at cost cause i work at a dealer thankfully.

 

Well good luck with the K&N. On my '99 I used to pull the intake hose to the turbo off whenever I serviced the K&N. The turbo blades on the spindle were ALWAYS full of dust & crap. The truck was running the highway most of the time and never went off-road at all. I didn't over oil the filter and always let it thoroughly dry before reinstalling it. After seeing this each time I went back to the paper filters. Just my .02

 

maybe it started as snow not water... I went through some big drifts a week ago, and just happened to change my filter right after. Found a bunch of snow in the airbox and some stuck on the filter.

Bryan