Three washes and..... my uncle used to put everything in the dishwasher.....:(

I just washed mine two weekends ago and noticed the same thing. I suspect that it will never look like new again; might be the cleaner that discolors the filter media a little. I also noticed that it took a LONG time for it to dry. I left it in the house overnight to let it dry, and it was still slightly wet in the morning. Finally, it felt dry...re-oiled and re-installed. I also bought a blue AFE sock to put over it. While it was off, I gave it the "hold it up to the sun and look for pinholes test" and found absolutely nothing! Looks to be a good filter, and after the re-oil, looked a lot better. One thing to never use is gasoline or braker cleaner! Read a thread here once of a guy who did, and then re-intalled slighty wet to try and speed up the drying process and ended up with a blown engine:eek: The brake fluid acted just like starting fluid. It made the engine race way above red-line and could not be stopped until it cratered! What a way to ruin your day.

I use the sock too. If you look closely the clean spots on the front of the filter are from the logo on the sock.

Try using this. http://www.klotzlube.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=KS&Product_Code=Filter+Cleaner&Category_Code=ATV_SPECIALTYI used this on my K&N filter and found it cleaned it the best.