Air filter life meter?

[widman]

These guages are cheap and really necesary when you do a lot of off road driving. The filters do not fill up very fast, at first, but then pressure drops rapidly at the end. To put actual miles or Km on it depends on where you drive. In this link there (you can look at the pictures even if you can't read spanish) you can see a graph of the loading of the filter and also some pics of new, partially dirty, and blocked filters.
http://www.widman.biz/Boletines/7/7.html

 

[wtd]

My 98 chevy truck has one of these but I've never seen it move at all. Of course I changed the factory filter at around 20,000 miles and have changed it once since then so I've never left a filter in long enough to see it it actually works.

Wayne

 

[XS650]

quote:

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Originally posted by tom slick:
it has to be specific to the filter and system to work properly.

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Even a non-specific gauge let the user see what the pressure drops was would be a major improvement over what we have now.

Changing filters by mileage, time or filter subjectively evaluated appearance like most people do now isn't specific to any filter and system either.

What's needed is a reasonably priced PD gauge so the car/truck owner can decide for theirself what pressure drop is acceptable if the manufactuerers aren't supplying that information.

[ March 18, 2004, 02:45 PM: Message edited by: XS650 ]

 

[tom slick]

quote:

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Even a non-specific gauge let the user see what the pressure drops was would be a major improvement over what we have now.

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sure, and pliers will turn a screw, it still isn't the correct tool. if calibrated incorrectly for the filter application the guage may never register the proper pressure drop or any pressure drop at all. on some of my equipment the guage measures 10ths of an inch of water, at 0.45" the filter is bad, but it operates normally at 0.3" so the proper guage is critical.
toss a delta p filter indicator off a powerstroke diesel on a 1.6l honda and see how well it works.

 

[XS650]

quote:

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Originally posted by tom slick:
sure, and pliers will turn a screw, it still isn't the correct tool. if calibrated incorrectly for the filter application the guage may never register the proper pressure drop or any pressure drop at all. on some of my equipment the guage measures 10ths of an inch of water, at 0.45" the filter is bad, but it operates normally at 0.3" so the proper guage is critical.
toss a delta p filter indicator off a powerstroke diesel on a 1.6l honda and see how well it works.

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There are more ways to do anything wrong than there are to do it right. Don't assume everyone other than you is a moron.

 

[FL-400S]

The air filter on my Tercel was in there for 9 years and 73K, and I wasnt going to change it. But I took the car to pepboys for a new starter and they changed it without asking me and said it was clogged (baloney!). The said $6 and I said OK fine. If they would have said more, Id have told them to put the old one back in. I noticed absolutely no difference in performance (hey its a tercel). I think they put in a ProLine filter--is that a decent filter?

 

[tom slick]

quote:

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There are more ways to do anything wrong than there are to do it right. Don't assume everyone other than you is a moron.

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i meant no disrespect. i was just trying to make the point that they are not in any way universal and that i actually use them.
i didn't mean to implicate anyone as being a "moron", this place is exactly the opposite, just trying to foster a discussion and make sure all facts are represented.