I recently posted that I had changed an air filter out @ 20K miles. It was dirty looking but not super clogged, mainly some debris and dead bugs. I was told that changing that filter out was too soon. ( i didn't mention that we bought the car with that filter in it so unknown as to how many actual miles on it) . We do have gravel/oil chip roads here in southwestern Illinois but mainly paved roads and highways. What is the general consensus on air filter life spans under normal driving conditions?
Air Filter life span
- Thread starter vwthingman
- Start date
My truck lives on paved roads, paved driveway, etc. I change it every 60k and it could probably go further.
I change mine around 15k to 20k max, depending on the vehicle. We have a lot of dusty dirt roads and I can’t imagine going longer than that. They look quite dirty at that mileage too.
Only way to know is a restriction gauge. I have done 70k miles on a filter and I just changed it just because
I do 20-30K on air filters, because we have fine filtering dust to deal with on paved and dirt roads. I can never tell how dirty they really are, but they get done on a schedule to my liking.
Unless you have the ability to measure flow restriction, why agonize over it? Just spend the $20, stop worrying about it and replace it. At least you're establishing a baseline as you don't know the history.
It depends on the car(where it pulls the intake air from) and the conditions- dirt road, etc.
I was very surprised how dirty my outback was at 30k miles far dirtier than my jeep at 50k miles.
In general I'd say 30k-60k miles if you dont live on dirt road.
you can always buy and install one of these
I was very surprised how dirty my outback was at 30k miles far dirtier than my jeep at 50k miles.
In general I'd say 30k-60k miles if you dont live on dirt road.
you can always buy and install one of these
Most people have their vehicles on recirc for forever some without realizing so the filter will take forever to clog even in the few times the computer auto disables recirc to put some fresh air in but if you're on clean roads it's possible for that air filter to last 300k and you tack on miles.
That wouldn’t have anything to do with an engine air filter, which I am pretty sure we are talking about here.
There is NO time or mileage interval that can be said for all vehicles, in all conditions, across the board. Plenty of good explanations above about this. In two of our previous cars, I did decide to replace the cabin air filter every ~2 years or so but this was because of how (semi) difficult it was to replace it in both cars. In our current cars, they painless to check so it's 100% based on appearance, for both the engine and cabin filters.
Jackson_Slugger
$50 Site Donor 2022
After some years in the lube industry, I found that cars' AF's started getting dirty around 15K, but some didn't warrant replacement for over 20K. So as previously said above, it depends on the environment, if the little critters around you got in, and driving habits as much as anything. But the typical OEM 30K was too long and the 10-12K interval bosses wanted me to push, seemed a waste as too short...
I thought we were discussing an ENGINE air filter. For Cabin air filter 1x year.
OP isn't clear which and I initially thought it was about the cabin filter too.
Kestas
Staff member
It's not too dusty where I live. I once ran a filter 110K until the computer tripped a code related to air flow restriction. The filter didn't look too bad until I shined a light through it and couldn't see the light.
Oh. For some reason I was thinking cabin air filter
Over the decades, I've settled on 30k for both.
Never has either been real dirty.
Also, those restriction gauges are of questionable usefullness.
Members here report that the engine air filter has to be extremely clogged for the thing to move to yellow or red.
Also, there aren't many flat surfaces for drilling the mounting hole in today's heavily contoured intake systems.
Never has either been real dirty.
Also, those restriction gauges are of questionable usefullness.
Members here report that the engine air filter has to be extremely clogged for the thing to move to yellow or red.
Also, there aren't many flat surfaces for drilling the mounting hole in today's heavily contoured intake systems.
Like its been said, the air filter replacement is based on conditions. My pick-up gets checked regularly, but changed every 50k or more. It is on pavement almost all of the time and rarely looks dirty at all. My compact tractor that mows field s and does a lot of dirt work gets an air filter every year before snow hits. I'm lucky to get the season out of it, and when I change it out, the dirty filter will not pass light through.
The two cars were have drive on paved roads 95%+ times and get engine air filter changes every 2 years, plain and simple.
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