Filter "looks" dirty on clean side

[Roger]

Changed the factory air filter at 15K on my Sienna tonight and was suprised to see how dirty the clean side of the old filter looked when I took it out. 1st time I've ever noticed something like that before. Hopefully the pics below will illustrate what I'm talking about. I don't know if it is signficant or not, probably due to the fac that Toyota's filter is snow-white clean when new. My 15K UOA silicon reading came back at 20 ppm, which is not bad. Sienna

Anyway, new nice, white filter is on the left, old gray, darker filter is on the right, clean side showing:

Same filter, dirty sides showing (actually not too bad as it is):

 

[widman]

I've seen it a lot. Is that one of the cloth filters, like flannel? Check the inside of the tube to the intake to see if there is dirt and maybe look for a different type.

 

[Barkleymut]

Not too bad, as mentioned check the intake tube to see if there is any dust buildup which I would guess there is not.

 

[odessit]

This is exactly how my tC looked after 6 months, but the intake tube was very clean. Mine was WIX, I replaced it with the same last week. Maybe I will try some other brand next time if UOA will show higher Si levels.

 

[Roger]

Actually I did check the intake tube and thought it was clean. I'm pretty sure this is the cloth-like, flannel filter. It was very thick, which is why I bought another Toyota brand filter. All the other brands I looked at (Fram, Purolator and Wix) had the thinner pleating which I didn't care for given the oem design, even though they were a little less expensive. Who knows ...

 

[Kitto]

Originally Posted By: Roger
Actually I did check the intake tube and thought it was clean. I'm pretty sure this is the cloth-like, flannel filter. It was very thick, which is why I bought another Toyota brand filter. All the other brands I looked at (Fram, Purolator and Wix) had the thinner pleating which I didn't care for given the oem design, even though they were a little less expensive. Who knows ...

+1 for OEM Toyota filter
The filter for my 95 Camry has thicker media than Wix and Purolator.