Air Filter at 96K miles

Gangly · May 17, 2023

My air filter indicator finally got down to 15% so I swapped air filters. Surprisingly, the filter looked to be in really good shape and I cant help but wonder if the paper-like accordion section of the filter element lasted considerably longer than typical because of the fibrous mesh screen attached. This is the first time I have seen the fibrous mesh screen attached to a filter before, is this something relatively new or have vehicle manufacturers been using this for a while?

Steve-2019 · May 17, 2023

OMG, 96k miles (really)?

Z45 · May 18, 2023

Been like this for some time.

Mine was grungy at 25,000 miles, had lots of bugs.

OEM filter was made in Canada and truck was made in Mexico.

Edited May 18, 2023 by elcamino

diyer2 · May 18, 2023

No excuse or reasoning will justify 96k.

KARNUT · May 18, 2023

I love when people sound off on their absolutes. I can only give my experiences. My replacements oil bath filters would last the life of my vehicles. My filter in my 92 Chevy was in the entire 12 years I had it. My wife’s Acura at 22 years old has had every fluid replaced at least once at the dealer. They pull and inspect the air filter. It’s original. I never thought about it, now I will. There’s people, I’m one. That rarely see bad roads or dirty environments. My wife’s Genesis a 2011 at 125k miles has had one air and cabin filter and no alignment. You can’t paint everyone with the same brush.

Grumpy Bear · May 18, 2023

I am constantly learning new things and to do that I have to let go of some 'absolutes' as painful as that may be. Embarrassing sometimes. But I'd prefer embarrassment to failing to learn and suffering the consequences that route follows.

@Gangly mentioned his discussion was based on 'instrumentation'. To @KARNUT's point, conditions do vary. A simple milage program may be effective is absences of evidence but when you have the facts in front of you.... IMHO every filter on the powertrain should have a pressure differential instrument.

I over maintain. Mostly because the vehicle lacks proper instruments. I change that filter every 25K BUT most of the time it looks, passes the light and visual tests I could have gone longer and would have IF I had the instruments to base that decision on.

Gangly · May 18, 2023

1 hour ago, diyer2 said:

No excuse or reasoning will justify 96k.

GM's engineers found it acceptable, that would be one excuse.

diyer2 · May 18, 2023

No matter what I say there will be a rebuttal. I stand by my original post.

Gangly · May 18, 2023

14 minutes ago, Grumpy Bear said:

I am constantly learning new things and to do that I have to let go of some 'absolutes' as painful as that may be. Embarrassing sometimes. But I'd prefer embarrassment to failing to learn and suffering the consequences that route follows.

@Gangly mentioned his discussion was based on 'instrumentation'. To @KARNUT's point, conditions do vary. A simple milage program may be effective is absences of evidence but when you have the facts in front of you.... IMHO every filter on the powertrain should have a pressure differential instrument.

I over maintain. Mostly because the vehicle lacks proper instruments. I change that filter every 25K BUT most of the time it looks, passes the light and visual tests I could have gone longer and would have IF I had the instruments to base that decision on.

I agree Grumpy.

Had I not had the information presented to me on the instrument cluster I would have changed it much sooner, typically between 25k-50K. I wish I would have taken a photograph of the removed filter since it appeared to be in remarkably good shape for being 3 years old. Possibly bisecting it for analysis could have provided some insight into the wear characteristics. Seeing how 95 percent of my miles are highway miles through Texas, I can kinda understand why the filter looked as good as it did, but I followed the maintenance reminder regardless. If a majority of the trucks usage was off road, or if I lived in a "dirt road" area, I imagine the filter element would have required changing MUCH sooner.

Its interesting how the type of mileage is much more important than the number of miles regarding some components. For example, with 96k miles I still have over 50% on my front brake pads and over 70% on my rear, while other individuals on here complain of burning up pads in 20k miles.

Gangly · May 18, 2023

3 minutes ago, diyer2 said:

No matter what I say there will be a rebuttal. I stand by my original post.

I understand, I am the same way with other aspects of vehicle ownership

KARNUT · May 18, 2023

51 minutes ago, Gangly said:

I agree Grumpy.

Had I not had the information presented to me on the instrument cluster I would have changed it much sooner, typically between 25k-50K. I wish I would have taken a photograph of the removed filter since it appeared to be in remarkably good shape for being 3 years old. Possibly bisecting it for analysis could have provided some insight into the wear characteristics. Seeing how 95 percent of my miles are highway miles through Texas, I can kinda understand why the filter looked as good as it did, but I followed the maintenance reminder regardless. If a majority of the trucks usage was off road, or if I lived in a "dirt road" area, I imagine the filter element would have required changing MUCH sooner.

Its interesting how the type of mileage is much more important than the number of miles regarding some components. For example, with 96k miles I still have over 50% on my front brake pads and over 70% on my rear, while other individuals on here complain of burning up pads in 20k miles.

I drove my trucks 50-60K miles a year. My BFGs generally lasted 100K miles, brakes well over, up to my 2014 oil changes at 25k miles with Amsoil. All my trucks were modified with a minimum of duals, tunes and some intake modifications. When I went off road it was on pipelines. You can’t do much of that today. I would with today’s trucks under the same circumstances follow the same maintenance. The only difference would be oil changes and transmission service. For obvious reasons.