hey guys,

yesterday I went out to clean out the smog sensor on my car and decided to take a look at the air filter while I was there. I took the top cover off and cleaned out the air filter box. There was a lot of debris as well as a couple of leaves in there! (that CAN"T be good for efficiency) Anyway, upon closer inspection to the filter itself, I noticed a lot of debris in the pleats and the side closest to the air snorkel was very gray. I decided to "service" the filter and I I used my detailing attatchments and vacuumed out all the junk from the filter and the gray discoloring was greatly reduced.

Now I was surprised at the amount of debris that was in the filter from a CPO vehicle. I have the car going on 8 months, This is technically an 8 month old filter- I would hope, as my AC filter was brand spanking new at delivery. I have barely put 5k on the car since I got it. It leads to ask the question, how often do you need to replace the air filter? I would almost say that this filter can't only have 5k on it. It was just too dirty for me to believe that. Who knows Maybe I'm wrong.

One more thing- I noticed that the snorkel on my car does not have a rubber nipple for the metal tie squeeze to to latch on to to make sure it is oriented correctly. Did I break mine off or do these cars just not have one? I simply made sure the tightening bolt was nice and upright. Can someone confirm on their car? I'm a little wierded out by that. LOL.

 

I change the engine air filter once a year, or every 15 k, but I service and clean the filter and filter box to get sand and other debris out at least a couple of times a year. I take the filter box and all air inlet plastic apparatus including the plastic box mounted on top of the radiator and completely remove, wash and clean, dry and reinstall. Only takes a few minutes and it insures I have a clean air intake system.

 

Thanks for your reply! Do you recall if your rubber snorkel have a retainer nipple for the metal clamp?

 

air filters should be inspected every oil change. general rule of thumb is that if you put it up and look through it you should be able to see light. other than that.. yep 15k or about a year

 

Lust4Lexus - sorry but I am not sure what exactly what part you are referring to - I am not sure what the rubber snorkel is, or what a retainer nipple

 

Jabberwock,

the rubber snorkel I am referring to is the accordian rubber hose intake that joins the air box to the throttle body. In order to secure the hose to the air box, their is a silver ring clamp that you tighten via screw/bolt. As you tighten it, it squeezes the hose to the fitting. On other cars that I have worked on, there is a small nipple on the hose that you place the metal ring on, ensuring that you have the metal ring secured in the proper orientation. You will notice the circle cut out on the clamping ring. On my LS, I noticed that there is no such nipple on the hose, and you just have to place it properly yourself.

Me, being the OCD type, was worried that I had broken it off, or worse found its way into the intake, (yes- silly thoughts, but I love my LS and am a little psycho with it) I was extremely gentle durring the process so I can't imagine I broke something.

As you were typing your response I went back out to the car to do a final inspection. As it turns out, there is no such nipple on the hose. There never was one... on my car at least. I feel kinda silly and embarrassed now. Oh well.

 

yep - there is no nipple on the air intake hose that attaches to the throttle body that I can see. I just just positioned the hose clamp approximately in the middle of the attachment sleeve area.

 

You only get new filters on a CPO vehicle if it's near the 30K/60K mile mark and the dealer has the service done. My dealer will usually have the 30K service done on CPO's that have over 25K mi. My CPO had 21K mi...AC filter was very dirty, and the engine air filter was likely the original since the service manual doesn't say to change it until 30K mi. In reality, you change it when you need to. Vacuuming gets the surface clean only, but the FSM tells you if you must reuse it, blow it out from the backside w/ compressed air. Here in AZ, the air is dusty if the wind blows strongly out of the south or west, so I change my filter at least once a year.