What an Engine Air Filter looks like after 83k miles

[Geor99]

I had completely forgotten to change my engine air filter on my 2018 Clarity until today. It's completely toolless and took about 90 seconds from start to finish. It cost $22 at O'Reilly's.

I'd recommend doing it a lot sooner than I did, or your filter will look like mine- see attached pics

 

[insightman]

I had completely forgotten to change my engine air filter on my 2018 Clarity until today. It's completely toolless and took about 90 seconds from start to finish. It cost $22 at O'Reilly's.

I'd recommend doing it a lot sooner than I did, or your filter will look like mine- see attached pics

Don't forget your cabin air filter, too. I just paid $300 to get a rodent nest cleared from the HVAC system of my seldom-driven Clarity PHEV. I was disappointed I didn't get a photo of the residence.

 

[David Towle]

I was involved with power plant air pollution controls my whole work life. An interesting fact for those interested: The dirtier an air filter gets, the better it filters. The dirt acts as additional filter media. But of course it eventually reaches the point where it chokes the flow and that's NFG and its hard to determine where that point is without instrumentation. Some industrial filtration systems use nothing but the dirt on a metal screen as filtering media, with a system to regularly knock the material off and start over.

 

[Geor99]

I was involved with power plant air pollution controls my whole work life. An interesting fact for those interested: The dirtier an air filter gets, the better it filters. The dirt acts as additional filter media. But of course it eventually reaches the point where it chokes the flow and that's NFG and its hard to determine where that point is without instrumentation. Some industrial filtration systems use nothing but the dirt on a metal screen as filtering media, with a system to regularly knock the material off and start over.

That is interesting and makes sense. However, mine looked pretty blocked up and in need of a change. I did my wife's car as well, which was equally as clogged. I always remember the cabin filter, but I have always forgotten the engine air filter.

I would assume that with the top side looking relatively clean, it's doing a decent filtering job. The dirt pattern is also interesting with a diagonal half looking far more clogged.

And if anyone charges anything above 30 or maybe 40 dollars, definitely do it yourself. Both the engine and cabin filters take about a minute to change and don't require any tools.

 

[NorCalPete]

I had completely forgotten to change my engine air filter on my 2018 Clarity until today. It's completely toolless and took about 90 seconds from start to finish. It cost $22 at O'Reilly's.

I'd recommend doing it a lot sooner than I did, or your filter will look like mine- see attached pics

How many of those 83k miles were driven with the ICE versus EV mode? I haven't changed the engine filter on either of my Claritys, but most of their miles (65% and 86%) are EV ones.

 

[Geor99]

How many of those 83k miles were driven with the ICE versus EV mode? I haven't changed the engine filter on either of my Claritys, but most of their miles (65% and 86%) are EV ones.

I'd say it's been 65% ev and 35% gas. I would imagine that air only flows through the filter during gas usage, but I am just assuming. Either way, it was completely clogged with black soot, as shown in the pics. It looks like I was driving through a coal mine for 8 years

I'm no expert, but you should probably at least take a look at your filters and decide whether to replace them based on their appearances. They are relatively inexpensive and simple to replace.