Why you should check your air filter before it's due
 

I have been reading up on intakes and mods to the stock intake (SHG_Mike :wavey:) and I thought I'd go out to my car and have a look at all the stock stuff. So I popped the hood, popped the clips, and lo and behold...

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-7.../s640/both.jpg

My best guess is that some furry little forest critter had attempted to take up residence in my air filter box. That, or they were using it as a restaurant.

What really flipped me out was that all the little "helicopter" seed thingies were jammed up in the filter. The blue-green part with all the junk in it actually faces downwards when it is in the car, so I guess there must be quite a swirl effect inside the box and it caused them to fly around and get caught in the filter.

I wound up having to remove the whole assembly and beat on it for a few minutes to get all the seeds and whatnot out.

Yes I got a new filter! :)

Here are a couple of closeups:

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-x...0/IMG_0991.JPG

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-O...640/filter.jpg

It's amazing just how many little monkies manage to get into those filters. I just changed the cabin filter on my wifes Vibe and it looked like a small forest in there.

Geez, how many miles are you rocking? That's a lot of leaves! I changed my filter to a K&N at about 5,000 and the stock filter was pretty clean. I have 16K now, so I'm not sure how it looks.

Also, it's weird that your filter color is green. Mine was white.

holy crap guy!

I thought mine was bad, when I still had the stock box I found a bunch of bees in it once!
(right after I got hit on the forehead by a bee@50mph driving)

hmm, if i remember correctly, the OEM filter was white on one side and green on the other.

the OEM filter is blue on one side and green on the other

lol.. what an experience you have.. too many squirrels?

Wow, that's one seedy filter :)

Interesting that the OEM filter is green/white - ours is yellow/white.

Yep it's blue-green on the dirty side and white on the clean side; the new one was the same way.

We have a lot of little furries around here; given the sizes involved I'm leaning more towards chimpmunks than squirrels.

I forgot to mention that I also fashioned a little "intake fence" out of 1/4" by 1/4" galvanized steel mesh and popped it into the rubber hose that feeds cold air into the intake box. Hopefully that will deter the rodents...

Wow, I'll tell hubby to check my filter TODAY!! Thanks man. :wavey:

so thats where drug dealers hide their drugs.

That is wild! I can't believe you had all those in your filter. I am going out to check mine this evening thanks to your post. We have those trees all over our neighborhood and they always jam up my gutters and have to be
cleaned out. Your car has got to be breathing better now!

Cat :x

Checked mine the other day and it's perfectly clean, maybe they exchanged it when I had the oil changed a few weeks back.

Im not actually intending to revive this thread up but just after the long weekend i had in Ohio, i'd in my mind that i would check the air filter as the thread requires to every driver but i was disappointed when some portion were loaded with dust and insects. Im just wondering what would be the best replacement air filter i must have. You know, im not that resourceful enough to know exactly what brand is ideal on fit.

You are just lucky, we have raccoons here that decide to rip out the whole filter and replace it with soda boxes. Ive contacted Honda about this but they never sent me a new filter.

Image links fixed, I think.

Have you contacted the raccoons about a replacement? :p

No, Honda finally sent me a new filter along with a 3 page apology letter.