2.5T Engine air filter replacement interval

[JSolo]

The owners manual suggests as follows for normal duty. How often are you replacing yours?



"More often" under the severe use category. The car get a combination of both. Not driven in dusty or construction like, or off road environments. Just general city and mostly highway.

Currently a bit over 2 years old with just over 10K mi. Filter (single) has some debris but overall looks like it's good for another 10K. I have a feeling the 3 pack of filters I ordered will last me a decade! I haven't pulled the cabin air, but imagine that's relatively clean too given car is garaged. Will replace that next spring.

 

[JSolo]

I just noticed, the filters look quite a bit different than the ones I ran in my g37.

g37



stinger



Notice how much more pleated the g37 application is.

Why not stinger application?

 

[Volfy]

More pleats does not always equal better filtration. Effectiveness depends on the overall design.

That Fram filter in your pic shows that in order to pack that many pleats into a similarly sized filter area, they used a thinner paper element. Because the paper is thinner, it has to be much more densely pressed, in order to block particles down to the typical required micron size. Because that paper is denser packed, it is more restrictive per sq.in. That, in turn, is compensated by having more overall area.

The Stinger filter uses a thicker, less dense element, albeit with lesser total area.



On our 2.5T, I'm probably gonna change out to an K&N cone filter soon. I just like having over-sized filtering media, which makes for better efficiency and lower micron filtration at higher flow rates.

Cabin filters... I toss out for a new one every year, regardless of how the thing looks. I do it usually right after the Spring allergy season, when oak trees here have their annual orgy fest.