How often do you gents usually change your air filter? I just told the dealer to change mine, not sure if it had ever been changed before...or not sure of the last time it had been changed I should say...

 

When the filter minder starts moving. Mine started to move at about 50K miles, and I live on a dirt road.

 

yeah, you have a vaccum gauge on the back of the air filter to determine when its stuffed full..

 

Do it sooner than stated above and you might as well use that money to light a cigar. Same results.

 

Changing the OEM air filter early can give you cancer? They need to mention this in the owner's manual.

 

I first changed mine at 30,000 miles out of love.
I then changed it at 70,000 miles(40,000).

Both times the gauge has not moved.

-----------In order for the gauge to be accurate, you must do 1 or some WOT runs.
-----------The gauge measures the full capacity/capability of the air filter, not partial.

 

Changed mine at about 95k only because I had it out for other maintenance. I could have probably gone another 30k before it really needed changing. As stated, go by the filter minder. That's why it's there.

 

The service rep at Ford agreed with this, he says he has never really seen one of the gauges work right...they always go on the visual.

Either way, whether it needed changing or not, I know there is a new one in there now!

 

I think Steve is saying the gauge works - under the proper test conditions. The gauge will not reset by itself, so ANY WOT will register the maximum vacuum - and remain in the position to see the relative amount of vacuum pulled.

I have see a lot of Ford literature and MANY, MANY posts on this. The filter minder is simple, and it works - as long as you keep hot coolant off of it!

 

That service rep is selling air filters. So he has an opinion.
You will be good for a long time

 

Yep. A filter will look 'dirty' very soon after being put into use, but that in no way suggests that it is restricting air flow at all. However, anybody who sells air filters will show you how it's dirty and needs replacing.