Does a dirty air filter equal oil consumption?

[Virtuoso]

I call [censored] as a closed or partially closed throttle will create way more vacuum in the cylinder than a dirty air filter at WOT.

Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
70,000 miles on an air filter?!!?

Seriously?

A lot may depend on the car and driving conditions. I had a Malibu with the 2.4L Twin Cam and the air filter had 62,000 on it when I sold it. It looked roughly like the one pictured above but the restriction gauge hadn't moved it all. It was about two and a half years old.

I was going to run it to 100k and then consider replacing.

 

[Smokescreen]

Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
Originally Posted By: WobblyElvis
Very interesting......The oil consumption in my car has increased a little over the past two years and the air filter is very old. It may have as much as 70,000 miles on it. I am about to change it and I'll try to notice if the oil consumption goes down.


70,000 miles on an air filter?!!?

Seriously?

I have had more than that on mine before changing it. It could have gone A LOT longer too but it was 5 years old and I had already purchased the new filter. My car has never consumed any oil, always at the same mark of full at the next OCI. Air filter changing intervals should really be based on restriction, which by seeing the pics above was still not likely reached.

 

[WobblyElvis]

It's only been two weeks since I changed the air filter but it may have made a difference. I did my semi annual oil change today so I took the opportunity to look at the throttle body, intake manifold and air plenum[between filter and throttle plate]. There was none of the wet oily/greasy black crud on the throttle bore that I had found earlier. The intake manifold was dry as a bone without the small oil puddles that existed at the time I changed the air filter.

A bit early to draw a conclusion, but so far it looks as though a dirty air filter [72,000 miles plus] was causing my engine to consume oil. I'll check again in a couple of months.