Can I clean/reuse my Toyota filter?? (1 Viewer)

[IdahoDoug]

Picked up an air filter at the dealer today, and plan to keep the old one. Got to looking at the new one at a stop light and realized it's not paper, but a quite durable plastic material that seems like it would stand up to a rigorous cleaning quite well. So, I'm going to devise a way to clean it extremely well and am looking for advice. The objective is to bring it back to as near new filtration and airflow as possible without damaging it.

Here's a method I'm thinking of:

-Hit it with compressed air, then spray it with Simple Green, let sit for 10 minutes and immerse in a bucket of clean water, then slosh around. Repeat twice with the objective of loosening and rinsing out the very fine particles. Air dry.

What do you think and has anyone tried this?

Doug

 

[landtoy80]

If its a TRD filter you can clean it. Otherwise junk it.

 

[Junk]

If it's TRD, then junk it and use the reg paper ones. Much better for offroad.

 

[landtoy80]

The 80 don't go off road anymore, its a Wallmart cruiser now :-*
So TRD ROCKS

 

[Junk]

[quote author=landtoy80 link=board=2;threadid=6641;start=msg54072#msg54072 date=1066877077]
The 80 don't go off road anymore, its a Wallmart cruiser now :-*[/quote]

Say it ain't so. ??? No more wheeling?

 

[landtoy80]

I will wheel the TURD till I get the wife a 80 of her own.

 

[CruisinGA]

LOL thats got to be funny. Watch out for enviro junkies, they'll bitch about you leaking oil like it was the Valdez's little brother.

 

[landtoy80]

Nothing worse that a leaking TURD

 

[IdahoDoug]

Hey, you thread hijackin' maggots!!

Here's an interesting data point that Cdan may be able to shed some light on. There were significant enough differences between my new and old air filters that I took a closer look.

Old one - no P/N, marks or insignia save "HEY" stamped in white ink. Mating surfaces are soft and rubbery, filament paper is white with 124 pleats, metal mesh over the filament is fine (1/16 inch diamonds). It came in a Toyota box.

New one - P/N is 17801-66030 and has "135" stamped in white as well as the Denso logo. Mating surfaces are hard plastic, filament paper is yellow with 135 pleats, metal mesh over the filament is much larger - perhaps 1/4 inch diamonds. It also came in a Toyota box.

So, what's the scoop? I like the additional media and the yellow media seems higher grade but what's the deal with the older one?

Also, while cleaning the dust cup in the sink, I noticed water dripping out the rubber valve on the bottom like it's supposed to. Wondering how much water would drip out before the 10 year old rubber valve did not have enough pressure on it from the water and stopped, I let it sit while wiping out the filter housing. Came back and it still works like Mr. T intended. An engineer somewhere spent a lot of time picking the exact thickness and durometer of that rubber, because in 4 minutes the entire dust cup drained all the way until the bottom was simply moist! Nice.

Doug

 

[ginericLC]

Blowing out a paper filter with an air gun is a bad deal. Debris gets caught in the paper filter on its way in. When you dislodge it by pushing air back through it creates little rips in the paper filter which renders the paper filter pretty useless, as it now allows more dirt through.

 

[landtoy80]

The manual shows to blow out the filter.

 

[Landpimp]

I have no clue about the new filter. But how about putting it in the dishwasher to clean it? done this with home air filters......works very well.

John H

 

[cruiserdan]

Doug, AFIK the OEM 17801-66030 always has had hard plastic ends and the part number moulded in one end. The 17801-68020 for the 3FE is similar in construction and has the part number on it. I wonder if somebody did a box switchy on you. The 17801-60040 which is the old F engine filter is a similar size, I don't have one of those to look at right now. All three are very similar in size and could be swapped around and still fit in the housings.
The filter you describe almost sounds aftermarket :-\
D-

 

[Jim_Chow]

[quote author=IdahoDoug link=board=2;threadid=6641;start=msg54119#msg54119 date=1066879821]
[snip]
Also, while cleaning the dust cup in the sink, I noticed water dripping out the rubber valve on the bottom like it's supposed to. Wondering how much water would drip out before the 10 year old rubber valve did not have enough pressure on it from the water and stopped, I let it sit while wiping out the filter housing. Came back and it still works like Mr. T intended. An engineer somewhere spent a lot of time picking the exact thickness and durometer of that rubber, because in 4 minutes the entire dust cup drained all the way until the bottom was simply moist! Nice.

Doug
[/quote]

Probably an entire team of engineers. For those Shimano mountain bike V-brakes, Shimano had a team of NINETY engineers design them!

--Jim

 

[IdahoDoug]

JH and others:

The dishwasher suggestion is a good one. It would get gently and repeatedly sprayed with hot soapy water over a half hour or more, removing oil and dislodging even smaller particles. Wonder if there's any glue that might be damaged? Looks like the media is mechanically held in place by pinch seams, but not sure - what do you think? Also, can anyone see a possibility that the media's filtration size could be increased? For instance, is it sprayed with something after made that lightly coats the fabric and reduces hole sizes, etc which I could remove in cleaning?

I'm looking for potential issues before I try it, as it would be great to have as a fully functional spare for resuse. If I can get some of your great minds in on it, then I"ll have more confidence the cleaning was effective and the media undamaged.

Doug