[_chachi]

the local oil change facility told me air filters should be changed every 12,000 miles. is that correct? seems a little quick to me.

[Own Goal Hat-Trick]

depends. if you have a crap air filter, then yeah. if youve got something (K&N being most well known) then you can just clean it every so often when it gets dirty and cruddy. i THINK those are good for about 60k or so...

[mikesterw]

if you just have a standard air filter, that seems about right, once a year (12,000-15,000 miles). you can check it yourself though, just take a light and put it behind the filter, if you can see through it then its not dirty (general rule of thumb) if you can't then change it.

You can also get a K&N as Own Goal said, those you don't throw out, you just clean them. If you do this, make sure if you go to a garage, they don't throw it out or replace it.

[FearM9]

One problem I had with a K&N filter was that since the filter element is oil based...somehow some oil particles got onto one of my sensors and fouled it up and I had to get it replaced.