My air filter minder has never moved, 9661 miles. My fuel milage had started to drop off so I opened the air box and the filter looked to be covered with a dark film. The owners manual says not to open the box until the minder pulls down. Does any one else have or have had a defective air filter minder?<br><br>I changed the filter and MPG seem to have come up.

 

With a little over 4,000 mile on mine the filter minder doesn't seem to have moved much or at all. I have not noticed any changes or mileage drops. I attribute this to normally not driving in dusty conditions and just figure that when the filter minder moves it moves and then I will replace. I also figure that the low mileage I have and the driving conditions in which I operate shouldn't make the filter minder move in the first place. Correct me if I'm wrong but I wouldn't worry about it.

 

Mine moved to about 35% from day one. Now I have the Scotty 3 and don't have to worry about it.

 

If your filter minder isn't moving and you are curious if your filter needs changing, the thing to remove is the filter minder itself and test it. That's a less risky maneuver than jacking with the element.<br><br>If the minder seems to work when a vacuum is applied, then temporarily replace it with a gage. Leave the element in place and see if the gage detects restriction. If it does not detect some restriction, that should raise a big, red flag--filters do not filter with no restriction at all.