I keep my is300 out on the driveway so that Anne's car (the Matrix M-Theory) and my Celica alltrac can live in the garage.
Of course, small furry rodents have repeatedly decided to chew holes in the air filter of the car because of this (I suppose they are attracted to the warmth and relative shelter).
I've gone through a couple of attempts to fix the problem:
1. Buy a new filter, replace the one with holes, and ignore it (hoping that it would stop). It didn't. I got sick of replacing the filter every time I got an oil change (or every time I would check it and notice it had holes). I also don't really like the idea of driving around with a filter full of holes.
2. Go to AutoZone and look for a lifetime/washable/performance filter. This involves operating on the assumption that the fibers would be less attractive to a rodent than the paper in a normal filter. This theory was never tested, however, as AutoZone did not appear to have any filters available for the car except for a standard replacement one.
3. Which leads me to the eventual solution. Why not change the environment in the engine bay so that the filter is no longer in a cozy dark plastic box?
For not too much more than I had been spending on OEM-style filters, I get a lifetime K&N filter and a little more horsepower.
