Air filter

I almost always win money with this bet--"If you just bought a stock Zuki, I'll betcha yer air filter needs replaced."  Only one of the 5 running Zukis we've bought defied this bet.  I suspect the seller swapped out that filter to keep me from seeing things he wished I wouldn't know about.

Any used Zuki air filter can tell you a lot about an engine.  Luckily, the Zuki we just bought apparently hasn't been abused but it still needed a new air filter.  I'm guessing the last filter change was at least 20000 or more miles ago.  I like to change 'em at least once a year and, preferably twice.  If we've been driving in heavy, fine dust then I might swap out the air filter right after such a trip.  Engines need to breath clean air just like we do.

Normally, I'd pick up whatever's on the rack at Auto Zone, Checker or Wally World (AZ/C/WW).  This time around none of those three had a Zuki air filter in stock.  The Auto Zone guy even said they were no longer stock the item and it had to be ordered.  Well, I figured I could get one from NAPA.  Sure enough, I wuz right!  Surprise!  It was cheaper than they normally have been at AZ/C/WW.  The pre-tax price was $8.77.

It's an Altrom 360-3502 and it replaced a Carquest 88235.  The Korean Altrom is clearly built beefier than the USA Carquest model.  I like the metal rings on both top and bottom of the filter.  I did a little research on Altrom.  You can click here for their website.  It looks like they are based in Auburn, WA, and do biz with parts manufacturers 'round the globe.  Until today, I'd never heard of them.  You can access their Samurai parts catalog on their website.  I'm gonna do some checking into their reputation and report back what I find.

PS--If the slide show won't load, click here to see the pix one-by-one.