..what happens if the car ran for about 70 miles without an air filter, just an empty airbox. apparently, i purchased a pre-owned 528i and the guy supposedly put in a new air filter when i saw it was empty. obviously he didn't and i drove home for about 50 miles w/o the filter. what can possibly go wrong and what can i do about it? any help would be great!! here's a pic of the car btw...

Unless the car was driven almost exclusively of dirt roads behind something kicking up a lot of dust, not much (if anything) will have happened. The average highway is usually pretty clean w/respect to stuff that might get sucked into the intake.

I agree, not much. If you feel really bad about it change the oil, cleans as much of the air box as you can, and put a filter in there.

but, put a filter on it anyway. same thing happened to me, but i went to autozone and got one of the universal intake tubes and i had a spare k&n lying around, and thats what mine has on it right now until my shielded intake system gets here. oh and BTW hella nice car! *thumbsup*

thanks 535ijoe for the compliment. i love the car!! i just hope that it wont get ruined or anything. they'll fedex me the filter overnight so by tomorrow i should have it. would it be safe to use the car anyways?

I have serious doubts that anything could have gone wrong unless 48 of the miles were in the dirt and even then the dust cloud is beghind you...assuming you're driving it like it should be driven!!

try not to get any gerbils caught in the inake pipe tho... O.o

try not to get any gerbils caught in the inake pipe tho... O.o

Good call. There was cat food in my mom's Rodeo's airbox last fall...YIKES :eyecrazy

Good call. There was cat food in my mom's Rodeo's airbox last fall...YIKES :eyecrazy


atleast there wasn't a dead cat too. :split

Do you realize that we almost have the same stable of cars?

E30 M3, E34 525iT and E39 540.

You should be cool. Your MAF has a grate on it which would prevent any major crap getting through if something should happen to pop up through there which is pretty unlikely.

the dealer sent me a filter via fedex overnight. they apologized but kind of hated the fact that they lied about a 20-30 dollar item. they said they replaced the filter. tsk tsk. they probably thought i'm one of those guys who never opens the hood of there cars.....:confused

it happened once to a friend of mine once. then he went to get the parts it was close and the old filter was in trash with some chemical liquids .

so for that case he took off his socks (cotton socks) and put it there tighlty and the other day he changed the filter and there was some sand in the out part of the socks

I don't know what others suggest

Do you realize that we almost have the same stable of cars?

E30 M3, E34 525iT and E39 540.

yeah, but the E30 is also gone. sold it already so now im down to the E34it, the E39 528i and the W208 ....i sure wish i got the 540 but no regrets, i'm lovin the 528i! power for me = trouble and i am really trying hard to stay away from it...before i got this one, i drove an 02 540i and man that thing can go!! i new if i got that one it probably wont be a good idea....:evil2

yeah, but the E30 is also gone. sold it already so now im down to the E34it, the E39 528i and the W208 ....i sure wish i got the 540 but no regrets, i'm lovin the 528i! power for me = trouble and i am really trying hard to stay away from it...before i got this one, i drove an 02 540i and man that thing can go!! i new if i got that one it probably wont be a good idea....:evil2
My E30 will also be gone in a very short time. A friend wanted it and is swapping me his E34 M5 for it.

power for me = trouble

so true.. we're getting old

My E30 will also be gone in a very short time. A friend wanted it and is swapping me his E34 M5 for it.

sounds like a good deal. although i know you'll miss your M3 as soon as it leaves your garage....