9 year old air filter?
 

My roomie purchased an AEM dry flow oil-less air filter and I liked it enough to buy one and this is what I found in my breather. Looks date coded Feb 06 2010. If so it was pretty clean considering the age.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...d10a110b3b.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...6f7fc2a187.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...f840522df1.jpg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...058aea222a.jpg

The 1st filter, I'd say was about ready for replacement.. Original equipment.. ..

The AEM dry filters do great, easy to wash with dish soap & dry & put back in.. NO OIL needed..

That's the date of manufacture - not the install date.

I dont know the month/day this car rolled off the line, still an old filter.. Maybe from its 50k maintenance?
So far we like this aem filter. Washable with dawn and water with no oil is what sold me.

No, you don't understand - the date is date of the manufacture of the filter. It could have sat on a shelf for years and bought and installed 6 months ago.
You cannot assume it has been in since the car was new, nor it being replaced at the 50K maintenance. But who cares, it is being replaced.

That new filter sounds darned good. If Sleeper gives it a thumbs up like that, it should work out great.

We’ll need more pictures of the installation

Nice, but with a service life of 50,000 miles, the stock filter will do just fine, and I would have to go just under 200K to get my monies worth with the fancy AEM!!!

If I had 200 filters in my garage that were all bought in 2010, I could still be doing this in 20 years...

BTW, I have been here for a while. Whopper is one that knows his shirt... Please listen.

The AEM filters will outlast your car, just wash then every 50k, more often if very dusty conditions.

I've changed my air filter 4 times in the six years I have had the HHR, at a total cost of 36 dollars thus far. I would have just NOW broken even and got my monies worth out of the washable filter if I had gone that route. I'm just saying it is not worth your while unless you plan to keep the car forever. Now, it would be smart if you also plan to replace your HHR with another HHR, but it seems a lot of people aren't doing that therse days. I plan to, though.