I was at National Tire and Battery today (never doing that again) because I ordered some winter tires off of TireRack.com and that was the only available location. During my wait, a technician told me I needed a new air filter, and it sounded about right.

So I got myself one and struggled a bit with the phillips head, but went with a 8mm socket wrench. I lost two bolts/screws to the head of the air filter. Where can I get a replacement for these?

And I also, upon removing the old filter, saw this little blue thing in there that looked almost like a tophat. Rubbery/silicone in nature. Had no idea what it was. It was in there with a couple tiny twigs. I'm guessing something got in that shouldn't have???

'07 Accord 4dr SE V6

 

Picture? Was it just loose rattling around the bottom of the airfilter housing along with the twigs? I bet it's just random junk off the road. Like maybe the little plastic plugs they put into pipe fittings at the plumbing store.

Your air filter did good by NOT letting it into the engine.