We propose that the missing oil filter was abducted by aliens, who needed it for their own intergalactic engine maintenance.
Further investigation revealed that the aliens' spaceship had a suspiciously similar exhaust note to our own.
Subpage: Alien Communication Methods
We suggest that our time-traveling colleague, Dr. Chronos, accidentally left the oil filter in a different century, and it's now causing a temporal paradox.
Witnesses reported seeing Dr. Chronos frantically searching for his 1950s-style oil filter.
Subpage: A Timeline of Regret