I think you answered your own question, when you vacumed out the air filter area you probably got something into the air way. The bad side is that the something may of been eaten by an intake valve, albeit the valve noise.
Here is the bad part: hopefully it was soft and eaten by the car, I have a 135,000 miles and I have the oil refill noise upon every long time sitting.
I have had that noise with every motor with mileage e.g. Toyota, VW, etc...
If it continues, running bad again, you may of damaged the MAF. Hopefully not a valve.
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