Qs Laptop
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2018
- Messages
- 3,594
Here's what mine looked like after 3 years. Like others here, I did not know I had a cabin air filter.
Yes, I park outside.
View attachment 42898
One of the things I used to hate is when they had some gullible customer, often a woman, in the waiting room with me. They'd come out in the lab coat carrying a clipboard, with a serious look on their face. They'd try to up-sell the poor lady all kinds of things she didn't really understand. It was hard to keep quiet during this assault. I think more than once I didn't succeed.
While sitting in a dealership waiting room I've seen a tech come out of the back with a dirty filter in his hands. He showed it to the customer and recommended they change the filter. Cynical me wonders if they just have a dirty filter sitting around that they can show their customers so they upcharge them.
Of course the Elephant in the Room that no one seems to notice is "Why not just throw out the darn filter, so you won't ever have to change it again?' If the duct work needs the structure of the filter for some reason, just cut out the paper part, and reinsert the structure. How ever did we survive before cabin air filters? It's not filtering out any of the toxic gases you encounter on the road, anyway. Just dust. Yeah, maybe some of the dust has contaminants on it, but really. Mine is a bear to change. Looks effortless on Youtube, but I have to grab it with a vice grips and Charles Atlas the thing out. YMMV.
CARS.COM — The cabin air filter, a feature found on most late-model vehicles, cleans the air that comes into the interior through the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system. It catches dust, pollen and other airborne material that can make riding in a car unpleasant, particularly if you have allergies or other respiratory problems.
As I was reading this thread, I thought some cheaters would just claim to have changed it to "make" extra profit... I wonder how many customers they have forgotten to actually change ?
Older cars like DW's doesn't even have an air filter for the cabin. I like that my van does.
I'd guess it is more to keep the dust and leaves (and cat hair!) from clogging the A/C and heater fins.
But you are right, I've owned cars with AC (and they all had heat!) that didn't have cabin filters, and I don't recall any problems. Maybe those are made smaller nowadays, and more susceptible to clogging? I don't know.
OK, I found several sources with something like this:
OK, but I don't have a filter on when I go for a walk, and bike riders don't wear one. So why do we need it in a car?
-ERD50
I replaced our stock of cabin, engine and house AC filters the other day on a $100+ Amazon order. I looked up the ratio of when to change cabin vs engine to determine if I should buy more or less of one or the other. The maintenance schedule had cabin getting changed more often, so I bought 2 cabins to each engine. Now they'll sit on the shelf, I'll forget I have them, and pay the quickie oil change place way too much to do 2 minutes labor with a $10 partI usually change both the cabin air filter and the engine air filter at the same time.... usually every 12 to 18 months. About $25-30 from Amazon as I recall.
Careful, you could start a trend as the furnace filter would be next on the list. Why filter the air in the house, when the next day I open the windows for a breeze
I know you put in the 'winkie' emoji, but just so no one gets the wrong idea, the furnace filter is there to protect the motor/fan from collecting junk, or having a large piece get in there and create damage. Filtering the air for humans is secondary - I just use the cheap filters, but some people I guess get relief from allergies by using the highly rated ones.
And I'm definitely *not* suggesting that people run their cars w/o the filter. If it is designed to have one, you should check it and replace/clean as needed. I was just wondering (as was John Galt II), why these are on recent cars, but were not on the older ones.
Is it a bit of a scam to generate a regular income stream for the dealers? Did customers ask for them?Do they help keep the AC and heater cores clear, and if so, why wasn't this a problem in the past?
I am curious, but haven't found much info on this.
FYI: When I visited DD at her new house, I noticed the furnace fan was vibrating noticeably, I told her to have it looked at, that is not good. They did have a warranty from the previous owners, and a guy came out and cleaned the fan (apparently had picked up a lot of drywall dust, probably from when the basement was finished?), and that did the trick. That drywall dust is so fine, I guess it goes through a standard filter (or the previous owners ran w/o a filter for a time?).
-ERD50
These are the same questions I ask about refrigerator filters. We all got along fine without them for years - now suddenly my fridge nags me every 6 months to buy a $25-50 replacement filter. I know some people have disconnected theirs.
One of the car's filters was pretty bad and the other was not too bad but still needed changing. Probably should have done it sooner.
Of course the Elephant in the Room that no one seems to notice is "Why not just throw out the darn filter, so you won't ever have to change it again?' If the duct work needs the structure of the filter for some reason, just cut out the paper part, and reinsert the structure. How ever did we survive before cabin air filters? It's not filtering out any of the toxic gases you encounter on the road, anyway. Just dust. Yeah, maybe some of the dust has contaminants on it, but really. Mine is a bear to change. Looks effortless on Youtube, but I have to grab it with a vice grips and Charles Atlas the thing out. YMMV.
If you lived in Flint MI, you would appreciate having a high quality fridge filter to have filtered out the lead, who wants heavy ice cubes
After learning about Flint, and how officials didn't do the right thing, and here in Chicago where they shut off some drinking fountains due to high lead.
https://abc7chicago.com/news/drinking-fountains-reactivated-as-city-addresses-lead-in-water/2077645/#:~:text=But%20hundreds%20of%20the%20Chicago%20Park%20District%20drinking,ran%20continuously%20from%20the%20fountains%20for%20a%20month.
Lots of lead pipes in Chicago are planned to be replaced over the next 600 years.
I'm glad to filter my water, as I can't trust officials even when I don't see why they would make such bad choices.
Did that with the engine air filter once. Changed it 2 days or so before getting an oil change. The shop recommended I get a new air filter as that one looks pretty dirty.Or how many recommend swapping the filter regardless if it needs changing?
I’d recommend putting a new one in right before going for an oil change and see what they say.