The cabin air filter scam

I looked, looked hard, high 'n' low, and I am simply unable to locate the "cabin air filter" assembly @ my '58 Willys 1/4-ton General Purpose (G.P. -- "jeep") truck. I'd best get to whippin' up a formal letter of complaint to the manufacturer, eh?
 
I changed the cabin air filter easily on my Volvo S60, but before that, on my Jaguar X-Type, I had to pull the wipers (and made a tool to do it), pull the cowling, and THEN it took a few seconds to change the filter. In all, it took hours. I'm liking the Volvo better and better...
 
Never changed a cabin filter in my life and I'm not even sure my 01 Silverado has one and my 67 Belair (not a chance). There may be one in my winter beater 91 Civic but it really don't matter much to me. :p
 
I looked, looked hard, high 'n' low, and I am simply unable to locate the "cabin air filter" assembly @ my '58 Willys 1/4-ton General Purpose (G.P. -- "jeep") truck. I'd best get to whippin' up a formal letter of complaint to the manufacturer, eh?
You might want to Google it...lol
 
Much dust, sand and leaves here so cabin air filter is pretty much required if you want to keep that stuff out of your ac evaporator. I take mine out (two of them) once a year and shop vac the debris out of them and put them back in place.

About $35 for two, takes about 10 minutes to replace both.

Murray
 
^^ maybe check first @ Amazon and/or Ebay "Motors" (they still have that crap goin' on?)?
 
Geez I didn’t know there was such a thing as a cabin air filter.

Looked in the glovebox and saw this button.
image.jpg

Had this Caravan 6 years and don’t remember ever seeing the button. I’m guessing air bag or child door locks.

I’ll have to Google it when I get home. I’d look in the owners manual but some asshat stole it the last time the van was broken into.
 
Cabin filters were introduced in cars built after 2000 per Google.

My Dad's 99 BMW had two of them, and it was from 1998 so that's slightly inaccurate - it's the first car I ever remember having cabin air filters though.

I have been doing something with filters (for most cars) which follows the shop manual for my 1986 Toyota Pickup, but might be wrong. I just blow them out with shop air, and put them back.. I only change a filter when it's greasy looking, and can't be effectively blown out.
 
The new scam at our oil change place is a free battery checks.

They test your battery with their hi-tech machine, give you a print out that shows your 650 CCA battery is in the red at 550 CCA and needs to be replaced.

I like asking the kids about their procedure, if they can explain CCA to me, then how many of these CCA's does it take to crank at -20F, can I just top off the battery with some fresh CCA's? Then I ask if they will take a fresh 650 CCA battery off of the shelf and show me the test. That usually ends the conversation.

I feel bad for the folks that trust them.
 
I vacuum my fiberglass HVAC filters and Febreze them when I graze the rugsucker thru the house, we have rescue dogs in residence.
 
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The new scam at our oil change place is a free battery checks.

They test your battery with their hi-tech machine, give you a print out that shows your 650 CCA battery is in the red at 550 CCA and needs to be replaced.

I like asking the kids about their procedure, if they can explain CCA to me, then how many of these CCA's does it take to crank at -20F, can I just top off the battery with some fresh CCA's? Then I ask if they will take a fresh 650 CCA battery off of the shelf and show me the test. That usually ends the conversation.

I feel bad for the folks that trust them.
Many batteries have little caps on top to add new CCAs when the old ones get depleted.

Not sure why they didn't want to test one of their own new batteries. :)

Murray
 
I have a 2009 Subaru Forester and the cabin filter is not a benefit on that car. What ends up happening is it creates a nice warm platform for the mice to live on. They end up all fouled up with mouse pee, poop, and nest materials. I replaced mine a few times and within a week it would be all fouled up. On that car if one isn't installed the heat/AC won't blow out the vents, it just blows somewhere behind the dash. Finally I said screw it and tore off the paper filter and plastic skeleton off a fouled up filter and use it to plug the hole in the duct so it'll blow out the vents. I keep a couple mouse traps in the car now, problem solved.
 
I make a point of replacing the cabin air filter and the intake air filters when my wife or daughters cars go for a service interval, it usually knocks quite a chunk off the bill. My daughter's first car was a 2004 Mazda 3. I took a good bunch of the dash trim and the glove box apart in order to access the cabin air filter, only to find there was not one installed. I did go ahead and install the one I had bought.
 
I watched a Youtube video on how to change the cabin filter on my RAV4 model -- it looked straightforward but tedious enough* that I might just ask my mechanic to do it sometime when it's in for something.
I know it hasn't been maintained since I've owned it (coming up on five years) and its original owner (a long-time family friend) may or may not have ever had it done. We get a lot of dust, living on a gravel road, and a lot of leaves, living in Northern New England. :)

______________
* Basically just remove glove box door, pop off a cover, pull out the filter, clean or replace, then reverse procedure... but it looked like much wigglin' and fiddlin' was required and everything is plastic and it'd be my luck to break something and then have to replace that...
 
Geez I didn’t know there was such a thing as a cabin air filter.

Looked in the glovebox and saw this button.
View attachment 1334741

Had this Caravan 6 years and don’t remember ever seeing the button. I’m guessing air bag or child door locks.

I’ll have to Google it when I get home. I’d look in the owners manual but some asshat stole it the last time the van was broken into.
I would definitely think twice about pushin' that button, were I you...

;)

b07fa410908a457a2a35a0deac663958.jpg
 
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