Do you really need the cabin filter ?

Personally, I'd rather have fresh air in the cabin. I'm more concerned about my health than a fan's health.

 

you can get a fram for 10 bucks. i would not want all the junk that was on my filter, in my car. $20,000.+ investment, seems like a funny place to save a few bucks. if you do make your own, make sure it is airtight with a rubber seal around the edge. good luck!

 

If ride my bike on the side of the road on a hot and dry day... and a truck passes me...: I hold by breath for a little bit not to bite the dust.
It's simply luxury to have the cabin filter in your car: choose it or loose it. It's up to you.

 

This is a great response. Not using a filter is a bad idea, for your cars maintenance.

 

That must be one cheaply made blower motor.

 

I do understand that there are also fans/ cooling needed for the traction battery. so if we ignore that. I'd have to say most cars produced today don't have cabin filters in them so i don't think it's a big deal.

 

Having grown up along a very dusty gravel road, I purposely avoid recirc mode unless following in the dust trail of someone else.

When I was a kid, mom normally kept the climate control turned off, because the 'draft' annoyed her. That caused the air passing the slight upper door and window seal gaps to create a very slight vacuum inside the car. That in turn caused makeup air to infiltrate through other seal gaps in the lower door frame. Unfortunately, that makeup air was heavily loaded with dust kicked up by our own car, and it was far worse for us kids in back than for the adults up front. When sunlight struck the dust streams just right, it was quite artful watching it flow in through the weatherstrip gaps. But I hated it.

I prefer to create a slightly positive pressure inside the cabin, fed by the cleaner air from the climate intake up front, and keeping down that dust infiltration.

Throughout the 1980s, the local paper was typically reporting at least one carbon monoxide fatality per year in automobiles, typically children sleeping in the back seat. I'm sure that CO entered through the same paths as the gravel dust I watched so many times.

I'm keeping that cabin air filter installed.

 

I did the same on both filters.

 

i just use toilet paper, works perfectly.

 

Old thread, but appropriate for soon-to-be Spring cleaning. I practice the "false" economy of cleaning the HVAC filter at least twice before replacement. Spray it down with 409, agitate carefully between pleats with a small paint brush, rinse and dry and you're good to go. I keep my filter in to avoid the build up of funk on the evaporator coil which, with it's very thin wall aluminum construction, could cause it to fail. Keeps the system fresh-smelling also. Speaking of which, I'm due for an E-box flush which I haven't done before. Going to try the Kool-It product.

 

Used?

 

Oh gedoutahere, lol.

 

I just cleaned my cabin filter this afternoon. I have a high quality, cleanable cabin filter. It was my first cleaning after ~23k miles. It was cleaner than I thought, but definitely had some dirt clumps inside. Cabin filters are a must in a dusty desert climate.

 

I just replaced my cabin filter at 60,000 miles. Comparing to the new filter, it was surprising how much dirt it had picked up.