Here's What Your Cabin & Air Filters Look Like (Likely)

i would have said the oem cabin filter is charcoal, but looking at the air filter, i would recommend that you start wearing a dust mask 24/7. my filters never need changing.

 

Yeah, the OEM cabin filter appearance is deceptive. Ours has looked kinda black from the get go. Due to embedded charcoal? And our engine filter still looks pretty much brand new. Haven't changed either yet, around 56000 km.

Could be cus we're on the west coast, all those VW diesels are downwind of us.

Well, except the ones in China.

 

if you buy a new charcoal filter, it's easy to see, but detecting when they are dirty is a problem.

 

You will find the Prius crowd very anti-preventative maintenance as whole. You know what to do WhiteShadow.

 

I order my filters on e bay in lots of 4 from china (they are all made in china no matter whos name is on them) that covers me for the year
cabin filters are 6 bucks
air filters are 9 bucks
oil filters are 3 bucks
free shipping.

 

I'm very "on it". Just checked recently: both look very clean, the engine filter in particular looks brand new. The cabin filter I cannot get too excited about; still, it's very clean too, and I just reverse blow some air through it.

Filter life seems to depend a lot on location, that's all I can think.

 

no, i'm saying my filters are very clean, even on my previous prii, and my wifes hycams. a few pine needles in the cabin filter or some such that can be tapped out. yours definitely need to be changed.

sure, it might be regional, but i would be concerned to live where i'm breathing air like that. not sure why frodoz would change a clean filter, could there be something that can't be seen with the naked eye?

 

Maybe, just maybe, time to change a filter depends not on color or location or mileage, but on whether it's clogged enough to significantly impede flow, or likely to be soon.

 

Now now...you're twisting my words Bisco.

 

if you google "where are Toyota oil filters made you will see they are made in Twain.They are made by Denso in Thailand that are rebranded for Toyota".

I never said the items I order are marked Toyota,they are not and I have never had a problem with them and at 50% off or more ill keep using them.as far as cutting open filters that will not happen, yes I have seen the you tube videos where they do it and there is a difference but not enough for me to spend an extra 8 bucks per oil filter

 

The air quality where you live must be HORRIBLE.

I do my cabin filter at the recommended change intervals. It goes in white and comes out a very light gray. I'd almost question the need to change it at all.

I get my parts on Amazon.

 

How or why do you cut a cartridge oil filter in half? This is the 3rd gen part of the forum. We use cartridge oil filters! You can see the construction without cutting.
Ditto for the air filters. But you already knew that. The activated charcoal cabin air filter is always blackish. You can't tell if it needs changing by looking at it. The only way to tell would be to use a manometer across it when it was filtering fan driven air. Nobody does that. So I guess your method of replacing it by time is the correct one.

A side note - our cartridge oil filter was developed not to impede self oil changing, but to reduce toxic garbage. I wondered what part of the used cartridge oil filter would be left after burning (presumably in a proper furnace that produces power from the energy released). So I set fire to one. There was nothing left, and no toxic fumes were released (no plastics).

Oh, and if this is a poll, I use the "genuine Toyota" filters from the dealer parts department. They come in a pretty red box splashed with the Toyota label all over it.

 

^ Happened to tune in CBC radio one time when they were talking to an oil recycler. What they do with used oil filters, and "empty" motor oil bottles, is recover the oil, using shredding, steam and centrifuges.

One tip the guy had: take the time to do a second pour of your oil bottles. When dealerships and third-party oil changers use bottles, they're rushing, tend to leave an ounce or two in the bottom of each bottle.

 

sorry, not my intent. but i do think checking filters is preventative maintenance. it's not necessary to change them unless they are sufficiently clogged, and cannot be cleaned.

 

^ I'd especially agree with that, for the cabin filter, clean away.

For the engine filter, not so much. But it's really moot: ours looks brand new at 56000 kms. I believe it's overdue for changing if you look at the schedule, but I'm fine with it.

 

I see the OP is in Folsom, CA not too far from where I am in Roseville. It could be from the big fires we've had in the last year. King last year, Valley, Butte, among the other small ones. I am going to look at mine now actually and see what it looks like.

 

I think most are averse to paying the dealer to do unnecessary work and to changing things more often that needed. A good example is the filter in the 1st photo. I could be wrong, but the photo seems to be saying the filter needed changed based solely on the color and we all know that is not the case with charcoal filters. That said, given the appearance of the engine filter in the 2nd photo, I would have changed both filters because it appears the air is either really dirty in the Folsom area (fires?) or the filters haven't been changed in a long time. However, recommended change intervals are just that, recommendations, and they are 1 size fits all without any consideration given to locale. If I lived in the LA area, I'd check/change my filters more often simply because of the smog. But, like Mendel, mine look new after 35,000 miles, partly because most of those miles have been cross-country highway miles and not smog-clogged city miles. To be sure, clean is better than dirty, but just because something is discolored doesn't mean it isn't functional. People buy cheap filters that don't have near the filtering capability of others and they think they are doing good preventive maintenance. Unless they've compared particle trapping specs, they might actually be doing more harm than good even if they change them twice as often.