When it comes to car maintenance, the cabin air filter is perhaps the most commonly overlooked component in the car, and many people have little understanding of it. Every car contains a number of crucial components that must all be in good working order for the vehicle to be safe and pleasant for all users.
A cabin air filter stops leaves and other dust from entering the system and becoming stuck in the blower motor. If you once had an old car without a cabin air filter, you might have noticed the weird noises it used to make inside your car.
Well, in this article, the answers to the following questions will be discussed:
- What is a cabin air filter?
- Why do you need to change your cabin air filter?
- What are some symptoms of a bad or failing cabin air filter?
- Where is the cabin air filter located in the vehicle?
- What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of a cabin air filter?
- How much do cabin filters cost?
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Ok, let’s get to it.
Contents
What is a cabin air filter?
A small pleated filter with multiple fibers of paper, cotton, or some other engineered material serves as the cabin air filter. As you breathe outside air inside the car, the cabin air filter filters out harmful pollutants like dust and grime.
Additionally, it keeps dust and other debris from clogging the blower motor. Air is drawn into your car from the outside and directed straight towards you inside. As you may imagine, there are a lot of harmful dust and particles on the roadways, which is why we need a filter to remove them.
Why do you need to change your cabin air filter?
If the cabin filter is not changed, you may have manifestations such as a bad smell, poor airflow through the vents, inside windows that are foggy or icy, allergies, or whistling sounds from the air vents.
Whatever bad smell that is in your car’s interior has a good chance of remaining there, which might lower its value and even affect the air conditioner’s internal components if the cabin air filter is not changed. It is therefore always advised to maintain a clean and up-to-date cabin air filter.
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What are some symptoms of a bad or failing cabin air filter?
If your car’s cabin air filter has never been changed before and it’s getting bad, you might experience one or more of these symptoms:
- Poor air flow through the vents.
- Foggy or icy windows.
- Unpleasant smell.
- Allergy symptoms.
- Increased noise levels of the fan.
Poor air flow through the vents
The next thing you might notice is a recent decrease in the efficiency of the airflow through the vents. All of the air entering the car is filtered by the cabin air filter, which is why this occurs. Less air will flow through the filter if it has been in use for a long time and becomes clogged. This will result in a decrease in airflow, and it might even stop blowing completely!
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Foggy or icy windows
We also need to be aware that our cabin air filter will eventually develop mold inside due to water condensing in it. The filter may collect water more frequently as a result, and the water condensation will therefore be blown into the car’s interior.
As a result, the cabin’s humidity level will rise significantly, which could result in interior windows that are foggy or even icy if you reside in a cold country. It’s time to check the cabin air filter if you’ve noticed much more frosty or foggy windows recently than you did previously.
Unpleasant smell
If your cabin air filter is clogged or overused, the interior of your car will smell awful. The car will collect all the dust that gets lodged in the filter when it is filtering the air from the outside, which will eventually produce an unpleasant smell.
Allergy symptoms
If you have a bad or overused cabin air filter, you may notice that your allergies are getting worse while driving if you are sensitive to certain particles or may even be allergic to them.
As we previously discussed, the cabin air filter will trap any dust and particles from the outside air. They can enter the car and create allergy symptoms even though they are on the other side of the filter.
Read more: Understanding an Air Conditioning System
Increased noise levels of the fan
Your car’s AC system should basically make a gentle noise as air escapes the vents when it is turned on. Your air cabin filter and AC system are in good shape if the fan makes a soft, healthy noise. However, if the fan’s noise level starts to rise, the filter is likely to start failing.
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In addition to making it harder for the air to enter and be effectively filtered, big particles that enter the air cabin filter also create a lot of noise as the air passes through. As a result, you would always hear a loud noise when turning on the fan in your car.
Furthermore, when air is trying to flow through the cabin air filter but is being severely hampered by a clogged or failed filter, it will make weird noises. It can make a whistling or screeching noise.
Where is the cabin air filter located in the vehicle?
In most cars, the cabin air filter is located either behind the glove box or behind a cover that may be accessed from the engine bay through the front windshield. Look in the area of the blower motor if you know where it is!
The filter is typically installed behind the glove compartment in many Asian cars, and in certain situations, the glove compartment has to be removed in order to replace the cabin filter. In European cars, it is frequently hidden behind a cover behind the front windshield from the engine bay.
To locate the filter in many car models, you’ll need to remove the glove box. On a piece of paper that comes with the filter, many manufacturers of cabin air filters will provide you with instructions on how to replace the cabin air filter for your particular automobile model.
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What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of a cabin air filter?
Below are the advantages and disadvantages of the cabin air filter.
Advantages of a cabin air filter
- The cabin air filter helps to purify the outside air coming into the car’s interior.
- Most bacteria can be removed.
- Allergens like pollen, mold, dust, and dust mites can be removed with the help of the cabin air filter.
Disadvantages of the cabin air filter
- The cabin air filter cannot prevent bad odors from getting into the car’s interior.
- There may be larger populations of microorganisms since the filter might capture organisms that can breed or reproduce.
How much does the cabin air filter cost?
Changing the cabin air filter often only requires a few hours of labor, and it can usually be completed in under 30 minutes. The cost to change a cabin air filter depends on the model of the car and the labor costs, and it ranges from $40 to $100 on average.
Additionally, if you go for a charcoal filter or a regular one, a cabin air filter can range in price from $20 to $50. If you decide to purchase a charcoal cabin air filter instead of a standard one, the cost may vary slightly. People with allergies would benefit more from charcoal filters because they filter the air more thoroughly.
Click here to purchase a new cabin air filter for your car.
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FAQs
What happens if you don’t change the cabin air filter?
If you don’t change your cabin air filter, it will gather more dirt and debris, reducing its effectiveness and that of your car’s HVAC system. The volume of air reaching your passenger cabin will gradually decrease, which may cause a problem with unpleasant smells within your car.
How often should you change your cabin air filter?
However, in general, most cabin air filters should be changed every 15,000 to 30,000 miles. Additional symptoms include any of the following: airflow reduction when climate control systems are activated. strong, unpleasant smells.
Does a cabin air filter affect the AC?
Your cabin filter can have an impact on your air conditioning system, and the AC can have a significant impact on the overall power of the car. You might need to increase the AC if your filter is clogged.
Does the cabin filter affect gas mileage?
Your fuel efficiency may be impacted by a clogged filter since your engine is forced to produce more energy than it should. It’s recommended that you change your cabin air filter every 12,000 to 15,000 miles, but it’s a good idea to check your owner’s manual first.
Can you wash a cabin air filter?
There are cloth, carbon, and paper cabin air filters. Never clean paper filters; always replace them. Some cloth and carbon filters can withstand washing and are reusable. Apply water with a hose set to low pressure, sweeping from top to bottom, from the clean side to the dirty side.
How much do cabin filters cost?
Depending on your car, the price of a cabin air filter might range from $30 to $70.
What happens if the cabin air filter is dirty?
The blower motor of the air system, which forces air through the car’s vents, may partially or totally malfunction as a result of a cabin air filter clogged with dirt.
What is the difference between a cabin air filter and an engine air filter?
The air that flows through the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems is filtered by a cabin air filter. An engine air filter prevents debris like sand, dirt, and dust from entering the engine.
Which is more important, the air filter or the cabin air filter?
Cabin air filters can get smelly, dirty, and clogged more easily than engine air filters because they filter much smaller particles. Thus, you undoubtedly need a cabin air filter if you’ve noticed a new bad odor in your car or decreased heating and cooling effectiveness.
Should I change my air filter every time I change my oil?
The simplest rule of thumb is to just change the filter whenever you change the oil. This is another critical action to take to safeguard your engine and avoid potential maintenance troubles in the future.
Does the air filter get changed with an oil change?
Typically, you should change your air filter along with your oil. The majority of current engines, along with synthetic gasoline and oil, are made to do their job efficiently, thus the standard service replacement schedule of 5,000 kilometers or every five months might occasionally be extended.
That is all for this article, where the answers to the following questions have been discussed:
- What is a cabin air filter?
- Why do you need to change your cabin air filter?
- What are some symptoms of a bad or failing car cabin air filter?
- Where is the cabin air filter located in the vehicle?
- What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of a cabin air filter?
- How much do cabin filters cost?
I hope you learn a lot from reading this article. If you do, kindly share it with others. Thanks for reading, see you around!
