What is it?
A cabin air filter is made to prevent outside allergens and dust from entering your ride’s air vents. While similar, this is not the same as the air intake filter, which is used to filter the air going into the engine and keeps out bugs, water, road grime, pollen, dirt and everything else that blows into your vehicle’s grill. The cabin air filter is often located behind the glovebox and cleans the air as it moves through the vehicle’s HVAC system.
What does it do?
Air filters remove particles like dust, hair, pet fur, and dirt and other harmful pollutants. Air filters act as a sieves to capture particles as air flows through it. Particles that are larger than the holes in the sieve get caught in the filter or on the surface of the filter preventing exhaust into the clean airstream.
Typical Wear and Tear
Air filters degrade over time as air moves through them; the move air that passes through or the worse the quality of air, the faster an air filter will need to be replaced. Typical factors that would include;
- Mileage
- Driving habits
- Driving and road conditions
- Air quality
- Vehicle type
Symptoms
- Unpleasant odor
- Decreased airflow
- Visible debris entering the cabin
- Less effective heating/cooling/defrosting/defogging
- Increased blower motor noise
