Cabin filters

Roger · April 9, 2006

First time I replaced my cabin filters were in April of 2004. I thought it might be wise since I had to deal with the smoke from the “Cedar Fires” in San Diego County in October of 2003. I had 25,000 on the truck. Yes they were dirt (Paid $30 at Napa). I then figured that I could probably go 30,000 on them before changing them. A few weeks ago I was at the dealer and the advisor told me that the tech noticed that these filters were extremely dirty (I’d like to know how the tech could see them without taking the panel off in the truck). I asked the advisor how much and he told me $140. I told him that I replaced them last time and I’ll do it again. So I called the various auto parts stores and got them for $15 (Dealer parts told me $80).

So I took the filters out today. Yes they were dirty, but not as bad as last time. However, do we really want to wait until our filters are extremely dirty, so I think screw the dealer’s recommendation of every 15000 miles (Unless you got money to spend, or if it is real dirty where you live). I think around 25,000 miles is a good time (I had waited till 50,000 on my wife’s Ford Contour. That was too long. They were in dire need of replacement).

Now a question I have, is in a previous topic about these filters, someone made the comment about always washing his filters and reusing them. Never heard about doing that with these filters. Any thoughts about that? $15 bucks is $15 bucks.

02Sierra_Mark · April 9, 2006

Roger- I think I remember that post where the guy was washing and reusing the filters..to me it's only $15 bucks. If I keep my mileage down, it'll be spent every 2 1/2 years. Not worth messing with in my opinion. Plus, my guess is that the washing will degrade the filter material to the point that they no longer stop the air junk like they should. But, maybe if it's washed one or two times it won't hurt anything...

Oh yeah, too bad you didn't ask the service writer how the tech knew it was dirty w/o lookin....