Amend Automobile Heating and Cooling by Replacing Your Car Cabin Air Filter

Ameliorate your machine's cooling and heating and save $lxx!

Introduction

Save big money when yous alter a motel air filter yourself. It'southward quick, easy and a screwdriver is the just tool you need. Don't have a motel air filter? This article includes a tip on how to keep your car air clean without i.

Tools Required

Materials Required

  • Cabin filter or air purifier

Proceed the air in your auto clean: How to change motel air filter

Dirty Filter

Family Handyman

Road debris, leaves, grit and pollen all clog a car cabin air filter.

Project step-by-stride (4)

Step three

In with the new

Slide the filter tray back into place and reassemble the glove box.

What does a cabin air filter do? It cleans the air inside your auto. Virtually half of all newer cars are equipped with a cabin air filter. If your car has ane (check your possessor's transmission), yous're supposed to change it every 12,000 to fifteen,000 miles, or one time a year. But if you're like well-nigh drivers, you're still driving with the original filter and it'due south likely clogged. It'due south not just a condolement issue. Only equally a clogged furnace filter reduces the furnace's efficiency, a clogged cabin air filter reduces the efficiency of the heating and cooling organisation for the auto interior.

A clogged cabin air filter can as well crusade major window fogging problems and contribute to lower gas mileage. And because of the sluggish airflow, eventually you'll accept to replace a burned-out blower motor for $150 or more than.

The expert news is that cabin air filter replacement is a do-information technology-yourself project. A local service eye quoted the states $95 for the filter and labor on a 2003 Toyota Camry. We saved $lxx by doing the chore ourselves. The filter cost only $25 at the dealer, and the job took less than 30 minutes. In nearly cases, you'll only need a Phillips screwdriver. You lot tin can ordinarily find replacement instructions in the possessor's manual.

Our Camry's air filter setup is shown. But locations vary depending on the make and model of your car. In fact, some luxury cars are equipped with every bit many as three unlike types of filters: one for fresh air, a second for recirculated air and a third made of activated charcoal to remove odors. It's all-time to supervene upon all three filters at the same time.

If your manual doesn't show how to observe and supercede the filter, ask the dealer parts department for instructions. Many new cabin air filters take an instruction sheet—or the instructions may be on the manufacturer's Web site.

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Stride 4

No Cabin Filter? Add an Air Purifier

If your car isn't equipped with a cabin air filter, yous're non out of luck—y'all can still add together an ion purifier. Ion purifiers generate billions of negatively charged ions that attach to viruses, leaner, dust and pollen. The particles are and then attracted to positively charged surfaces like your plastic dashboard. Once they settle, it's just a affair of using a spray cleaner on all the hard surfaces to wipe away the pollutants.

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We conducted a quick Internet search and found several different types of automotive plug-in ion purifiers. We chose 1 that plugs into the cigarette lighter. It comes with an extension ion generator that attaches to the louvers on a dash air vent. That characteristic allows you to direct the menstruum of ions toward the passenger seat or the backseat—important if you acquit passengers with allergies. And because it works with the car's blower system, information technology doesn't need a built-in blower fan like some other units.

Originally Published: February 28, 2019