People (because of how expensive everything else is) just want to assume that THEIR car won’t ever have problems (while trying to stretch out how far they go on oil changes in the first place), that they finally (reluctantly) go in for the change, while putting the invisible “please don’t tell me it needs anything else” sign on their face (that’s really not that invisible).
It’s called car “maintenance” people, not roll the “hope you escape the obvious fact that you car actually isn’t immune to having wear” dice.
Some people really budget nothing for their car’s upkeep and suddenly feel like they’re the unluckiest people alive when it needs something.
Feels like a click and clack bit
Cabin filters are a myth.
They aren’t.
And this is the same mentality to why people never replace their AC filters in their house. Because they either don’t know to, know how to or don’t think it’s important. Until their AC is overworking, and overheating, losing efficiency, so they turn up the dial to make up the difference, further stressing the system until it breaks. Costing $10,000+ in repairs because they didn’t want to spend $20 a few times a year.
Learned that I needed to vacuum the dust off my window AC filter a couple times a year when it stopped cooling very well and I took the front cover off and saw that it had turned into a block of ice.
What aggravates me is how fragile the cabin filter holders can be. I guess this can go for a lot of the things that should be regularly checked and changed, but are both made very inaccessible and easy to break. By design, probably.
It’s not like I haven’t seen PIA stuff in the past. Anyone else done the very regularly needed (and messy) oil change, air cleaner oil change, regapping of points, plugs, and valves on an old VW Beetle? But once you learned how, it was just part of having one and most of it wasn’t plastic (none?) that would break off by looking at it.
Cabin air filters on all vehicles is a modern thing. My first car and my current car don’t have filters. They only started showing up in the 90s for high end cars and economy cars in the mid-late 2000s.
Edit: GM pickups didn’t have one until 2014
Some cars even have the space for one, yet didn’t come with one from the factory? I’ve had at least a couple cars that did this. I can only guess that they simply wanted to be able to charge for it as an option
It’s usually behind the glovebox. In most vehicles that have cabin air filters, you can open the glovebox and then squeeze the sides of it to allow it to drop down further, and you should see the blower fan for the climate control system right there. Not all vehicles have a filter, but if yours does you can typically access it here.
https://www.wikihow.com/Replace-Cabin-Air-Filter
I wouldn’t pay someone else to replace it, they’re cheap and its easy to do yourself in about 5 minutes.
On a related note, engine air filters are also not a myth and definitely need to be cleaned or replaced regularly, otherwise your engine won’t get proper air intake and you can have performance issues or stalls. BUT, some shops may tell you it needs to be replaced when it doesn’t to make extra money.
In most cars the engine air filter is also easy to access, check and replace yourself. If you do, then you know what the condition of your filters is. If you end up at a shop that trys to charge you for replacing it when you know you just did 3 months ago and it’s fine, then you know not to trust that shop ever again.
Better yet when something like transmission oil says it will last the life* of the vehicle, and the determined life is 100k miles when the warranty runs out and the transmission explodes
All you need is a Superperforator.
That’s too sexy to be legal.
Too sexy for my car?
