Daughter-in-law's cabin air filter was a teachable moment...

Joined
Jun 5, 2003
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Location
McGregor TX
My son was complaining to me that his wife's car's A/C didn't blow very hard. This gave me the perfect opportunity to explain the value of maintaining things on your vehicles. There's no telling when it was last changed. 2007 Kia Sportage.

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PS. Yes, it made a huge difference.
 
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Our Forester is NOT known for its blower capacity. I just installed a new FRAM, washable filter in the cabin and wow, it's like night and day!
 
That's nothing. No twigs, leaves, pine needles, vermin droppings, etc. Seen much worse.
 
What a coincidence. I too changed my cabin air filter in my 2007 Sportage yesterday. Looked pretty much the same as your filter, had 9000 miles on it. Was cycling on/off very frequently, didn't do that before.
 
A good test for how clogged a filter is would be how hard the system blows on regular setting vs recirculate setting. I would say 2 years max, better every year, unless driving in a real dirty environment.
 
It is not growing things. It is not as bad.
I swear I replaced filter in my roommate's Passat and it was growing stuff.
I do it every 10K on all three cars.
 
It might not be packed with large debris but it's still plenty bad. Especially considering the dirt usually only deposits in a specific pattern corresponding to the airflow (usually in a circular shape, even only on a single side of the pleat). For it to be that evenly saturated seems to indicate it's been in there long enough to have air go every which way.
 
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