Interesting Cabin Air Filter Change

[clarksonsubie]

How many others have changed their cabin air filters and found an immense amount of debris? I expected it to be pretty dirty assuming it hadn't been changed in 88k miles and 9 years, but it was loaded up with pine needles and dirt. Seems to me like a borderline fire hazard, not sure how hot it gets right there, but it's definitely dry and combustible stuff. Wish I knew the PO so that I could figure out if they constantly parked under pines or something??

[arizonaadam]

Wow! Nature is reclaiming your car.

[plain OM]

I change my filter yearly and often find small leaves and/or seed pods, as well as a coating of dust, on the filter. Nothing like yours, but then it probably would approach that if I left it for 9 years.

Just think what havoc all that could cause if it were caught in the fan squirrel cage, and even more so, in the AC evaporator through which all the air coming from the fan has to pass.

[t-bone333]

Pretty much the exact same thing was in my 2003 when I changed the filter just after I bought it in August of last year. Figured it hadn't ever been changed. I did the cheapo filter replacement with the home air filter cut to fit and the musty smell vanished.

[clarksonsubie]

Originally Posted by t-bone333

Pretty much the exact same thing was in my 2003 when I changed the filter just after I bought it in August of last year. Figured it hadn't ever been changed. I did the cheapo filter replacement with the home air filter cut to fit and the musty smell vanished.

Did the same thing following the writeup on scoobymods. Ace had 3 packs of furness air filters on sale for the same price as singles, so I basically have a lifetime of cabin air filters for $7

[bluestack]

So, question ???

I just spent $30 ish dollars on the tech subscription so I could get some specifics to removing the cabin air filter on my 2005 OBXT.

I got all the way in there - and low and behold - no filter in there.

I'm seriously considering putting it all back together and leaving the filter out so as to avoid the pain of doing that again.

Any advice/reasons to go one way or the other ??

[jeramifrost]

If you have the filter slot i would think you would want the filter in there. If you really dig around in there is there ANY sign of debris at all? Mine collects a lot of crap that i wouldnt want going further into the system.

[bluestack]

in all honesty, all I've got in there is red dust - which considering up until 2 weeks ago it was a Central California car, not surprising.

I guess I'll keep the filter in there - at least now I know how to get at the cabin filter, and how long to devote to it.

Subaru should be embarrassed about that process.

[jeramifrost]

Yours must be a lot worse than the 08. I can get in and out in about 5 minutes or so now that i have done it once and know how.

[bluestack]

yep - it's a nightmare - apparently the design changed in '06 and they put the mods they intended in. Although looking at where they'd be, it's still not the most convenient.

I'm hoping the next time'll be smoother now I know where to go about it.