New Car Air Filter Wont Fit the Intake Might Be a Cabin Air Filter

All right, so I got a brand new air filter. Let's go ahead and get this old one out of here. Wait a minute. This doesn't look right. I looked it up myself. It was supposed to fit. Great.

Hey, friends, it's Len here from 1A Auto. So in today's video I wanted to go over the possibility of whether your car has one air filter or possibly, even two air filters.

Now, we all pretty much know that engines need to have an air filter. And essentially what the air filter is supposed to do is make sure that the air that's getting drawn into the engine to be burnt up inside that combustion chamber is gonna be as clean as possible, so we don't cause any damage to our engines.

Now typically, air filters are gonna be a serviceable item. They need to be easily replaceable, and generally I like to do that at least once a year. What I like to do is actually inspect the air filter every oil change. If not, every other, especially if I'm driving in inclement conditions where essentially, maybe I'm driving on a dirt road or a dusty road. Essentially, if you were to take a look at it and you found that it had any dirt or debris inside of it, or even it had some cuts, you'd wanna go ahead and replace it.

But did you know in approximately the year 2000, auto manufacturers started using cabin air filters inside the passenger compartment? Essentially, the reason why they wanna use an air filter in the passenger compartment is to make sure that any debris that might be floating in the air that's supposed to be getting blown around with your blower motor is gonna be clean and free of any debris.

A lot of times, people tend to have allergies to things such as, maybe, dust or pollen or even mold, or some kind of bacteria in the air. Otherwise, you could be inside an area that has a lot of smog, like maybe inside a city of some sort, and of course you're gonna want the air that's coming into this area to be nice and free and clear of any debris.

Now, your cabin air filter can be located inside a couple of different areas. Essentially, if you were to open up your engine compartment, you might have it located right along this area, which is where your cowl is.

But more than likely your cabin air filter's gonna to be located inside your passenger compartment or inside the cabin of your car. Essentially, it could be located in a couple different areas. It could be down along the left-side kick panel on the passenger side. You might also notice that it's underneath your dash. Typically, it's pretty easy to get to there. Or even sometimes if you were to go ahead and lower down your glove box and get behind there, you might happen to find it located there.

So how about a little bit of good news? The good news is, if you have a cabin air filter that looks like this, it's not gonna affect the runability of your engine. If the cabin air filter is dirty or clogged, obviously that's gonna restrict the amount of fresh air that's getting pumped into your passenger compartment. And you might also notice an odd smell coming from your vents when you turn on that blower motor. Typically, that might come down to a couple different things. Maybe there was moisture in the air, maybe you live in a damp or humid area, or even the occasional mouse issue, which is less likely, but I've seen a mouse nest in this area before.

So now, essentially, if you're wondering when I should be replacing my cabin air filter, theoretically you should probably take a peek at it. If you see something that looks like this, you're definitely gonna wanna replace it. Overall, like I said before, this is kinda something that's gonna be a wear-and-tear item. If you're driving on a dusty or debris-filled road, more likely you're going to have to replace this more often. If you're just driving in a place that doesn't have really anything like that and it's not very humid, more likely you can go a little bit longer.

But overall, at least once a year it makes the most sense to me, and typically if I'm replacing the air filter for the engine I'm gonna replace the air filter from my passenger compartment.

Okay, friends. So I hope you liked the video. Maybe you have an experience where you haven't replaced your cabin air filter and you got a funny smell going on in your car, or even restricted air flow, if it is, it probably comes down to this cabin air filter.

Hopefully, you learned a little something in the video, or maybe you got something to say. Either way, leave it in the comment section below, because I always love to hear from you. Of course, if you liked the video make sure you smash on that like button. For me, it'll mean the world. While you're at it, go ahead and subscribe and ring the bell. That way there, you can be kept up with all of our latest content. Thanks.