Aircon Air Filter

[TheMirror]

So yeah, took out the air filter for the first time to find heaps of leaves and other pollon stuff (was expecting to see only a bit of dust). Anyone else checked their air filters and found this stuff? Seeing as I don't have an air compressor, it is kind of hard to remove all the debri (got some of it out). Anything wrong with keeping it like this without cleaning? Would I be losing efficiency?

Thanks

[DJKOR]

I've seen worse and that is definitely nothing out of the ordinary. I'd recommend getting a new on though.

[SCOOTA44]

I changed mine last service and it was as black as the ace of spades ! I wont leave it as long between changes.

[Buff Hamster]

If you want to buy air filters there's a seller on ebay that sells cabin air filters for the Aurion at $7-8 each compared to $35+ here

[1stKill]

Yeah mine would need a clean i'm guessing...on tuesday took off from work and noticed something sticking out of the centre dash vent,bugger me dead it was a big azz Dragonfly and it was in pretty good nic only it was dead and dried,but complete. :D

goes in for it's 30000km sevice next week so i will get them change it and put the old one aside for me to have a look at.

[Silver-Aurion]

This was mine compared to the new filter I bought:

[Ronnyboy]

This was mine compared to the new filter I bought:

WOW, thats a big difference.

While i was at the dealer about 2 months ago, i recall overhearing a service advisor advising a Customer that the life of the filters may vary and may need to be changed after 30,000 km.

Not sure if that is correct or not but its just seems a bit too soon

[chicken]

This was mine compared to the new filter I bought:

Could be that your old one was the activated carbon type? They are normally dark grey

[Buff Hamster]

This was mine compared to the new filter I bought:

Could be that your old one was the activated carbon type? They are normally dark grey

The activated carbon cabin filters are entire black including the frame like this one in the pic.

http://www.drivewire.com/images/shop/prodimage/images/WORLDPAC/W01331637500NPN.JPG

Edited August 15, 2010 by Hamster

[DJKOR]

Could be that your old one was the activated carbon type? They are normally dark grey

These A/C pollen filters certainly do get that dirty. They are made to trap fine particles so going black like that isn't anything out of the ordinary. This was one of mine after 13,000km:

[chicken]

Could be that your old one was the activated carbon type? They are normally dark grey

These A/C pollen filters certainly do get that dirty. They are made to trap fine particles so going black like that isn't anything out of the ordinary. This was one of mine after 13,000km:

:o wow that's all in my lungs now... the zze corollas didnt have them installed from factory...

[Rulke]

Up here in Darwin the pollen filters usually only get dusty. When i was living in Sydney they used to go black from diesel soot in no time at all.

[boxerboy]

Changed mine yesterday.

Filter from an ebay seller less than half the Toyota cost. The job took about 5 minutes. Very straightforward.

The old filter was worse than the ones pictured...probably more than 40K old.

[Phillip Thorpe]

It would be a very bad idea to try and blow it out . Use a vacuum cleaner instead 

[MyLovelyAurion]

mine was clean, aircon was starting to emit a vinegar smell, changed filter and got car serviced , and the guy recomended i get the deodorizer sanitizer machine bit done to it. and still smells like vinegar. the car is clean, nothing is ever kept in it. nothing spilled. it cost 100 and no result. and i always have air dry freshners in it, but takes time to get out of that vinegar smell 

Edited September 23, 2022 by MyLovelyAurion

[Tony Prodigy]

On 9/23/2022 at 5:50 PM, MyLovelyAurion said:

mine was clean, aircon was starting to emit a vinegar smell, changed filter and got car serviced , and the guy recomended i get the deodorizer sanitizer machine bit done to it. and still smells like vinegar. the car is clean, nothing is ever kept in it. nothing spilled. it cost 100 and no result. and i always have air dry freshners in it, but takes time to get out of that vinegar smell 

Hi Adam,

Those air dry fresheners are rubbish. They only mask the smell.
You could have mold or other airborne contamination inside your evaporator. If it's possible to get access to the internals of the evap coil, you could clean and deodorize it and hopefully that should cure the smell. I think you should be able to insert a tube in through the filter access door and try to aim it directly to the coil itself. The excess water will drain via the condensate drain tube.

There's also another solution to combat interior smells and that's using an ozone generator. They're inexpensive and I've heard good reviews about the use of these. Look into it and see what you think.

A word of caution is to NOT be inside the vehicle when the device is running. Observe all cautionary advice associated with "Ozone Generators"

Here's one example on Ebay.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/165658646353?hash=item2692065751:g:Q0MAAOSwnFNjE~iy&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAA4D9195cjZ9ZhaVXcFt4jPFODVWBBL27G0YbEBcgGni1ThhS0fQSJT3Kzahsc2%2B1Ef6n3h2bntjo7FIfDJTQVkWq%2BzfsT%2BjEYA6M6qA%2BoNH0vInFVh%2F7SFE3c8mT39ka5OCU5MyCJjQlfx%2FeFZd9LuWGvBWORwlGo%2FeKX4vMq1qB4ZxsZjCfaQ%2FVmojCH9MKGrLT2l2rwIy2SrSoCG4dBEhjoLuSXLplZ3%2FvL4omBWdDBr1Y4DjgYc83DQmgY4X71NORppGA2ouEImtjvxK36SN1hVvFFyFAiHjpoxAyZrqaO|tkp%3ABFBMsvW5lu5g