air cabin filter

[jfirios]

What do you all know about the cabin air filter? is it hard to replace. I am sure it needs to be replaced considering the age of the car and not knowing if the PO who was a smoker ever did it.

[Bitsyncmaster]

There is none.

[jawn101]

Funny, I saw this thread and who it was posted by and assumed he had created a way for us to install one. Oh well.

If you have a smell in the car, it is either your carpet padding or mold/mildew in your heater box. Clean both well and the smell will be gone. You may also have some collection of dust/filth/particles in the plastic tube that connects the heater box to the driver's side door vent.

[David T]

Cabin filters don't remove smells. Another big source of smell is a leaky brake master cylinder or clutch master cylinder and all that brake fluid under the carpet. Figuring out a way to put a cabin filter in would be a nice upgrade. If the car has smells the 'fix" is to remove the carpet and clean the cabin and the carpet. The car may also have been owned by a smoker and that can make it smell bad too. Best not to try to cover up the smell, the best way is to try to clean it out.
David Teitelbaum




Funny, I saw this thread and who it was posted by and assumed he had created a way for us to install one. Oh well.

If you have a smell in the car, it is either your carpet padding or mold/mildew in your heater box. Clean both well and the smell will be gone. You may also have some collection of dust/filth/particles in the plastic tube that connects the heater box to the driver's side door vent.

[stevedmc]

How to remove car odors.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrVc_FXrbHY

[stevedmc]

And another way to get rid of car odors:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYKN3bypcT0

[ramblinmike]

I installed a screen between my air box and the cowl to keep leaves out. Has anyone else done this?

[dmc6960]

I installed a screen between my air box and the cowl to keep leaves out. Has anyone else done this?

I pondered doing this, but decided not to since the screen would further restrict fresh air into the cabin, the cowl already has additional slats to stop the bigger crud, and my car is garaged most of the time.

Oh yeah, and I forgot about it until after I had just attached the cowl. Didn't want to take it off again.

[davidrucker11387]

I think I may add a screen to mine on monday. I think thats a great idea and i still have everything apart. My D is just a couple days away from living again!

Dave - 6410

davidrucker11387 - DmcTalk.org
DeLoDave - YouTube & Twitter

[DMCVegas]

Right below the windshield is the air plenum. That's the intake that everyone is talking about here. When I first got my car, every time I'd wash it I would have water pouring out of the blower motor. It turned out that I had a pile of ecualyptus leaves inside that had allowed dirt to build up and dammed the drain hole at the bottom. I also had the same problem with the rear plenum for the engine intake. Everything beyond that was clean, and once I removed everything it always has remained clean ever since. Even as a daily driver. I also had this same issue with an old XJ40, and door drains on an old Thunderbird, and once clean never had another problem.

Point being here is that a screen isn't going to protect you from anything at all. IF any regular leaves fall into the plenum, normal driving is going to keep break them up, and the air movement will prevent dirt from collecting. And if you run into a dust storm, a screen isn't going to stop any particulate matter from entering into the cabin.

But if you do have any sort of rotting vegetation down there, cleaning it out will go a long way into getting rid of that smell. As for the deodorizing the evaporator coils in the video that Steve posted, I can absolutely vouch for that. The A/C in our apartment reeked and we were getting sick. I pulled the access panel off and after cleaning out dirt from the drip pan I doused the evaporator coils and blower motor in Lysol. We stopped coughing and the whole apartment smells much cleaner. The only two things that I'd disagree with in that video is to first make sure that you tape off painted areas to avoid damage to them. The second being that all the cars I've ever seen only have 1 fresh air intake, so spraying all across the bottom of the windshield is totally unnecessary. If you've got two because of climate zones, or you've got rear air conditioning like in an SUV, you'll spray back there too, but otherwise only one spot.

I also know that there are professional ways to deodorize cars that dealerships use on trade-ins and rental fleets use on returning vehicles that work wonders. So if worse comes to worse you could stop by a janitorial or carpet cleaning supply place and pick up the stuff they use in hotel rooms as well.

[ramblinmike]

I put the screen in there to keep my a/c evaporator clean.

[RIUM+]

One of the best ways to prevent bacteria & mould from growing in your AC system is to never turn the car off with the evaporator cold. If you've had the AC on, always run the AC on fan-only mode for a minute before you shut off the engine. This prevents any condensation collecting in your system, which greatly diminishes the breeding ground for bacteria.

It won't help if dirt & leaves enter the system, but it'll help prevent bacteria buildup!

[dvonk]

One of the best ways to prevent bacteria & mould from growing in your AC system is to never turn the car off with the evaporator cold. If you've had the AC on, always run the AC on fan-only mode for a minute before you shut off the engine...

+1.