Cabin air filter

[lovemy99camry]

How important is the cabin air filter? They always want me to change it and it looks pretty clean to me. Does it matter as much as the engine air filter?

[toyotoyo]

Originally Posted by lovemy99camry

How important is the cabin air filter? They always want me to change it and it looks pretty clean to me. Does it matter as much as the engine air filter?

It's not as important as the engine filter and it's a lot more expensive (OEM), go figure!
The cabin air filter filters the air that flows to the inside of the van's cabin so that's the air your breath and just like any filter, it will clog with debris.
Toyota recommends changing it every 20k miles BUT it really depends on how dusty/dirty/polluted is the air where you live.
Once a year take a look at it and compare it to a new one. Don't wait until it's black dirty like the pic here.
Personally i replace it when it's starting geting greyish...
For a DIY:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8RW22-zfhs

[lovemy99camry]

Toyo, thanks for the response.

Something must be wrong in my neighborhood because the filter looks brand new.

[dandaman]

I just replaced mine with an aftermarket one (Driveworks). First, the original had apparently never been changed in 5 years, and the thing was as black as night. Second, the aftermarket was definitely inferior to the OEM, it had maybe half the pleats of the OEM filter. I haven't priced out the Toyota filter but I paid $15 for the aftermarket. I usually replace them every year so I may just shop around aftermarket brands and see if one is better than the other.

[lovemy99camry]

Dan, I hate to tell you but Reilly's, the national chain, was selling the Toyota filter for $16 a year ago. It was a special order.

[dandaman]

Do you mean O'Reilly's? I checked their website, don't see it on there anymore, even as a special order. We'll see how long this one lasts but like I said I generally change them yearly so it's not a huge deal. I'll just live and learn for the future.

[lovemy99camry]

Yes, O'Reilly's. Here is a Toyota dealing selling at a discount.

Jason Michelson
Internet Parts Sales Consultant
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[maxwell]

changed the cabin air filter out in my 2008 model van at 52K miles. it looked like a dead cat, so full of crap,

got the new one at parts store, less than $20

at least i feel better about it, did not show the old one to mama bear,

[wmbriano2grad]

You don't need to pay 15-20$ to replace your filter. Go buy a $2 home Ac filter that's at least 4x the size of your cabin filter. Cut it to size and replace! It performs the exact same function for 1/10 the price.