PSA: Don't forget your cabin air filter

[RickMachE]

I replaced mine at 20,000 miles with an FPP89. Dealer's system said it was the wrong filter. Fit fine. Ford has done their normal incompetent thing with it, it is not listed as the air filter for the Mach-E, but for a 2015 - 2019 Edge... Sometimes they cannot get out of their own way.

I love all the focus on cabin air filters. My 2013 F-150 had none and was fine for 10 years. Vehicles never came with cabin air filters.

Sponsored

 

[zvez]

So I almost never run my ac/ heat and tend to drive with the windows down, would I ever need to replace this filter?

 

[CarlSagan82]

You WANT one with activated carbon. It absorbs smells and is absolutely worth it.

I was trapped in line for fast food for like 25 minutes today. As soon as I rolled down my window it was obvious the car in front of me wasn’t tuned well, I smelled some gas.

The whole time I was sitting with my windows closed? Nothing.

Car exhaust, skunks, roadkill, cigarettes at intersections, fresh asphalt… all gone or mostly eliminated if very strong.

Do it. It costs nothing. Such a nice little QoL benefit.

Edit to add: here’s mine. I saw someone here recommend it 2 years ago or so: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B08Y8J86BH

Thanks for the recommend I picked one up. Maybe I will feel less likely needing to keep switching to circulation air instead of direct.

 

[burritoman]

Meanwhile over in Tesla land.... apparently something in the AC/air filter is making their cars stink?

And forget the mind-boggling entitlement of thinking Tesla should replace cabin air filters for free "as a good customer service service gesture to its customers". Absolutely astounding.

https://electrek.co/2024/08/07/tesla-stink-like-feet-this-is-what-you-have-to-do/

When I had the Model 3 I experienced this issue and it was theorized this was happening more frequently in humid conditions. It's not terribly humid where I live but someone figured out that running the heater on full blast for several minutes fixes the problem for awhile. The thinking is mold/mildew/bacteria was settling in and running full heat remedies it (until the next time.) I tried the fix and it did seem to work.

 

[MBCook]

Thanks for the recommend I picked one up. Maybe I will feel less likely needing to keep switching to circulation air instead of direct.

You know come to think of it in the two years since I started using active carbon filters I don’t really remember switching between external and circulation.

it was never something I needed to do a lot. And I do remember doing it in the past on the car. But not anytime recently.

 

[RickMachE]

So I almost never run my ac/ heat and tend to drive with the windows down, would I ever need to replace this filter?

No, it's has no air flowing through it.

 

[Snakebitten]

I replaced mine at 20,000 miles with an FPP89. Dealer's system said it was the wrong filter. Fit fine. Ford has done their normal incompetent thing with it, it is not listed as the air filter for the Mach-E, but for a 2015 - 2019 Edge... Sometimes they cannot get out of their own way.

I love all the focus on cabin air filters. My 2013 F-150 had none and was fine for 10 years. Vehicles never came with cabin air filters.

It's true that many of our current vehicles didn't have cabin air filters just a few short years ago. But as a result, over enough time the Air Conditioning Evaporator's performance would degrade. Sometimes drastically.

I don't know if YouTube short videos link properly, but here's an example

 

[RodHower]

Yup, super easy in pretty much every car I've had. One watchout I've seen in a couple threads here though is that the tabs on the side of the filter cover can apparently break. So something to be careful of. Otherwise the filters are pretty cheap - even the "good" OEM filter is < $20 at RockAuto (part number FPP89).

For my 2023 it gave PN Motorcraft FP100A at Rock Auto

 

[Ford_orr]

K&N Filters makes one for the MMEs. They're warrantied for life. Just gotta hose them off and recharge them periodically based on the suggested mileage. I've had K&N air and/or cabin filters in all my vehicles, even the two-wheeled kind. Great products. The only thing I would note is it's a super tight fit. Might feel like it's not going in, but it will. Just gotta massage it through, but it'll go:

K&N VF3021 Cabin Air Filter (knfilters.com)

 

[George]

Ordered! Thx

Ordered two ! About half the price of the ones I have been using. Thanks for sharing that information.

Sponsored