What cabin air filter would you recommend?

I got mine on AMAZON=You should replace it, at least once a year

 

C35479 TOYOTA CARBONIZED CABIN AIR FILTER FOR TOYOTA PRIUS 2001 - 2009 | eBay

 

I would vote to stay with a Toyota brand.

My local dealer sells/ has 3 levels/ choices of filtration.
If little dust and you want to keep leaves out... the cheapest cost one will do.
I can recall the benefits of the mid-line one.
The top one, carbon, helps "kill" odors.
If shopping, I would personally look for a filter that traps diesel soot effectively

As a side note I recall reading of issues with filters that were too dense/ not letting enough air flow and causing ac/ heat system issues.

The 'net should (should) define the filtration level benefits.
Rockauto . com may give a good description and menu of aftermarket choices.

Have fun choosing your filter

 

Depends. If you're like my wife and suffer allergies from pollen and dust then get a hepa filter. With her in the car all windows must remain rolled up.

If you're like me and can sweep dust in an enclosed area with no ill effect then do like me and take your current filter, knock the dust out, and put it back. Hell throw it away. I have a 1972 Ford truck and 1994 Suburban with no filter. In both rides I get unfiltered fresh air from outside. For some reason this doesn't bother my wife. Lol

From where I sit filters are a waste of money. Save your money.

 

You can't just blindly support an inferior material just because it has the Toyota label on it and costs four times as much. That's not smart at all. The goal is to buy the highest quality material for the lowest price. The Ebay link I posted about is for a filter that cost less than $10 and is not only thicker and higher quality material than the paper garbage Toyota sells, but it's also Charcoal impregnated.

 

Don't let your wife know that the recirculation button still takes in a significant amount of outside air. Of course if you ever drive through smoke from wildfires she'll figure that reality out real quick. As far as I know, the only auto maker that entirely seals up the inside of the car and cleans the air with a legitimate HEPA filter is Tesla... All the other car makers could not care less about protecting people with a system like Tesla has. Of course they all eventually start copying Tesla in lots of ways, so maybe one day, they'll realize the value of legitimate clean air inside a car.

 

Good point. With her it must be the moving air. No more hepa filters for me. Thanks.

I wonder how the human race has made it this far breathing unfiltered air. It must be hell driving a 60s-70s muscle car. Lol

 

I like the K&N just because it has a wire screen.

I recommended the K&N to a friend. He was happy that it prevented a rat from chewing through the filter to get into the car.

 

Bunch of K N copies out they're too. Great for the rodents but grown ups will chew it through. They cannot help it. Very fine wire.

 

I just picked up and installed a new filter from this 2 pack the other day. Good material.

Puroma 2 Pack Cabin Air Filter with Activated Carbon, Replacement for CP157, CF12157, Select Lexus, Mazda, Subaru and Toyota Avalon, Camry, Corolla, Highlander, Prius, RAV4, Sienna, Venza

$12.68 for 2x cabin air filters.

 

So here we have an aftermarket filter, made in China, that "is for a filter that cost less than $10 and is not only thicker and higher quality material than the paper garbage Toyota sells, but it's also Charcoal impregnated".

What basis are you using to determine its higher quality than what Toyota offers?
Is this the only item made in China, for a Prius, that you feel this way about?
Not supporting the Toyota filter, as I've also bought plenty of the Super-Tech brand at Wally-world, but just curious about your obvious strong opinion.

 

It's not that bad to clean or replace the heater core in either of those vehicles. Even accessing the A/C evaporator in the Suburban wouldn't be that bad in comparison to the same job in a Prius. (I'm guessing the pickup doesn't have A/C)

The point is, part of the filter's job is to prevent the Prius evaporator & heater core from ever getting dirty or clogged in the first place. This is because they built those cars in such a way that makes it in$anely labor-intensive to access those items.

Keeping a clean filter in there can prevent some expensive and bothersome issues when the car is old. Might or might not matter for your usage, but it's a thing to decide.

Apart from that I tend to get cheap ordinary filters.

 

The fram blue one is decent like 7 bux man made material

 

I changed mine at around the 10 year mark, cus I was changing the engine air filter. Genuine Toyota for both. Figured do them both the once, then good for the duration.

I cannot get excited about cabin air filters, food for thought: they did not exist, say 30 years back...

BTW, depending on your area, consider securely covering the cabin air intake, wit 1/4” galvanized steel rodent mesh. The wipers and cowl need to come off to do this.

 

Lol, why don't you buy one and look at it? The ones I've seen Toyota Stealerships sell are made of flimsy cardboard and a cheap filter that about the same thickness as a cheap paper coffee filter. The one I linked to has a solid plastic frame with foam cushioning on the edge for a tighter seal and is an actual air filter with charcoal impregnation. It's not a legit HEPA filter, but way better than the total lie of a cabin filter that Toyota sell these days.

Most of all, your racist BS about low quality products from China is living 40 years in the past... You do realize that every single Apple product is made in China right? So by your twisted logic that makes all Apple products low quality right?

 

How you turn my post into "your racist BS" is beyond me. Do you think you're saying anything about Chinese products that everyone else doesn't already know? Do you think we don't know that China, South Korea and many Asian countries have gone from zero to hero with cars and most products compared to even 25 years ago? You know I post quite frequently about purchasing products at Walmart, where 90% of items are made in China? We also know that 90% of the world's counterfeits, which are cheap and incredibly inferior products, are manufactured in China.

How you twist my question into a comparison with apple is amazing. It takes way too much effort to get along with you. Maybe you need to get on some meds. Actually in the big scheme of things, how about you just f off?

 

Sheeesh....

 

That was my point too. I keep it clean. But there's no reason to really buy a new one. Just knock the crud out and put it back. It's not sealed like engine air filters are so there is tons of air making its way around the filter. I am of the opinion that it's only there to catch the big stuff.

 

I owned a two door '65 Corvair (in the mid '70s) which I think had pretty typical ventilation for that era. There were air inlets under the dash which came from the wheel wells (if I remember correctly) which could direct quite an air stream at around knee height and little triangular vent windows which rotated and at highway speeds could direct a huge amount of air at the driver or front passenger (for the window on each side). The seats were I think vinyl and the floor was not carpeted. Most of the surfaces were relatively smooth. The car didn't build up dirt inside, in large part I think because air flow from the windows could push so much air in that anything light would blow out. No A/C of course but with all that air blowing it wasn't bad on hot days. (Other than contact sweating from the vinyl seats.) Never drove it anywhere really dusty - imagine it would have been horrible to do so. No cabin filter of any sort. That car was fun to drive and thanks to (insert deity here) I never crashed it, because this was before cars were designed to protect the people inside. The '60 Corvair had a metal dashboard and no seat belts, this one's dashboard was slightly padded and it came from the factory with lap belts.

The knee vents were a slight problem if I forgot and left the passenger side one fully open when driving a girl in a dress in the passenger seat. Ever seen the Marilyn Monroe scene where she is standing over a subway grating? Like that.