Pollen/cabin filters........
 

Just changed the one in the Astra. Found the one in there dated 15/3/2009. It was filthy.

But Vauxhall changed out my interior fan about three months back. Why would they NOT change the filter at the same time?

Is it a good idea to spray the new filter with air freshener etc?

The chemicals in air fresheners may damage plastics in the filter - beware....

It's mostly paper, but I did wonder about their effect on the other plastics around them.

I haven't done it, but you can buy air fresheners for hoovers, so why not for car air systems?

Rather than put air-freshener on the filter itself, you could try clipping or velcro-ing a micro-fiber cloth or something similar to it on the cabin-side of the air-flow, and spray or soak that with freshener instead.

impeding air flow might cause condensation issues

"..but you can buy air fresheners for hoovers.." -- funny you should mention Hoovers. I used to work for them, and our air freshener's were specifically designed to be 'Plastic safe'. customers who used non recommended air fresheners (bit of kitchen roll soaked in some smelly liquid !!!), soon wondered why their vacuum cleaners were disintegrating......

You can. They are usually marketed as air conditioning refreshers/deoderisers. If the car has a pollen filter generally it'll have air con. It's usually aerosol-based. I've found Oust to be just as effective. Usually a case of putting fans on with filter removed and spraying where filter was covering. This all depends on the system though. Works fine on a MK4 Golf for example as the filter is before the fan, but that isn't the case with most Vauxhalls. The Corsa D one is crammed up under the passenger footwell going into the centre console. You'd have to remove the scuttle panel, locate the air intake and spray in there.....

Funnily enough I just changed the one in my bugeye today, always seem overlooked on Imprezas for some reason. Got the car recently and the fan was very weak on low..

I'll get a pic up in a bit.

http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/a...pskefe9uwi.jpg

http://i972.photobucket.com/albums/a...pssw3heapk.jpg

Bag that up and sell it by the ounce

Kushti

Mine wasn't quite as bad as that, but bad enough.

Been my "filter month". I needed one for the ride-on mower in France, they wanted €29 at the local DIY shed and the mower place, bought one from ebay here for £8 delivered.

Have since replaced both fuel and cabin filters on the Arse-stra.
I think I ought to at least inspect the air filter, it says do not discard, lifetime filter, but surely it needs cleaned?

^^^^^^

Has the car not been serviced for 6 years ?

The cabin filter is a service item...

Looking at his fuel filter (other thread). It'd make me wonder.

Thankfully the JDT/CDti lumps are fairly tolerant to that so long as Dexos 2 oil is used (In english:fully-synthetic oil that superceeds the old GM-LL-025 standards), although the turbo may spit its bearings out.

It had service history when I got it...obviously bogus.

The air filter, a K&N lifetime one has now been cleaned and re-oiled.

Brakes were replaced last month and the oil changed in Spring, so we're good to roll...I hope.

If not, I have cover and there's always Garage Brun when I get there. :rolleyes:

Maybe it just had the oil changed (aka oil service) and nothing else just to have the stamp in the book. Quite common these days, sadly.