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I just want to post a short story about a dealer where I took my car for maintenance and see what other similar stories people can share.
I bought a used car 6 months ago at 30k miles. It has 33k miles now but I needed to take it in for 6 month service (oil change + rotation) even though I'm not at many miles I drive in stop and go every day. It's a local dealership by my house.
I had taken my previous cars to small quick oil change places and always felt like they tried upselling on everything, claiming stuff needed to be done when it didn't etc. So since my "new" car was nicer than my old car I decided to take it to a dealer for hopefully less hassle. Last week I had checked the cabin air filter and engine air filter and REPLACED both. This was literally 5 days ago. Both filters cost me about $25 total on Amazon and took less than 5 minutes total to install both.
Brought my car in today and they said, car looks good but we highly recommend changing the cabin air and engine air filter as they are filthy. It's only $145 extra. I said can you show me the dirty filters? They said this was possible but it would extend my visit by 30 minutes as they'd have to get the tech free and have him escort me to a meeting area to show me the dirty parts (not near my car). I said I'll pass as I just changed these a few days ago and he said something like "Oh man, you must have went through some crazy conditions in the last few days for them to get so dirty so fast!" I said thanks and left. Needless to say I won't be going back here. Ever.
How stupid do these people think we are?
My neighbor told me that the service people are paid a commission on the work they do on your car and therefore have the incentive to upsell.
I wonder if dealers like this have dirty filters for the popular models of cars lying around so if you ask to see it they just retrieve one of these and not the actual one in your car? I wouldn't put it past them.
The worst part is chances are they won't even change the filters since some are hard to get to and if someone is willing to pay $200+ for filters they probably won't ever look at the filters.
Last week I had checked the cabin air filter and engine air filter and REPLACED both. This was literally 5 days ago. Both filters cost me about $25 total on Amazon and took less than 5 minutes total to install both.
Brought my car in today and they said, car looks good but we highly recommend changing the cabin air and engine air filter as they are filthy. It's only $145 extra. I said can you show me the dirty filters? They said this was possible but it would extend my visit by 30 minutes as they'd have to get the tech free and have him escort me to a meeting area to show me the dirty parts (not near my car). I said I'll pass as I just changed these a few days ago and he said something like "Oh man, you must have went through some crazy conditions in the last few days for them to get so dirty so fast!" I said thanks and left. Needless to say I won't be going back here. Ever.
How stupid do these people think we are?
This happened to me three weeks ago. I'd replaced the cabin air filter and engine air filter in my driveway 5,000 miles before. I was in the dealership to get a recall done, a warranty repair, and an oil change. The service rep came out into the waiting room and told me I needed a new engine air filter at $80.00 and a new cabin air filter at $40.00. That dealership emails you a video clip made by the service tech doing the work. The engine and cabin filters were on the bench. They both had a bit of debris in them that needed to be knocked out but were still white.
When the email came with the customer survey, I expressed my dissatisfaction. They emailed me a free oil change and tire rotation coupon. I emailed them back telling them I could no longer trust them and I have no interest in a free oil change. I'm going elsewhere.
In the past, I've had dealerships do the same thing with brakes. "You need rotors and pads" when the rotors have no scoring and the pads still have plenty of meat on them.
because not all cars are a 10 minute job. My BMW, even though the filter itself is cheap, requires much of the bottom of the dash to be removed to get to them, and they are still hard to get to after that's out of the way, so it's at least an hour job even if you've done it before. At a minimum hour charge, you can be at $100+ just in labor in a hurry.
When I had a Dodge Journey, it was like this. They literally had to take most of the dashboard out of the vehicle to get to the cabin filter. This seems like such a **** poor design to me, but no one asked me. Might just be a way for dealers to make money. And I did absolutely notice a HUGE difference in the air when the filter was changed. They showed it to me and I was disgusted by how much crud was in it and wha tI was breathing in every day.
I have worked on several vehicles where the cabin air filter was so clogged, there was NO air coming from the air vents. The blower makes a heck of a roaring noise because the forced air has nowhere to go.
And on 2 occasions I can recall, the customer took their car to a shop because the a/c / heater would not blow air. After they get an estimate for a new evaporator and everything with it for 1200 bucks, they came to me to get a 2nd opinion. After replacing the 15 dollar filter, and showing them the old one that looked like matted fur on a junk yard dog, the air blew like a hurricane.
Those of you that have poor airflow thru the vents, check the cabin air filter before you do anything else
The first time I had a vehicle with cabin filters, I removed them as they were filthy and disposed of them, but never put replacement filters back in. I really can't tell the difference on the air quality. Getting rid of them really improved the air flow.
That's just dumb. You do realize that those filters (covered in filth) prevented all that filth from being spread all over you.
That's just dumb. You do realize that those filters (covered in filth) prevented all that filth from being spread all over you.
The dust and dirt in the filters is an accumulation over many years. On a day to day basis, it does not amount to any more dust or dirt than you encounter from simply being outside. I presume you do go outside occasionally, maybe not.
The dust and dirt in the filters is an accumulation over many years. On a day to day basis, it does not amount to any more dust or dirt than you encounter from simply being outside. I presume you do go outside occasionally, maybe not.
Many years? Good grief! I change mine at least once a year. I have really bad allergies and don't need anything blowing crap directly into my face.
I never missed the filters and the car doesn't need them. There is nothing blowing in except fresh air. No allergies or sensitivity to the outside air here. Like others have said, they are simply a maintenance item that shops can charge you for. They are not really doing anything, but they may have a placebo effect.
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