The Acura Legend & Acura RL Forum - View Single Post - OEM Cabin Air Filter Replacement with NON Oem Filter

S4gunn · 07-27-06, 01:51 PM

My current paper filter doesn't seem to cause any reduction in airflow. It will work at least as well as the acura filter. You really do want to considering using a filter - even if its the crappy Acura Honeycomb filter.

After only 15K miles (the recommended replacement interval), I had a fair amount of leaves and twigs (about a handful). While I do use both recirculate and the open-air settings, cleaning this amount of crap off the filter is a lot easier than trying to get it off the evaporator core.

The filter I ended up purchasing was the Naturalaire panel air filter with a "chickenwire" mesh backing for a whopping $3.97 + tax at Home Depot.
You can see an example as item # 732679 on homedepot.com

This filter is stiff enough and will work better than the OEM one at filtration. I think the OEM was relied on electrostatic force though since the honeycomb walls appear to be darker than when I put it in. My only concern is that I might change the paper filter more often since the paper pleating isn't very dense (at least compared to my Audi's cabin air filter). After I run out of the 3-4 filters I can make out of this single central air conditioner filter, I think the next time I will spring for a more robust ~$15 filter that uses multiple layers of spongy green filtration material (probably washable), a stiffer, plastic diamon mesh as its frame.

I'm a little leary of the glass fiber filters. You really should handle that stuff with gloves so the fiberglass doesn't stick in your hands and cause you to itch.

07-27-06, 01:51 PM	#21 (permalink)
S4gunn Registered User Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: SF, CA Posts: 430 Car 1: 02 Audi S4 Car 2: 94 Acura Legend L iTrader: (1)	My current paper filter doesn't seem to cause any reduction in airflow. It will work at least as well as the acura filter. You really do want to considering using a filter - even if its the crappy Acura Honeycomb filter. After only 15K miles (the recommended replacement interval), I had a fair amount of leaves and twigs (about a handful). While I do use both recirculate and the open-air settings, cleaning this amount of crap off the filter is a lot easier than trying to get it off the evaporator core. The filter I ended up purchasing was the Naturalaire panel air filter with a "chickenwire" mesh backing for a whopping $3.97 + tax at Home Depot. You can see an example as item # 732679 on homedepot.com This filter is stiff enough and will work better than the OEM one at filtration. I think the OEM was relied on electrostatic force though since the honeycomb walls appear to be darker than when I put it in. My only concern is that I might change the paper filter more often since the paper pleating isn't very dense (at least compared to my Audi's cabin air filter). After I run out of the 3-4 filters I can make out of this single central air conditioner filter, I think the next time I will spring for a more robust ~$15 filter that uses multiple layers of spongy green filtration material (probably washable), a stiffer, plastic diamon mesh as its frame. I'm a little leary of the glass fiber filters. You really should handle that stuff with gloves so the fiberglass doesn't stick in your hands and cause you to itch. __________________ 2002 Audi S4 1994 Acura Legend L (commuter)