I replaced my cabin filter yesterday I bought at Autzone, cost 29 bucks, a lot less then the dealer, I noticed when i pulled out my old one, holy crappola, it had leaves and some dirt inside, i had to vaccum it out, before i installed a new one, I haven't replaced it since I bought her new, til now, which has 71k miles on the odo. I can't imagine how much crap accumulated by the heater core when I looked inside. Ahh smell a lot cleaner when i put it the new one.

 

was it easy to get to it's behind the glove box right?

 

So whats the moral of this story in terms of the in cabin air filter?

 

Very. Remove glove box and replace filter. It took me about 10 mins and I'd never done it before.

 

Is it the same on the 5th gen as it is on a 5.5 gen?

 

thanks will be doing this nx pay check

 

I found a great seller on ebay for the cabin filters. Just look for " AirCabinMan " and he has lots of listings for autoparts and especially filters for our specific application. I bought a set of charcoal filters and they cost me about $16 shipped.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/CABIN...000-2001-2002-

 

Very nice find, Chris. Thank you for the heads-up.

A new cabin filter has been on my list for a while, with OEM pricing over $50, and the lowest I could find online being $35... until now, that is. This is a bargain. I ordered the pair just now, shipped to my door at $15.65 USD.

I have never replaced my cabin filter in nearly 8 years of ownership. It's going to be real interesting to see what the original looks like.

 

Mine was so bad it plugged up the evaporator drain...Boy what a nasty mess was inside there. $40 from the dealer and it fixed a lot of problems I had! Make sure you vacuum all the crap out that's in there, otherwise it'll accumulate faster and stink up again haha

 

I agree...very easy to replace and I had never done it before....7 years worth of buildup....very nasty filter after all those years.

 

Link is already dead but he's pretty easy to find. He also sells in bulk, I just picked up 3 sets. Who knows how bad fire season will be this year.

 

Cripes I gotta do mine 121k ..

 

Thanks dude! I just bought a pair

 

I went the cheap way and cleaned my filter with soapwater. Worked like a charm

 

I originally did the soap water thing after I bought the car. But, you have to make sure your filter is the washable one. IIRC, there are filters that are washable. Most are not. When I recently installed my charcoal filters from ebay.....the filter I had washed and reinstalled had callapsed and begun to fall apart.

I'm all for avoiding unnecessary costs, but I think you may end up with more problems by skipping out of $16 on something that is going to help protect your heating and cooling system, help keep the drain clear, and aid in the reduction of dust circulated and pushed into the cabin.

 

I was in Walmart a couple of weeks ago and I noticed they are now carrying Fram's new line of cabin air filters called Freshbreeze. I didn't check the price but they did have one for the 5.5 gen Maxima's.

 

Good find, next time I'm in Walmart I will look for this and see how much it is.

 

They also sell the cabin filters at Napa (microguard or something) and they are nowhere near OEM prices. Also a nice quality filter..

 

Just checked Fram's website, they are offering $3.00 cash back on a purchase of in cabin filters until 09/30/10. Here is the link for the coupon.

http://www.fram.com/rebate/fresh_bre...air_filter.php

Part for our cars is #CF10554

Looking online, looks like these filters cost more than stock replacements.

http://www.oilfiltersonline.com/prod...4&item_id=9076

This gives you a little more to choose from, Fram still looks to be very expensive.

http://www.rockauto.com/dbphp/x,carc...ir_Filter.html

So, I don't know what Walmart has them for, but still looks like the ebay filters I posted earlier (aircabinman) is the best deal.

 

Well got mine in and replaced the filters in the car. They obviously have been replaced before since I found some factory charcoal filters in there. Yea they were pretty nasty on the bottom the pleats were filled with dirt.

 

Ok so how do you know if your car has a cabin filter I have a 2002 se and a 2000 Se never heard anything about it?????

 

2002 has it for sure, I do not think 2k's have in cabin filters.

 

Recently, I had to replace the blower motor. While I had the glovebox out, I took a look at the cabin filter. I was surprised that it was a two-piece filter. I pulled them out and they didn't look as bad as I thought they would. I didn't replace them this time, though. Maybe later this summer.

 

I believe the OEM is one piece and my aftermarket I replaced it with from an ebay sale was 2 pieces.

 

I've never changed the filter on the car since we got it, so that two-piece unit WAS the OEM filter. Weird way to do a filter, though. Engineers...

 

I was under the impression that the OEM filter was a single-piece unit, and the aftermarkets were 2-piece, exactly like TallTom just said.

Not that it really matters one way or the other. I suppose I'll find out this weekend, after this ebay filter shows up and I replace it.

 

I work at Napa, the filters are under $20 with my discount, only thing is, They do not have the carbon in them like the better ones do.

 

IIRC: There is a sticker inside your glove box which indicates whether you have the cabin filtration system (air filters).

"Precaution for ventalation air filter usage." Is what the white sticker says, to the left on the glove box lid.

 

Odd. I really thought the one I pulled out was one piece.

 

I bought my car with 59k. At around 100k I replaced mine with a DIY version (cut my own out of home furnace filter). The one I pulled out was a Nissan OEM filter (washable) and was a one piece as well. I'm at 150k now and probably should see how my DIY version held up.

 

Your 2002 ahould have one along with a label in the glove compartment that looks like the pic below. Your 2000 did not have one installed at the factory, but it does have a housing for it if you decide to install one (at least that was my case).

 

Thats strange, the one I got from Napa was black charcoal style filter. It seems like a great quality filter. (2 piece)

 

The ones I pulled out were Nissan OEM, I can only guess they went to a 2 filter setup sometime in the last few years.

 

Some original ones were one piece, they updated to a two piece design over time. At least thats what the Nissan parts guy said.

 

That ebay cabin filter arrived today. I went to Shiftice.com for instructions on pulling the glove box off the dash. It was pretty easy, actually.

It really wasn't that bad behind the filter. The filter itself was pretty dirty. If you hold it up to the light, you can only see around the edges.

Here they are, side by side:

 

I actually had 2 boxes waiting for me when I got home today. The second was an 80mm replacement Apexi filter for my SRI. The last time I replaced it was two years ago. And it was two years before that when I bought one new with my Frankencar SRI.

Putting a new pop-charger on is always sweet those first few drives, as you recognize the subtle changes before it all becomes normal again.

I thought I'd take a picture of that too, because... well, because it's so damn pretty.

 

Jeez, looks a lot cleaner than mine did!

 

Yeah, you know, I was expecting a total mess. But it really wasn't that crazy. Yes, it's been almost 8 years, but it's also only been 58k miles.

I could go on about how clean & fresh the air smells now...

Nah, just kidding.

 

Your new double filter looks just like my new Napa cabin filter

 

lol..no eye rolling, mine actually DID smell a lot cleaner! But then, you'd have to see the pictures to believe it..and the mileage doesn't make a bit of difference, my car to date only has 52,xxx miles on it! And I changed mine before winter!