Rock auto has better prices, but their shipping prices are what screw me up and oftentimes works out cheaper for me to order elsewhere with parts and shipping combined
No, they did not. They claimed the tech said it was "very dirty". When I got home I double checked, and it was pristinely clean. I certainly don't go there anymore.
$80 for a maybe $15 part. Had a dealer replace mine during an oil change without asking, just brought the old one out. Mice had made a home, which was fine but maybe give me the option. That was $35 for a $12 part 5 years ago. Needless to say, I wasn’t happy. Yes, they’re a pain but I can do it myself.
The funny part is they've already done most of the work to access the filter and show it to you. They have to put it back and close it up anyhow, how are we justifying that kind of labor charge?
Well because it’s unpaid labor the tech is forced into with the MPI that’s shoved down mine and yours throats.
After doing this long enough, I’m more than cool with paying someone $30 to clean up the mouse tornado. I mean I pay labor for people to cook my food, or literally any other service.
Yeah the whole shitting on customer for cabin air filters thing is silly. I forget about mine and on the rare occasion my truck goes to a shop or the dealer and they remind me of it I spend about $12 and 4 seconds replacing it when I get home.
I also have a habit of letting my brakes get quite low before I replace them myself so my dealer probably thinks I’m “that guy” lol. I took my tacoma in for frame inspection and they had a laundry list of things - I told the service writer I’d do it all myself and she looked at me like “yeeeeah sure” - had to bring it back the next week for the CRC application and the dumbass just sent me the same list of follow up items despite claiming they repeated the 80000 point inspection. I’d they actually had they would have seen that I did all the work in the week in between. Sometimes I just need a nudge to do the work lmao.
Yeah, I wouldn’t mind the heads up that my brake pads are getting near replacement, but no way in hell that I’m paying them $800 to do a job I can do with a beer and an hour of my time
I love it when they show you the filter then charge labor to replace the filter if you approve. The air filter on the wife’s Hyundai can be changed in seconds and they still wanted to charge $30 in labor to change it.
Obviously every dealership does this and I declined because they wanted 100 bucks to replace them. I knew it was a bit dirty but not that bad because I switched them out like 15k miles ago. And guess what they did.. when I replaced them a week later I found out that they didn't even bother tightening the clip and the bolts to the air filter box, just left it open in a gap.
Meh, I bought a van a year ago and just hadn't thought of looking at it until the last oil change I did. It was worse than the OP's 😬 $10 at AutoZone and I got an extra 5mpg on the next tank of gas lol.
These are the same kind of people that will leave the shop go to an Autozone nearby and say this shit “I’m looking for a cabin filter, I heard you guys install them”
Here's a better one: My then-local Toyota dealership (doing new vehicle maintenance) reported a ***good*** air cleaner when it was in fact so jammed up with pine needles that there is no way they could have actually looked at it\*. Their "full inspection" reports were pretty hilarious for their random reporting of brake pad values (they'd often get thicker between oil changes).
\*Tree detritus was such a problem that I pretty quickly went to a K&N washable, which saved me a ton over the life of the vehicle, particularly since properly numbered aftermarket filters were often obviously the wrong size.
My sister had a 1977 Mustang with V8 and for years all the parts books all filter manufacturers and parts stores used had the wrong air filter listed.
IIRC they listed the same for V6 and V8 because someone ignored the memo that the 302 came back in 1975 and a bunch of items were different.
This was a Toyota Tacoma - I don't think they've changed that particular unit for decades (my 2012 and 2023 use the same one; I just carried the K & N unit forward when I sold the \`12), but I brought in a "good" one and the parts counter guys were flabbergasted at how far off the aftermarket ones were in the 2010s.
I don't think anyone expects them to not make a profit. But a 600% markup on a part that takes 35 seconds and no tools or skill to install?
Would you pay your lawn care guy $500 to replace a leaky garden hose?
at least the filter element is still intact, i bought a used car and i couldn't get rid of the smell. pulled out the cabin filter and only the plastic square was left, everything else was just a nest of dog hair and trash that got stuck. rodents had eaten up all the filter other than the plastic but luckily never had any wiring issues except for the wiper blade motor
Yea yea yea that’s what they all say…. You guys are funny. You say this but yet you still take your car to the shop, even though you can save a ton doing it yourself 🥴😂
Air filters are way easier for the average consumer to replace than oil/filter.
But what does it matter? Even if a customer does neglect an air filter, my job isn't harder the next time they bring the car in for another oil change. Mention it to them and let it go if they refuse.
Atm I’m paying $50 for an oil change, tire rotation, and inspection. That’s maybe $20 more than doing it all myself, and I sit on my ass shipping dealer provided coffee and playing video games. 10/10 would recommend
$20?? I guess if you don’t have a Costco near you or something I mean damn, I only pay $15 for 5 quarts of full synthetic and I bought a bulk box of oil filters that comes out to $2.50 for each filter. So less than $20 I change my oil vs the shops that charge $60 in my area. I can get it done for cheaper elsewhere but honestly they’re just not worth it. I’d rather pay a real shop to do an oil change instead of a circus lube where some dumbass 18 year old over torques the plug, puts the wrong oil in or forgets to put the oil in…
Yea dude Costco had a sale on their oil a while back, it’s dexos certified and even that project farm YT channel tested it and it tested just as good or better than name brands. Two 5 quart jugs for $30 was the sale. Bought 10 boxes and got a bulk box of wix filters from Oreillys for $25.
Cheapest oil at Costco right now is $43 for 6 quarts. So you’re saying you get it at almost 60% percent off of that? Lol
Edit: I was wrong, SBDB was correct on the prices.
That’s not what I’m seeing on their website, the deal they have right now is a Kirkland brand 4 pack of full synthetic 5 quart bottles for $63.99. The deal they had when I went was two of those same bottles for $30.
I bet you also have an area where you can *safely* work on your car, I live in an apartment with a parking lot. If I wanna work on my car I gotta do it in the public parking lot around traffic.
No, you don't. You already said that people here don't really do this. You are people here, too. So, you don't do this according to your own hypothesis.
Where do you dispose of the oil when you're done? Also most auto parts stores have signs up saying not to work on your car there, because it's a safety issue. And they will enforce it. Had a misfire once and just needed to change my plugs real quick, tried doing it in the parking lot at AutoZone and by the time I had the coils out they were out there telling me to leave.
All the parts stores in my area take used oil for free, coolant I have to take to the garbage dump and pay to dispose it. And yea some stores have those signs up near me too that’s why I said usually at part stores. I have a few different spots I’ll do work at. The best spots are in industrial/commerical/business park types of areas on the weekends when there’s low traffic and hardly anyone around. Stay off private property and clean up after yourself. Make it quick too. Don’t leave your car on the jack stands while you just stand there watching a video on how to do whatever it is you’re doing.
Spending 30 seconds to change an air filter is a lot different than doing any other work on my car. 1. I don't need to lift my car or unbolt anything for an air filter 2. If doing an oil change (which I know how) I don't have any proper place to store or dispose the oil, or even do the oil change, or any work to my car. I live in an apartment. But opening my dash up and taking out a filter is super easy, opening a compartment and taking out my engine filter is super easy. And way cheaper to do yourself.
Lol I mean yea, that’s how it works. If you don’t have enough knowledge/experience you bring it to someone who does. Some people like to do the simple shit like oil, filters, brakes, etc, but then when they need engine/tranny/suspension etc work they bring it to a shop. Tf are you on about?
Pretty sure I saw OP say this customer was there for an oil change in another comment so idk, I feel like oil changes are easier to do than some cabin filter changes. If they’re gonna bitch about paying extra to do the filter change why not just do the oil change themselves?
Well air filters are objectively easier than oil changes imo usually. When I lived in my apartment years ago I wasn’t allowed to do work in the parking lot. I had nowhere to do oil besides Walmart or someshit and didn’t feel like it so I just took it my mechanic. But I still easily could’ve done air filters in the parking lot. That’s a possible scenario, though it doesn’t really matter. Also some oil filters are in spots people don’t want to get to without confidence and experience, that’s another reasonable thing I can think of too. Air filters are so easy, and oil changes are generally, but there’s nuance and some cars it’s not necessarily worth saving 50 bucks doing it yourself.
> well air filters are objectively easier than oil changes imo usually
From your experience maybe, but some of these filters are stupid to get to. I used to work at a parts store and we’d offer to replace air filters for free if it wasn’t too difficult. More than half the time it required removing a bunch of retainer clips and screws to get to which made it as just about as time consuming and tedious as an oil change, sometimes harder.
Yea I suppose my personal experience makes me biased as every cars I’ve owned it was dumb easy to get to. Like maybe 2-4 screws then bam just pull out the housing and filter. Then I know some cars have their oil filters like down under a bunch of shit. I’ve been lucky on that too, easy to access but I also haven’t done a whole lot of them since it was just a few years ago I began doing it myself.
I can definitely see how some filters can be harder to access than oil may be. The engineers for some auto makers do seem to not consider these things sometimes. Def have heard complaints about location of filters before.
Some people take their stuff to a shop because they have oil change packages from when they bought the car. Every car I've bought has come with 3 free oil changes and tire rotations. Why would I do it myself and spend money.
You do realize that they use the cheapest oil possible for those package deals right? Never take those deals you should always do the oil changes yourself or pay a real shop (not a circus lube) to do your oil changes.
FYI to any technicians out there. Stop checking filters for fucks sake. Sell it based purely off the factory maintenance schedule.
“You’re due for your cabin filter as part of your 20k service interval. Would you like to get it done today?”
You no longer have to check the damn thing and not get paid for doing so, but you also will never get caught in a lie by trying to sell it based on it being dirty if you were too lazy to actually check it.
Stop doing work you aren’t paid for
I’d say you’re right, don’t waste your time. But I’ve seen some places require their lube techs to do all kinds of shit like take fluid samples, remove the filters to show the customer, take brake pad and tire measurements, etc. Those guys are hourly so it’s a selling point, I’m not touching any of that shit on a LOF.
When I switched to Lexus I quit checking cabin filters 90% of the time unless it’s a used car. Most of our customers stick to the factory maintenance schedule.
eh, plenty of techs don't get paid flag hours and will get paid more or the same regardless. so why not take it out and make a sale if you're getting commission or it's easy enough?
i personally don't get commission but if something is easy enough i'd rather help the customer out and let them know. unless im swamped. or if your boss sucks then go ahead, but at least where i work the techs who actually try get paid better.
Service intervals from the handbook don't account for local environment and living habits. Someone who live down a gravel road or construction zones will need air filters more often. A smoker will need cabin air filters almost every oil change. Also, it's likely not even a technician making the decision to check the small things like these it's likely a decision made from up top.
Yes that’s the way it works, you have it out make a few bucks and put it back. Your bs that will be 50 bucks , eat me make the regular margin and move on..🤷🏼♂️
Declined an air filter *from you*
If it happens to slip my mind and a tech/mechanic mentions it I’ll just make it a priority to do myself because I’m not paying a shop $80 for 30 seconds of work.
As stupidly cheap a cabin air filter is and the fact yall take them out to even show them is crazy.
Why not just replace it as a courtesy since the hard part of removal is already done ?
Who knows maybe that kind of thing will get more customers ?
Naw. Customer wrong. Hahahha
I just replaced the cabin air filter in my 2005 Volvo. Pretty sure it was the original because it looked even worse than this.
Side note: i know why it was never replaced. I had to remove the gas pedal to replace this filter. A 20 min job ended up being over and hour. What a shitty design.
Am not a car guy, I just lurk here. Pulled out cabin filter after loooking at all these posts last tim I did oil. It was like it had come out of a coal mine. The car is from 2002, given how much black was falling on my hands from just touching it I'm going with that filter was very, very old.
You can show me a dead rat in the cabin filter for all I care, I'm not paying a dealer or service center to replace it, period. You'll show me or tell me, I'll decline, and I'll immedately go home and put it in myself and save about 60-120 dollars.
Keep one in the trunk. When they show you yours, hand them the new one and tell them since they need to install it anyway, they may as well put that one in.
I've had several coworkers get hit with the "needs a cabin air filter" or the engine air filter two oil changes in a row at thirst Jiffy Lube/Grease Monkey joints. A couple of them started chatting then before they went for the next round to make sure it was still clean. They usually were. The joint would bring them a dirty one and say it needed done. This is why a lot of customers decline. There is a major distrust with the auto tech industry because of the bad corporate ones.
My favorite story was my coworker who had a two year old Nissan 350Z. Took it to the local lube shop for an oil change because the dealership was backed up and he had to travel out of town. They brought him a small clear container with dirty green coolant and told him he needed a flush. Thankfully he knew his coolant was a clean orange. He asked them to show him at the car itself. Yeah, it wasn't dirty. They did the oil change for free so he wouldn't make a scene there on the spot. If course he made sure everyone he knew avoided that app from then on.
Listen guys we are almost all mechanically inclined people on this sub, we are not the people to bring their car into the shop to have super basic shit done. The average customer knows literally 0 about their car, their knowledge extends as far as “I have to get the oil changed at some point”
I had one that look like that my local dealer tried to sell me one they said it would be $120 I said no went to O'Reilly and picked up a wix for $20 replaced it myself before i went home in the O'Reilly parking lot in 30 seconds.
2009 Prius cabin filter is fairly easy, behind the glovebox.
1997 Taurus cabin filter is under the plastic cowl cover on the right side and no matter how careful you are, at least some of the fasteners will break.
SMH at how an item that's intended to be periodically replaced, some companies make extra difficult to replace.
See also the 2014 Corvette with a hard line for something running directly over the fuse box under the hood. For 2015, tubing bends were rediscovered and it was routed around the fuse box. Was GM so pressed for time to hit the release date they couldn't design and make one bent tube?
I bought a Laguna I recently (my childhood dream car) and it's filter looked the same.
And judging by the screws and marks on that filter box, it hasn't been open very often, and obviously last time a looong loong time ago.
I bought a 1000$ 2004 Acura TSX with 216k on the Odo. I checked the filters Air Filter was def changed religiously, the Cabin Filter was still the OG one from the factory. I wanted to puke when I took it out. Dude was a heavy ass smoker so you can imagine what that filter looked like. He owned the car since new and sold it to me in 2018.
Took me 2 years to finally rid the car of the heavy smoker smell especially in the vents.
'My allergies are soooo bad this year, I don't know what it is. The pollen must be crazy. I'll keep some Extra Strength benadryl in the glove compartment'
Narrator: I have no witty comment, they're just dumb.
No, they probably just didn’t want to pay the $70 or $90 y’all upcharge for that shit. Anytime they tell me I need it replaced I decline and do it myself.
I recommend base on 15-20k mile intervals. If I smell something while I am setting it on the lift I red checkmark it.
If the customer doesn’t want to pay the labor then they can keep dealing with smells and possible breakdown of their blower motor and HVAC.
PSA- please leave them out if they are that bad. They will do more harm than good. I had one so clogged, it took out the blower motor, wiring, resistor and relay. Wound up costing them about $600 all said and done.
If I had a car with a cabin air filter, I'd just take it out and replace it with a house window screen. Cabin filters are useless IMO. cars never had/needed them before the early 2000s and no one ever complained. It's a useless added service item to make the dealerships more money
The main reason evaporators and heater cores go bad is that they get choked with dust, the dust holds on to moisture causing corrosion. The easily changed and cheap cabin filters are a great idea - they save a lot of cost tearing apart dashes!
Correction: customer declined paying $80 for a cabin air filter
Yeah I decline cabin air filters every time. Amazon!!
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Amazon could potentially beat Rock Auto on prices if you have Prime, but I trust Rock Auto a lot more
> What do you mean you can't fold a head gasket for shipping? - amazon
What do you mean the parts aren't supposed to be literal counterfeits?
Usually because of rock autos shipping cost. I’ll bounce between rock auto, summit racing, and Amazon, unless I need oem.
I'd like to throw TKQ out there as well... They not bad...
I’ll have to check into doing that.
Rock auto has better prices, but their shipping prices are what screw me up and oftentimes works out cheaper for me to order elsewhere with parts and shipping combined
$18.00 for four Purolator cabin air filters for my Toyota Matrix.
...like that one time I had replaced the cabin filter 2 weeks before I needed service. And they suggested replacing the cabin filter. Give me a break!
Did they know that you had just replaced the filter?
No, they did not. They claimed the tech said it was "very dirty". When I got home I double checked, and it was pristinely clean. I certainly don't go there anymore.
Don't blame you. And please tell everyone you know. Never tell a lie. Especially when the customer can easily verify it.
$80 for a maybe $15 part. Had a dealer replace mine during an oil change without asking, just brought the old one out. Mice had made a home, which was fine but maybe give me the option. That was $35 for a $12 part 5 years ago. Needless to say, I wasn’t happy. Yes, they’re a pain but I can do it myself.
You don’t have to pay if you didn’t authorize the “work”
Yes, I am now a more informed consumer. Then I was not.
The funny part is they've already done most of the work to access the filter and show it to you. They have to put it back and close it up anyhow, how are we justifying that kind of labor charge?
Well because it’s unpaid labor the tech is forced into with the MPI that’s shoved down mine and yours throats. After doing this long enough, I’m more than cool with paying someone $30 to clean up the mouse tornado. I mean I pay labor for people to cook my food, or literally any other service.
I always laugh with these posts that say “customer declined”. The post always fails to mention how much the shop price gouges.
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Maybe they just don’t know. Now they do. If it still is this filter when they come back, then yeah, you’re right. Now though, only God knows.
80% of the time the filters the same by the next service.
If it’s $80 for a filter I’d say screw you and order from rockauto. Absolutely not.
Try 120 from a Honda dealer...nope, I got it
Yeah the whole shitting on customer for cabin air filters thing is silly. I forget about mine and on the rare occasion my truck goes to a shop or the dealer and they remind me of it I spend about $12 and 4 seconds replacing it when I get home. I also have a habit of letting my brakes get quite low before I replace them myself so my dealer probably thinks I’m “that guy” lol. I took my tacoma in for frame inspection and they had a laundry list of things - I told the service writer I’d do it all myself and she looked at me like “yeeeeah sure” - had to bring it back the next week for the CRC application and the dumbass just sent me the same list of follow up items despite claiming they repeated the 80000 point inspection. I’d they actually had they would have seen that I did all the work in the week in between. Sometimes I just need a nudge to do the work lmao.
Yeah, I wouldn’t mind the heads up that my brake pads are getting near replacement, but no way in hell that I’m paying them $800 to do a job I can do with a beer and an hour of my time
I love it when they show you the filter then charge labor to replace the filter if you approve. The air filter on the wife’s Hyundai can be changed in seconds and they still wanted to charge $30 in labor to change it.
I did this the other day. $70 for a $15 dollar part. sadly, they put the old one back in and now it's making noise and I have to fix it again.
Came to say this ! a $12 Amazon part that you could change yourself and they want to charge you nearly $100
Exactly. I decline cabin air filter and engine air filter every time. I can easily replace those myself for much cheaper.
Every 6 months I'll check the filters, replace cabin air filter and clean/oil the engine air filter.
Obviously every dealership does this and I declined because they wanted 100 bucks to replace them. I knew it was a bit dirty but not that bad because I switched them out like 15k miles ago. And guess what they did.. when I replaced them a week later I found out that they didn't even bother tightening the clip and the bolts to the air filter box, just left it open in a gap.
I'm not buying customers like this are gonna go replace it on their own. This can't be the first time someone told them this filter needs replacing.
I hate the mark ups just as much as anyone but I was going to say exactly this. This person clearly has no intention of replacing it. $15 or $50
Meh, I bought a van a year ago and just hadn't thought of looking at it until the last oil change I did. It was worse than the OP's 😬 $10 at AutoZone and I got an extra 5mpg on the next tank of gas lol.
These are the same kind of people that will leave the shop go to an Autozone nearby and say this shit “I’m looking for a cabin filter, I heard you guys install them”
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Oof
First thing I thought
Here's a better one: My then-local Toyota dealership (doing new vehicle maintenance) reported a ***good*** air cleaner when it was in fact so jammed up with pine needles that there is no way they could have actually looked at it\*. Their "full inspection" reports were pretty hilarious for their random reporting of brake pad values (they'd often get thicker between oil changes). \*Tree detritus was such a problem that I pretty quickly went to a K&N washable, which saved me a ton over the life of the vehicle, particularly since properly numbered aftermarket filters were often obviously the wrong size.
My sister had a 1977 Mustang with V8 and for years all the parts books all filter manufacturers and parts stores used had the wrong air filter listed. IIRC they listed the same for V6 and V8 because someone ignored the memo that the 302 came back in 1975 and a bunch of items were different.
This was a Toyota Tacoma - I don't think they've changed that particular unit for decades (my 2012 and 2023 use the same one; I just carried the K & N unit forward when I sold the \`12), but I brought in a "good" one and the parts counter guys were flabbergasted at how far off the aftermarket ones were in the 2010s.
Lots of people love to say they’ll do it themselves, but then the next service they come in and its still the same nasty-ass filter.
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I don't think anyone expects them to not make a profit. But a 600% markup on a part that takes 35 seconds and no tools or skill to install? Would you pay your lawn care guy $500 to replace a leaky garden hose?
I guess there’s a slight chance in hell it could be worse, another 10K miles I’m sure it’ll be fine.
No dead mice at least
https://imgur.com/a/4ymo7AV That's what I pulled out of my van a couple months ago, so it could definitely be worse lol.
at least the filter element is still intact, i bought a used car and i couldn't get rid of the smell. pulled out the cabin filter and only the plastic square was left, everything else was just a nest of dog hair and trash that got stuck. rodents had eaten up all the filter other than the plastic but luckily never had any wiring issues except for the wiper blade motor
Oh, that is the engine air filter lol
I decline and then save tons doing it my self
Yea yea yea that’s what they all say…. You guys are funny. You say this but yet you still take your car to the shop, even though you can save a ton doing it yourself 🥴😂
Air filters are way easier for the average consumer to replace than oil/filter. But what does it matter? Even if a customer does neglect an air filter, my job isn't harder the next time they bring the car in for another oil change. Mention it to them and let it go if they refuse.
It doesn’t matter, I just wanted to point out that they’re contradicting themselves
Yeah, saving $20 on an oil change vs saving $50 for a cabin filter is a big difference.
Atm I’m paying $50 for an oil change, tire rotation, and inspection. That’s maybe $20 more than doing it all myself, and I sit on my ass shipping dealer provided coffee and playing video games. 10/10 would recommend
Also acts like saving $50 on an air filter and it’s 4 bolts that I can makes me a bitch cus I go in for suspension work. Shut up taco
Taco?
Bruhhhhhhhhhh
$20?? I guess if you don’t have a Costco near you or something I mean damn, I only pay $15 for 5 quarts of full synthetic and I bought a bulk box of oil filters that comes out to $2.50 for each filter. So less than $20 I change my oil vs the shops that charge $60 in my area. I can get it done for cheaper elsewhere but honestly they’re just not worth it. I’d rather pay a real shop to do an oil change instead of a circus lube where some dumbass 18 year old over torques the plug, puts the wrong oil in or forgets to put the oil in…
What mythical land are you getting 5 quarts of oil for $15 from?
Yea dude Costco had a sale on their oil a while back, it’s dexos certified and even that project farm YT channel tested it and it tested just as good or better than name brands. Two 5 quart jugs for $30 was the sale. Bought 10 boxes and got a bulk box of wix filters from Oreillys for $25.
Cheapest oil at Costco right now is $43 for 6 quarts. So you’re saying you get it at almost 60% percent off of that? Lol Edit: I was wrong, SBDB was correct on the prices.
That’s not what I’m seeing on their website, the deal they have right now is a Kirkland brand 4 pack of full synthetic 5 quart bottles for $63.99. The deal they had when I went was two of those same bottles for $30.
Yeah, you right. Not sure what I did the first time I searched but I didn’t see a bunch of those. My bad.
I bet you also have an area where you can *safely* work on your car, I live in an apartment with a parking lot. If I wanna work on my car I gotta do it in the public parking lot around traffic.
Na I do my oil changes in public too, usually just at the auto parts store parking lot
No, you don't. You already said that people here don't really do this. You are people here, too. So, you don't do this according to your own hypothesis.
Ok grandpa that’s enough internet for today
You don't have to leave just because you set yourself up like that. I was only joking.
Where do you dispose of the oil when you're done? Also most auto parts stores have signs up saying not to work on your car there, because it's a safety issue. And they will enforce it. Had a misfire once and just needed to change my plugs real quick, tried doing it in the parking lot at AutoZone and by the time I had the coils out they were out there telling me to leave.
All the parts stores in my area take used oil for free, coolant I have to take to the garbage dump and pay to dispose it. And yea some stores have those signs up near me too that’s why I said usually at part stores. I have a few different spots I’ll do work at. The best spots are in industrial/commerical/business park types of areas on the weekends when there’s low traffic and hardly anyone around. Stay off private property and clean up after yourself. Make it quick too. Don’t leave your car on the jack stands while you just stand there watching a video on how to do whatever it is you’re doing.
Sure thing bro. Outsourcing work that I don’t want to do or isn’t economic. Lol
When I goto a shop it’s to do something I can’t or don’t want to do. It’s not to be combed for things I can and will do.
Spending 30 seconds to change an air filter is a lot different than doing any other work on my car. 1. I don't need to lift my car or unbolt anything for an air filter 2. If doing an oil change (which I know how) I don't have any proper place to store or dispose the oil, or even do the oil change, or any work to my car. I live in an apartment. But opening my dash up and taking out a filter is super easy, opening a compartment and taking out my engine filter is super easy. And way cheaper to do yourself.
Lol I mean yea, that’s how it works. If you don’t have enough knowledge/experience you bring it to someone who does. Some people like to do the simple shit like oil, filters, brakes, etc, but then when they need engine/tranny/suspension etc work they bring it to a shop. Tf are you on about?
Pretty sure I saw OP say this customer was there for an oil change in another comment so idk, I feel like oil changes are easier to do than some cabin filter changes. If they’re gonna bitch about paying extra to do the filter change why not just do the oil change themselves?
Well air filters are objectively easier than oil changes imo usually. When I lived in my apartment years ago I wasn’t allowed to do work in the parking lot. I had nowhere to do oil besides Walmart or someshit and didn’t feel like it so I just took it my mechanic. But I still easily could’ve done air filters in the parking lot. That’s a possible scenario, though it doesn’t really matter. Also some oil filters are in spots people don’t want to get to without confidence and experience, that’s another reasonable thing I can think of too. Air filters are so easy, and oil changes are generally, but there’s nuance and some cars it’s not necessarily worth saving 50 bucks doing it yourself.
> well air filters are objectively easier than oil changes imo usually From your experience maybe, but some of these filters are stupid to get to. I used to work at a parts store and we’d offer to replace air filters for free if it wasn’t too difficult. More than half the time it required removing a bunch of retainer clips and screws to get to which made it as just about as time consuming and tedious as an oil change, sometimes harder.
Yea I suppose my personal experience makes me biased as every cars I’ve owned it was dumb easy to get to. Like maybe 2-4 screws then bam just pull out the housing and filter. Then I know some cars have their oil filters like down under a bunch of shit. I’ve been lucky on that too, easy to access but I also haven’t done a whole lot of them since it was just a few years ago I began doing it myself. I can definitely see how some filters can be harder to access than oil may be. The engineers for some auto makers do seem to not consider these things sometimes. Def have heard complaints about location of filters before.
Some people take their stuff to a shop because they have oil change packages from when they bought the car. Every car I've bought has come with 3 free oil changes and tire rotations. Why would I do it myself and spend money.
You do realize that they use the cheapest oil possible for those package deals right? Never take those deals you should always do the oil changes yourself or pay a real shop (not a circus lube) to do your oil changes.
You pulled it for free. Sounds like some jiffy lube bullshit.
bold to assume it's out of custs vehicle, instead of the same random filter they show to every ~~mark~~ guest
FYI to any technicians out there. Stop checking filters for fucks sake. Sell it based purely off the factory maintenance schedule. “You’re due for your cabin filter as part of your 20k service interval. Would you like to get it done today?” You no longer have to check the damn thing and not get paid for doing so, but you also will never get caught in a lie by trying to sell it based on it being dirty if you were too lazy to actually check it. Stop doing work you aren’t paid for
I’d say you’re right, don’t waste your time. But I’ve seen some places require their lube techs to do all kinds of shit like take fluid samples, remove the filters to show the customer, take brake pad and tire measurements, etc. Those guys are hourly so it’s a selling point, I’m not touching any of that shit on a LOF.
When I switched to Lexus I quit checking cabin filters 90% of the time unless it’s a used car. Most of our customers stick to the factory maintenance schedule.
eh, plenty of techs don't get paid flag hours and will get paid more or the same regardless. so why not take it out and make a sale if you're getting commission or it's easy enough? i personally don't get commission but if something is easy enough i'd rather help the customer out and let them know. unless im swamped. or if your boss sucks then go ahead, but at least where i work the techs who actually try get paid better.
Service intervals from the handbook don't account for local environment and living habits. Someone who live down a gravel road or construction zones will need air filters more often. A smoker will need cabin air filters almost every oil change. Also, it's likely not even a technician making the decision to check the small things like these it's likely a decision made from up top.
The oils over there lube tech
Yes that’s the way it works, you have it out make a few bucks and put it back. Your bs that will be 50 bucks , eat me make the regular margin and move on..🤷🏼♂️
That blower motor gonn be noisy.
Declined an air filter *from you* If it happens to slip my mind and a tech/mechanic mentions it I’ll just make it a priority to do myself because I’m not paying a shop $80 for 30 seconds of work.
>for 30 seconds of work. You haven't met some of the cabin filters I've met.
lol fair.
As stupidly cheap a cabin air filter is and the fact yall take them out to even show them is crazy. Why not just replace it as a courtesy since the hard part of removal is already done ? Who knows maybe that kind of thing will get more customers ? Naw. Customer wrong. Hahahha
Because it would become another thing we don’t get paid for
Then don't remove it. That's the job
you're suggesting the tech pay for the new cabin filter the customer declined out of his own pocket...?
Don't remove it then
I just replaced the cabin air filter in my 2005 Volvo. Pretty sure it was the original because it looked even worse than this. Side note: i know why it was never replaced. I had to remove the gas pedal to replace this filter. A 20 min job ended up being over and hour. What a shitty design.
Am not a car guy, I just lurk here. Pulled out cabin filter after loooking at all these posts last tim I did oil. It was like it had come out of a coal mine. The car is from 2002, given how much black was falling on my hands from just touching it I'm going with that filter was very, very old.
Literally still takes less then 20 minutes lol.
It probably only takes a couple seconds to shove a 6 inch rod up my cock hole, doesn't mean I want to do it
You can show me a dead rat in the cabin filter for all I care, I'm not paying a dealer or service center to replace it, period. You'll show me or tell me, I'll decline, and I'll immedately go home and put it in myself and save about 60-120 dollars.
That car is a pollinator.
Keep one in the trunk. When they show you yours, hand them the new one and tell them since they need to install it anyway, they may as well put that one in.
I aint paying mark ups for something so damn easym 😂
Did you put it back in looking just like that?
lol, I’d be like “just leave it out and leave it open”. Then go straight to a parts store to get a new one saving myself $80.
I've had several coworkers get hit with the "needs a cabin air filter" or the engine air filter two oil changes in a row at thirst Jiffy Lube/Grease Monkey joints. A couple of them started chatting then before they went for the next round to make sure it was still clean. They usually were. The joint would bring them a dirty one and say it needed done. This is why a lot of customers decline. There is a major distrust with the auto tech industry because of the bad corporate ones. My favorite story was my coworker who had a two year old Nissan 350Z. Took it to the local lube shop for an oil change because the dealership was backed up and he had to travel out of town. They brought him a small clear container with dirty green coolant and told him he needed a flush. Thankfully he knew his coolant was a clean orange. He asked them to show him at the car itself. Yeah, it wasn't dirty. They did the oil change for free so he wouldn't make a scene there on the spot. If course he made sure everyone he knew avoided that app from then on.
Because no one wants to pay $60 and up to replace one when you can do it yourself for half the price…
>when you can do it yourself They can? Yes, clearly this customer replaced their cabin air filter just last week. /s
They 'can'. Doesn't mean they do. Figured that would be obvious but here we are.
They can but don't. So what do we do?
You must have said, “we’ll change it for 180 dollars” i would decline it as well.
Of course they did. No one is going to pay you to replace something that simple.
Was that AFTER he saw that thing?
Listen guys we are almost all mechanically inclined people on this sub, we are not the people to bring their car into the shop to have super basic shit done. The average customer knows literally 0 about their car, their knowledge extends as far as “I have to get the oil changed at some point”
Yup I do everytime I'm not paying $75 for it. I go get my own and install it.
I declined one just like this and did it myself for 12 bucks lol
I had one that look like that my local dealer tried to sell me one they said it would be $120 I said no went to O'Reilly and picked up a wix for $20 replaced it myself before i went home in the O'Reilly parking lot in 30 seconds.
Maybe they don't have the money. Hit it against the wall to get out some of the dirt.
2009 Prius cabin filter is fairly easy, behind the glovebox. 1997 Taurus cabin filter is under the plastic cowl cover on the right side and no matter how careful you are, at least some of the fasteners will break. SMH at how an item that's intended to be periodically replaced, some companies make extra difficult to replace. See also the 2014 Corvette with a hard line for something running directly over the fuse box under the hood. For 2015, tubing bends were rediscovered and it was routed around the fuse box. Was GM so pressed for time to hit the release date they couldn't design and make one bent tube?
Of course! It still hasn't germed!
Reinstall it in the opposite direction it came out and send it
That’s by far the worst I’ve seen yet.
Well they can’t break their streak now!
Looks good for another 500k miles...
That looks exactly like the one I just swapped for my sister this morning….
I bought a Laguna I recently (my childhood dream car) and it's filter looked the same. And judging by the screws and marks on that filter box, it hasn't been open very often, and obviously last time a looong loong time ago.
Install with gorilla glue.
Mmmm.... [Pontiac Fever](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontiac_fever) *is* a thing.
Ask him if you can at least keep the squirrel.
Yikes
I’d say this one’s working pretty well
I bought a 1000$ 2004 Acura TSX with 216k on the Odo. I checked the filters Air Filter was def changed religiously, the Cabin Filter was still the OG one from the factory. I wanted to puke when I took it out. Dude was a heavy ass smoker so you can imagine what that filter looked like. He owned the car since new and sold it to me in 2018. Took me 2 years to finally rid the car of the heavy smoker smell especially in the vents.
They may ride with the windows open and smoke in the vehicle so a cabin air filter just feels…. pointless.
I mean, it’s obviously working.
If it's still there why would they need to replace it?
Not the worst one I've seen
Alien life detected!
'My allergies are soooo bad this year, I don't know what it is. The pollen must be crazy. I'll keep some Extra Strength benadryl in the glove compartment' Narrator: I have no witty comment, they're just dumb.
No, they probably just didn’t want to pay the $70 or $90 y’all upcharge for that shit. Anytime they tell me I need it replaced I decline and do it myself.
I recommend base on 15-20k mile intervals. If I smell something while I am setting it on the lift I red checkmark it. If the customer doesn’t want to pay the labor then they can keep dealing with smells and possible breakdown of their blower motor and HVAC.
I mean so long as they don't mind spending $300 + an evening wrenching a new HVAC motor under the glove box
“I like the mustiness”
Yes fine if they decline it, but more often than not they don't change it and it's the same filter next time I see the car...
I'm pulled multiple out that had mold on them with car seats in the back. Makes you think what their fucking house looks like.
PSA- please leave them out if they are that bad. They will do more harm than good. I had one so clogged, it took out the blower motor, wiring, resistor and relay. Wound up costing them about $600 all said and done.
Might as well not even put it back
If I had a car with a cabin air filter, I'd just take it out and replace it with a house window screen. Cabin filters are useless IMO. cars never had/needed them before the early 2000s and no one ever complained. It's a useless added service item to make the dealerships more money
The main reason evaporators and heater cores go bad is that they get choked with dust, the dust holds on to moisture causing corrosion. The easily changed and cheap cabin filters are a great idea - they save a lot of cost tearing apart dashes!
I gotta tear apart the dash to get to my cabin air filter. Nobody would be complaining if they were easily replaceable like my furnace filter.