No Cabin Air Filter

[DerbyDave]

Although my car is nearly 4 years old, it has less than 30K miles. Replacing the cabin air filter today, and found that there never was one installed by the Tesla factory when new. I am pissed. They should give me back the $34 I spent on a new one. Hope this omission for the last 4 years won't harm my car much in the future, as I plan on keeping it. I guess the original HEPA filter if it was installed at the factory would help minimize damage, and will find out tomorrow if it is also missing.

 

[EVRider-FL]

Since your car is under warranty, they shouldn’t have charged you to install a missing part. It’s your time to spend, but I would push back.

 

[DerbyDave]

Since your car is under warranty, they shouldn’t have charged you to install a missing part. It’s your time to spend, but I would push back.

I bought the filter and then installed it myself.

 

[beatle]

I wonder why they even have two filters. I'm not sure of the HVAC plumbing, but I thought all air went through the HEPA filter which should be more than enough filtration.

 

[DerbyDave]

I wonder why they even have two filters. I'm not sure of the HVAC plumbing, but I thought all air went through the HEPA filter which should be more than enough filtration.

Not sure either, but I think all outside air goes thru the HEPA filter, and the internal cabin filter is for recirc, and maybe also double filter for outside air.

 

[Mr.S3XY]

Now I'm going to go check mine... just to ensure they're there.

 

[DerbyDave]

Tesla will just go ahead an assemble the car with missing parts when they are not available, and not notify the purchaser when the car is delivered. They have done this with rear parcel covers, USB ports and other "accessories." Some purchasers probably never know to this date that their car is missing the rear parcel cover.

 

[dmurphy]

There’s no “damage” to speak of. It’s purely a quality-of-life thing.

 

[DerbyDave]

Leaving the filter out usually means dust, debris, and dirt can get clogged up in the exchangers and make thing less efficient.

 

[ucmndd]

Leaving the filter out usually means dust, debris, and dirt can get clogged up in the exchangers and make thing less efficient.

The HEPA filter does all the heavy lifting anyway. Just not putting one in is a very Tesla thing to do, but also a non-issue. Honestly having no filter in there at all is probably better than having one that's 4 years old (low mileage or not). They do eventually gum up, making the blower and everything else work harder to move air.

 

[DerbyDave]

The HEPA filter does all the heavy lifting anyway. Just not putting one in is a very Tesla thing to do, but also a non-issue. Honestly having no filter in there at all is probably better than having one that's 4 years old (low mileage or not). They do eventually gum up, making the blower and everything else work harder to move air.

I can't say I necessarily disagree. But you start out reinforcing that the filter serves no purpose, and then say if I left it in there 4 years, it would likely have gummed things up. Probably somewhere in between that it helps performance and efficiency to have a filter, or they would normally leave it out to save money. Even when new, the filter would add to resistance, cause added electrical usage, and somewhat decrease airflow even with no debris restricting it, Having no filter at all would be the most efficient initially.

 

[doug]

You want the filter to be what gets gummed up, rather than some non-user-replaceable part.