I recently bought a 2016 Model S 90D and have been reading the headlines about how great the HEPA filter is and 'Telsa cars make the cleaner wherever they drive'. Well, since mine is pre-facelift I wanted to see what my filter looks like even though it isnt a HEPA capable model. I pulled it out and it looked to be in good shape but fit very loosely and I noticed dirt around the edges of the filter and small particles like large dust or small sand behind where the filter would be.
Dirt behind filter:
You can also see dirty outside edges of the filter on a previous post by ReversePolarity here: Link
I had some 3/16 vinyl weather stripping leftover from another project and added some to 2 sides of the filter. It was a sung fit and I feel like it makes a much better seal and doesn't move around as much in the enclosure. Ideally i would have gone with something wider (1.5") and a bit thinner (1/16") so I could do all 4 side but I dont think that size is easily found and I already had this sitting around:
I then cleaned the air box where i found the dirt so I can check on it later to see if there were any improvements:
I just did it last night so I have don't have enough "data" to see if it helped with actually filtering the air instead of letting it go right around the edges and corners. It's weird that Tesla made a decision to go all out with their HEPA filter on the new cars after leaving such a poor solution in place in the older cars for so long and not having an updated filter with small foam edge to make a tighter seal like some other brands as seen below for a non-tesla car:
Dirt behind filter:
You can also see dirty outside edges of the filter on a previous post by ReversePolarity here: Link
I had some 3/16 vinyl weather stripping leftover from another project and added some to 2 sides of the filter. It was a sung fit and I feel like it makes a much better seal and doesn't move around as much in the enclosure. Ideally i would have gone with something wider (1.5") and a bit thinner (1/16") so I could do all 4 side but I dont think that size is easily found and I already had this sitting around:
I then cleaned the air box where i found the dirt so I can check on it later to see if there were any improvements:
I just did it last night so I have don't have enough "data" to see if it helped with actually filtering the air instead of letting it go right around the edges and corners. It's weird that Tesla made a decision to go all out with their HEPA filter on the new cars after leaving such a poor solution in place in the older cars for so long and not having an updated filter with small foam edge to make a tighter seal like some other brands as seen below for a non-tesla car:
