Do Not Buy “HEPA” Cabin Air Filters for Model 3

[Flybyglass]

Yeah, I live in the south. Had smell problems after 1 week of ownership. It's very disheartening. Only lessens in intensity with extreme dry hot weather, and then it comes back strong with just a tiny bit of humidity in the air.

Living in New England with high humidity I change filters every 6 months and use 2 cans of Klima at each change. I also made a screen to go over the inlet under the frunk cover to stop leaves from going in. In addition, running in non-recirc. often helps.

 

[Eugene Ash]

Living in New England with high humidity I change filters every 6 months and use 2 cans of Klima at each change. I also made a screen to go over the inlet under the frunk cover to stop leaves from going in. In addition, running in non-recirc. often helps.

I found that switching to outside air draw (i.e. turning off recirc) before parking - helps to prolong the life of the filters. This way the filter is allowed to dry using outside air. Both our Y and 3 automatically run a fan for 15-30 minutes after parking.

 

[David99]

Both our Y and 3 automatically run a fan for 15-30 minutes after parking.

Oh that's what this is! I noticed this and was thinking it's an overactive cabin overheat protection. But that makes perfect sense. It basically blows the air filters dry on it's own.

 

[kpanda17]

I was doing my annual maintenance on my cabin air filter and discovered that the “HEPA” type filter I bought on Amazon was disintegrating inside my cabin air filter compartment.

The type of filter I purchased is quite common on Amazon and goes by many different brands. The one I purchased is by a brand called “Basenor”.

Do not use this type of filter as the foam around the filter can disintegrate and create a mess you can’t clean up because the cabin air filter compartment is not easy to clean. It’s a huge design flaw and the manufacturers behind this product do not want to acknowledge their flaw. Please stick to the OEM style Tesla paper filters.

See the pictures attached.

Proactively change the filters at 12 months, bef any stink
Only use rhe Tesla filters
Don’t reinvent

 

[rpiotro]

Proactively change the filters at 12 months, bef any stink
Only use rhe Tesla filters
Don’t reinvent

This! I replaced mine for the first time at two years but only had about 13,000 miles, I was shocked at how dirty they were. The road ranger that came out and replaced them suggested every year. At only $58 parts and labor I'll gladly do it.

 

[Eugene Ash]

I highly recommend getting this add-on part as, described in the video. Having had a thorough clean with Kool-it, and this new clip, has solved wet filters and we're on unprecedented 4th month of stink-free cabin in PNW climate. Engineering explanation below:

Spoiler: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZ5SXmArEIo

Video of clip development and testing

 

[freeAgent]

I highly recommend getting this add-on part as, described in the video. Having had a thorough clean with Kool-it, and this new clip, has solved wet filters and we're on unprecedented 4th month of stink-free cabin in PNW climate. Engineering explanation below:

Spoiler: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZ5SXmArEIo

Video of clip development and testing

I wonder if you could use duct tape (or similar) on the bottom edge of the filter to do the same thing with less worry about the clip falling off.

 

[KenC]

I've only changed my filters once, pro-actively, in 5 ½ yrs. Maine is usually dry, but we've had record amounts of rain in the past year, so pretty humid. No issues really.