Another CAF photo; 2004 Prius possibly original

[simple_gifts]

Not a fan of CAFs in general. I don't have allergies and you're just filtering the air you usually breath anyway.
My father was the owner from year 0 to 12; yearly inspections at the Yota dealer, I suspect that was oil change and VA inspection only.
Little excuse for my not R'n'Ring it when I took ownership

 

[gathermewool]

 

[JC1]

Dang, that's a Petrie dish......

Was the old filter a pain to remove? Did all that extra stuff make it hard to remove from the housing?

 

[simple_gifts]

Was the old filter a pain to remove? Did all that extra stuff make it hard to remove from the housing?

Oh yeah; the filter appeared to be glued to the frame it sits in; the big ball of stuff on top wasn't attached to the filter and only became visible after I removed the old filter.

Replaced with Fram if it isn't obvious.

 

[JC1]

Did you run a shop vac in the housing as well?

 

[Racer4]

That is by far the worst I have ever seem!

 

[joegreen]

Air out the vents must feel like a tornado now

 

[Kira]

OP said, "Not a fan of CAFs in general."

This is becoming fun....CAFs are marketed as a thing to filter some impurities from the air we breathe.
I believe their main purpose is to keep bad things off the AC evaporator. This can lengthen its life and save you money.
Why don't people get that?
It may not be 100% effective at anything (what is?) but it's at least a start.
OBSERVATION: With X years of CAFs in the industry I wonder why a "best location" for CAFs hasn't been found and marketed.
A friend had a 2003 Saab 9-3 where the CAF was immediately beneath the cowl essentially outside the car. The filter caught huge amounts of crud and said crud was still outside the car. How do you beat that?
DISCLAIMER: I am in no way abrogating your God given right as an American to breathe airborne powdered horse manure and whatever else that filter of yours caught.
SERIOUS QUESTION: How can anyone look at that mess and NOT be a fan of cabin air filters?

 

[Popsy]

Same as my Fiats. Filters are accessible from the outside, before air enters the car. Keeps fan clean, and also far from passenger...contrary to my Mazda where the fan is just above the feet of the passenger, and dust/debris have to be vacuumed (or not if you replace filter often) when replacing filter. Also noisy fan close to passenger...

 

[zzyzzx]

Impressive. I imagine that my filterless 1995 Escort's evaporator looks like that.

 

[measureman]

I know people that did not know their vehicle had a CAF.
That's after I told them they should change it once a year or two at the most.

 

[silversport]

changed my sister's 2006 Corolla...2 years and 11K miles and it was filthy...hers is parked outside always...if I can get my hands on it I'll check again in less time...the other cars I take care of are all parked inside in garages and never really look very dirty after a year but it is cheap insurance to check it more often

good luck with yours

Bill

 

[Barkleymut]

How was your system getting any air to bring into the cabin? Is there a bypass?

 

[AutoMechanic]

Gosh, I have seen some dirty ones but never that dirty unless you consider a mouse to be worse lol.