Los Altos Auto Repair

Cayenne here,  I want you to take a deep breath.  Now let’s talk about air quality in Los Altos. It’s a global issue, but affects us wherever we are. Many decades ago, Los Altos auto owners began to become aware of how air pollution negatively affects health. But what about the air inside your vehicle?

Cabin air filters are now coming on most new sedans in Los Altos. These filters clean the air in the passenger compartment. They can filter particles down to three microns, so that’s good enough to clean out dust, pollen and most pollutants. If you suffer from allergies in Los Altos, this is very good news. Your car can be a haven during your Los Altos commute.

Now, it’s only been in the last few years that cabin air filters have become common in Los Altos. You can look in your owner’s manual to see if you have one. If you do, there’ll be a recommendation for replacing it when it gets dirty. If you live in an area of Los Altos where there’s a lot of dust, pollen or pollution, you may need to change it more often.

You can also ask your personal and trust Allied Auto Works technician in Los Altos. How hard is it to change an air filter on a car? It depends on your vehicle. Some are quite accessible; others take some doing to get to them. They’re usually in the engine compartment or under the dashboard.

Because cabin air filters are so new on the scene, some Los Altos people haven’t heard of them – even drivers who have cabin air filters in their sedan. Allied Auto Works service advisors have discovered that many Los Altos customers who complained about an unpleasant odor in their sedan simply had a dirty cabin air filter.

Well at least it's not fish, cabin air filters can be taken care of,

Cayenne

What A Beautiful Day so let's bark about Air with me, Cayenne! Air quality has certainly become a hot issue in our modern Los Altos world. We install air filters on our ventilation systems and in our vacuum cleaners. There’s a filter that cleans the air going into our sedan’s engine — so why not one for the air in the passenger compartment?

Foreign and domestic car makers haven’t been ignoring the issue. Cabin air filters are becoming a standard feature on newer vehicles. These filters can clean particles out of the air down to three microns, which accounts for pollen, dust and most pollutants. Mt. View drivers who suffer from allergies or have a respiratory disorder should be a lot more comfortable. And even if you don’t have a medical need for the filter, the cleaner air in your car just might help you breathe better, figuratively as well as literally.

Cabin air filters are still fairly new in Los Altos, so you’ll have to check your sedan owner’s manual to see if you have one. If you do, your routine car care will have to include changing the filter as part of your critical preventive maintenance. The owner’s manual will give recommendations on how often the filter has to be changed, but if the air where you live in CA is particularly dirty or if you’re prone to hay fever, you may want to change it more often.

Your personal and trusted Allied Auto Works tech can also offer suggestions on how often to change your cabin air filter in your Los Altos area. They’re the ones who actually see the dirty filters, after all.

There is no standardized location for cabin air filters. Los Altos motorists can usually find them in the sedan engine compartment or under the dashboard, but they might be somewhere else. So the ease of changing the filter will depend on its location. Some are readily accessible, but others make you wonder how they got installed in the first place. Bring your car into Allied Auto Works and we will locate your cabin air filter for you.

However, if you have a newer sedan, it’s good auto advice to find out if it has a cabin air filter. If it does, you should change the filter regularly. A sure sign that a filter needs to be changed is that the interior of your sedan will start to smell bad. That smell is exactly how some Los Altos car owners discovered that they had cabin air filters in the first place!

Cabin air filters are just one more way we have to stay safe, stay healthy, and stay on the road in Los Altos.

Breathe the air,

Cayenne

It's your number one car educationer, Cayenne here again, 

There are a lot of new features, both optional and standard, on Los Altos motorists' vehicles these days. One you may not have heard of is called a cabin air filter. Simply put, its job is to keep the air in the passenger compartment of your car nice and clean.

A cabin air filter is similar to the filter you use on your furnace at home in Los Altos. Cabin air filters can catch particles down to three microns. By comparison, a grain of sand is 200 microns. So cabin air filters are effective against dust, dirt, pollen, mold spores and most pollutants in our Los Altos atmosphere. Good news if you suffer from any types of allergies, or if you live in an area in Los Altos prone to air pollution.

Cabin air filters are generally located in the engine compartment or under the dashboard. They can be tricky to access and replace, so you’ll probably want to go to your personal and trust Allied Auto Works tech to get it done. Check your sedan owner’s manual to find out if your sedan is equipped with a cabin air filter and how often it should be changed. Recommendations vary, but generally a cabin air filter should be changed every twelve to fifteen thousand miles.

Of course, if you are an allergy sufferer in Cupertino, you may want to replace it more often. Also, if you do a lot of driving in polluted or dusty areas in CA, you’ll also want to shorten the cabin air filter replacement period. Dirty air filters just don’t work well, and they can exude an unpleasant odor if ignored for too long.

Most Los Altos folks know that good car care includes keeping your sedan clean, including the air inside the passenger compartment, so changing your cabin air filter should be part of your routine preventive maintenance. It’s good auto advice as well as good medical advice that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. You really shouldn’t wait until the interior of your car starts to smell and your eyes start to water before you change your filter. And trying to cover it up with a dangling green pine tree is not the right answer, either!

Cabin air filters can be a welcome relief to Los Altos allergy sufferers, but they’re also a great idea for anyone in Los Altos who just wants to breathe better.

Til next time, this is Cayenne!