I've been using K&N air filters for the past 20 years on all my cars, and have had great success with them. I currently have one installed on my 2006 Toyota Camry SE which now has almost 155K on it (installed around 30K, washed and re-oiled at around 120K, will be rewashing and re-oiling), on my 2013 Toyota Sienna with nearly 140K (installed around 20K or 30K, washed and re-oiled at 100K), and I have one installed on my 2010 IS350 I installed around 52K (now almost 64K). On my last oil change (almost 5K miles ago) I changed the cabin filter, and here in California we have been experiencing a heatwave, so I have been using the AC a lot, including night driving. I noticed that every time I turn on the AC, firstly it been taking a bit longer to cool down the air, and also I've been getting that awful stale air smell. Since I use K&N engine air filters for my cars, I decided to try out their "Lifetime" Cabin air filter (K&N part number VF2000). It was $41 on Amazon, and since I have a ton of Amazon points built up I just used them to buy it.

The results after a few days has been excellent. The AC gets cooler faster, I've been using one or two fan speeds down than I normally use, and the smell is completely gone. Even when the cabin filter was fairly new I was getting that stale smell that takes at least 5 minutes to go away. The only issue is that it does not have an airflow arrow printed on it like the OE cabin filter, nor does it show one in the installation instructions. The instructions say "It only fits one way". Both sides look the same and seem to be pleated exactly the same, so I am assuming this filter can be installed either way as long as it fits correctly in the tray housing.

It will probably take a month of use to fully report on how well this filter works. It says it needs to be serviced once a year or every 12K and will last the lifetime of the car. It's only a little bit more expensive than the crappy cheap looking OE paper filter, and it's made of high quality materials. If this filter works out, I will go ahead and change them in my other cars as well

 

I use the OEM cabin filters; I'll give this a try when my filter needs to be changed. Do you oil your cabin filters? I normally just shake out the dust and let it air out a bit every 10K miles or so.

 

No need to oil. At 12k miles (or one year) you just use what's called a recharge kit. After washing the filter and letting it dry, you respray it so it's statically charged so dust and particles are attracted to it. The OE filter is pretty much made of crappy coffee filter materials, very flimsy. I can't believe they charge $25 or $35 for it

 

So far after a few weeks since I removed the AC drain plug. I have yet to get the mold smell while driving around. I've let a couple of family members run errands in it as well. They all told me they don't smell any mold anymore.

Usually I could turn it off in a parking lot. Then turn it back on within a few minutes. You could already smell the moldy smell.

 

So far 5 days and no moldy smell. Air seems to cool faster and have better flow, but that could be just a placebo effect. It's a very well built sturdy filter, and will hopefully save me some money over time. The OE filter runs about $19.50 to $25, and changing it twice a year can get expensive over time. This would pay for itself the first year of use. Of course there are other aftermarket options out there for $5 to $9.99...

 

I normally order a few at a time from Rockauto. If at the time I'm ordering other items. They offer the Denso OEM, and also the Aftermarket charcoal impregnated ones too. The one in the car at the moment is the WIX brand charcoal impregnated.

 

I've been needing to change my cabin air filter for a while now. I checked it out to see how dirty it was and it was very dirty, so I bought on of these K&N washable ones to give it a try. Pretty straight forward, but I will give my feedback as well.

 

Yes, please let us know. For me it's been working great, the air from my AC smells clean, even with all the smoke in the air from these California fires. BTW, I didn't realize Manitoba was a Canadian province, in my ignorance I thought it could be a country in possibly the African continent. Thank you Google!

 

I just received my new replacement charcoal infused cabin air filter this morning. No particular brand, just whatever is cheapest with good ratings. LOL!

Because of the pandemic and myself working from home, I've been able to keep my 2IS in the garage bottled up tight with Damp-Rid bags hanging off of the headrests. You'd not imagine the amount of moisture those things have collected over the months. I've been through an entire Costco 4-pk and am about to crack open the next box! Has helped tremendously with the slight mildew/musky odor, and the new cabin filter should help some too!

 

So I got and installed my K&N Filter about 2 weeks ago and of course all went smoothly. One of the prior issues I had with the A/C was that it wouldn't get overly cold when on the coldest setting. I wasn't sure if this was because it was quite hot out when testing (30 degrees Celsius or more.) or if my A/C condenser is not working 100%. Anyways I was thinking it could also be the clogged cabin air filter but since I changed it I haven't been able to really test this as it's gotten quite cold out quickly.

Aside from that no problems with the filter. To reiterate the biggest pro of this compared to the factory paper filters it is nice that this is washable a reusable, so it should last the lifetime of this car. Will update with any other feedback.

 

It's most likely not a clogged cabin filter, I would have the freon (or whatever they use these days) checked, as that would most likely be the cause. But the cabin filter should help with air flow and those awful smells when you first start the AC