A week or so ago, I was on the phone with a pal of mine who works for Denso here in the U.S. Initially, I called to ask a question about the Iridium Power spark plugs I use in my '07. Next, I asked her what new products was Denso marketing in the U.S. She asked if my HHR had a "Cabin Air Filter" and if it did, had I ever changed it. She waited on the phone I flipped open the owners manual–nothing about a cabin air filter. Got out the Factory Service Manual and found HHRs do have CAFs. "Up until today, I never knew an HHR had a CAF," I admited.

"You've owned the truck for seven years and never changed that filter? Yuk! I'll send you some of them."

A few days later, a box arrives from Denso with some CAFs in it. I open up one of the packages and out comes a cabin air filter, brilliantly white in it's clean-and-freshness. Reading the FSM, again, I learned the CAF in an HHR is actually known as a "Passenger Compartment Air Filter" and is behind the instrument panel, above the instrument panel compartment (or "glove box") door.

I removed the compartment door damper screw, squeezed the sides of the door then dropped it down, past its stops. Then, I popped the door off its hinge pins. With the compartment out of the way, I could see a flip-down, filter cover which I opened. Dead bugs and dirt fell out and I slid the cabin air filter out. It was black with soot and dirt with gross looking fuzzies, a few seeds and twigs stuck to it. Basically, the filter was disgusting.



With the old filter in the garbage, I got my shopvac and sucked up more dirt and fuzzies stuck on the CAF cover then vacuumed the mess off my passenger side WeatherTech Floorliner. Finally, I pushed the new Denso Filter into its mount, closed the cover and snapped the locks back in place. I pushed the compartment door assembly back on its hinges, reconnected the damper, replaced it's retention screw and closed the I/P compartment. True to Denso's oft-mentioned claim of "first time fit", the filter took all of 5 minutes to change.



I started the engine. Turned the air conditioner on high and noted right away that the cold air flow out of the vents had improved. That grungy, seven-year old filter must have been a significant restriction.

Lessons learned: 1) check the cabin air fillter every 15,000 miles rather than once after 125,000 miles in seven years and 2) Use a Denso #453-5004 CAF.

 

Very nice and humorous write up Hib.

(A little hint. Just join in on our forum discussions a little more often.
The cabin air filter has only been discussed here about a gazillion times. )

 

Don't feel so bad. I have an '07 and just changed the CAF last summer. I knew it was there, but what's the old saying, out of sight out of mind.

 

Hib, I changed the filter on my 2011 after 2 years and found it to be sort of a dirty gray color. Talking with the Chevy folks I found out that some of these filters are that color originally as they contain a charcoal medium for odor control as well as air filter. Chevy dealer filters are about 2-3 times price wise what auto store sell them for because of the charcoal medium. I went with the plain white ones and will change them with regularity. Thanks for the heads up.

 

Good write up Hib, and yes those filters can be "icky" when they come out.

 

Hmmm...I've only changed mine once. Maybe I need to look at it again. Lol

 

It was addressed with pics in my 2008 and 2011 OM.

 

A "gazillion"? Wow. That's a lot. I had no idea the majority of the content on this site related to CAFs.

I apologize for beating a horse to death, "firemangeorge".

The main point of the story was to display my stupidity in never having been aware my truck had a CAF.

Again, I didn't mean to use up bandwidth and I admit to not having read all the previous posts on cabin filters.

 

No problem Hib - me, I would have just reversed the filter and let it blow off the debris. Presto: good for another 100,000 miles!!

 

Great write up Hib. Just changed mine in both a 2006 and 2010 and both were really cruddy.