Cabin Air Filter retrofit for 4th Gen Wagons?

TerminusVoxTerminusVox Senior Wagonist
in Electronics, Fueling & Air Conditioning
Has anybody done anything like this for a 4th generation Wagon? I found a pretty good write from a guy doing it on a 5th gen Hatch.


[DIY] Cabin Air (A/C) Filter retrofit for 92-95 / delSol / 96-00 Civics
http://honda-tech.com/showthread.php?t=2552431

Unfortunately I haven't seen enough of these parts without their attached cars to recognize differences and similarities. Can anybody recommend a model I should be looking for as a donor? I assume I should be looking at early CR-Vs, no?

Comments

  • bam-bambam-bam Council Member
    Hmmmm. I don't know if it's really feasible. To access the place where outside air enters the car, you'd have to remove the wiper arms and the cowl trim. Alternatively, you could screen the cowl inlets...

    Filtering the recirc. air would be relatively easy, just slap a filter on the inlet behind the glovebox.

    Come up here and study on some disassembled wagons, maybe you'll get an idea. Maybe we could filter the fan outlet instead of inlet?
  • TerminusVoxTerminusVox Senior Wagonist
    There were several people who built their own filter out of a household furnace filter. Trick is where to insert it into the airflow as you say.

    ETA: the 5th and 6th gen box puts the filter after the blower and either just before or just after the evaporator.
  • bam-bambam-bam Council Member
    Yeah. WHAT to use is easy. WHERE to put it ain't.
  • TerminusVoxTerminusVox Senior Wagonist
    The 6th gen from the write up has the filter either just before or just after the evaporator.
  • CharbCharb Administrator
    bam-bam wrote:
    Yeah. WHAT to use is easy. WHERE to put it ain't.


    That's what she said :twisted:

    In all seriousness, I really like this idea! And look forward to what you guys come up with!
  • 3rd4ce3rd4ce Council Member
    I am game for this also .....
    Bam following u @ WagoPalooza 2010 was pretty dusty ....
    932.jpg
  • H_civic66H_civic66 Senior Wagonist
    Very interesting, will wait for more and pics. Although finding an air refiner would be easier, just more money.
  • TerminusVoxTerminusVox Senior Wagonist
    H_civic66 wrote:
    Very interesting, will wait for more and pics. Although finding an air refiner would be easier, just more money.
    Agreed but by the same token, a new(er) car would be easier just more money, lol.
  • H_civic66H_civic66 Senior Wagonist
    You are correct sir..lol I wanna see what yall come up with.
  • wes wagonwes wagon Band Wagon
    I have been considering installing a cabin air filter on my 89 for a while. Right now, I have the dash apart and the cowl off too. I just yanked the evaporator unit (to finish off my complete A/C delete) and picked up a non-A/C duct that replaces it. Anyway, with most of the parts out of the way, I was thinking about how to do it. Some of my thoughts/observations:

    the fresh air vent on the driver side dash by the door has its own inlet in the cowl, that would necessitate a separate filter unless it always remained closed;
    putting on a filter on the recirculate vent does look easy;
    I have these air filter pads that are designed to go over just regular central air vents (in a house) from Home Depot, they seem like a good material (I cut them up to use as air filter inserts for the tower case for my garage PC);
    the fresh air inlet for the main ventilation system is directly above the blower housing (in the pass. side cowl) and opens directly into it (which is probably why my blower is filled with all kinds of "outside" debris!)

    The only 2 solutions I have come up with so far are: 1. roll up a wad of filter material (like mentioned above) and stuff it into the opening from the cowl side (probably reducing flow) 2. using a big rubber band to stretch a piece of filter fabric over the opening in the cowl. I imagine using this stuff Sears sells which are sleeve designed to go over a shop vac filter to provide additional filtration.
    Ideally, a real cabin filter (like for another civic or whatever), could be installed between the blower housing and the vent in the cowl...
  • shinobishinobi Band Wagon
    Perhaps try a CRV evaporator case? Those came with them. I looked up a '99 CR-V on majestic and found this:

    The evap case looks very straight, I'd imagine it wouldn't be too hard to modify the case to fit into the wagon. Actually doing it is a whole 'nuther story.

    Otherwise, you could use the stuff wes was talking about, perhaps stick some filter element between the blower and evap cases?
  • wes wagonwes wagon Band Wagon
    shinobi wrote:
    Perhaps try a CRV evaporator case? Those came with them. I looked up a '99 CR-V on majestic and found this:

    The evap case looks very straight, I'd imagine it wouldn't be too hard to modify the case to fit into the wagon. Actually doing it is a whole 'nuther story.

    Otherwise, you could use the stuff wes was talking about, perhaps stick some filter element between the blower and evap cases?

    Found what? But anyway, the CR-V parts are what those guys (& girls) were using on H-T. I just took my evaporator out so now the flow path is reduced to the size of the duct (non-AC) that attaches to the blower in it's place. I'm guessing that Honda didn't put these kinds of filters in the non-AC cars, but I haven't researched that. It does open up more room for experimentation though.
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