Saturday, January 10, 2009

This seems extreme...

A curious note about car maintenance.  My commuting car is a Pontiac Vibe, with which I am very happy.  About 18 months ago, some mice found their way into the heating/air conditioning system and proceeded to abide there happily for some time.

It wasn't too bad until you turned the heat on and the redolence of mouse aroma filled the small car. I could not for the life of me find out where the nest was.  I lived with the odor.

In a fortunate coincidence I had to consult the owner's manual about resetting the low tire inflation warning light (another story altogether) and while thumbing through the manual (real men don't use the index) I discovered there is a passenger compartment air filter located behind the glove compartment.  Removal of the glove compartment is not quite as straightforward as described, and some small plastic clips were misplaced, but I got to the filter and, sure enough - a large mouse nest.

Happily I removed and discarded the filter and vacuumed thoroughly as far as I could to clean out the ducts. Then I went to replace the 10" x 10" x 1/2" pleated paper filter.

A new one cost $37.  I asked twice to make sure I heard correctly.

Am I missing something here?  Are these things handwoven by Old World craftsmen or constructed of rare materials hard to find in our part of the galaxy?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

John,, A friend works for a company that supplies a major pick-up truck mfg. ((they also sell VIBES "hint") with cable assembly-latch for tripping your hood release...they build them in China of course ,truck mfg. pays them $1.29 per unit.....dealer sells truck part for $31.50...not too bad a mark up...gotta couple of JD hyd. filters for a 1 yr. old 7830 and it cost -$82,53 and a flex head manual$39 for total of $174 or 1 1/2 market hogs (and this was after my "special discount" --- regards-kevin

Anonymous said...

At least your manual tells how to change the cabin filter. My Toyota Tundra manual has 80+ pages dedicated to the radio/cd player, but not one paragraph, no not one word concerning the engine air filter. Not even a mention to where it is!