ponnu

I need to replace my micro filters as per my I-Drive CBS. I assume its cabin filter.. My questions are

(1) There are two types (a) With Carbon (b) with out carbon (both cost the same), which one is recommended?
(2) The cheapest I had seen online is around $37 (OEM) , is that a fair price?

Its # 6 in the pic below..

Thanks

turboawd

carbon is better. and your cars requires 2 of them.

syrousd

+1

mrblorry

What he said, but also take out the old ones first--you can always put them back in in about 3 seconds. Grab yer favorite shop-vac, dustbuster, whatever and clean out the debris beneath the filters, and suck out all the crud in the vent pipes going to and from the filter box.

I couldn't afford new filters at the time, and I had charcoal ones in there, so I gently tapped the loose bits of debris from the filter and reinstalled them. I started to vacuum the filters, but as soon as I realized they were charcoal filters, I figured I was sucking out the very thing that makes these filters better and more expensive!

So a couple of solid whaps against my wooden stair railing removed a large portion of cruddage. It also removed some charcoal as well, but I'm sure it's close to end of life anyway. All I did was buy me a few months through pollen season, and I will do a full replace this summer. Main point is to see how easy they are to remove, and to also see just how much crap has been clogging the vents and the filter box itself.

Clean all that mess out, then drive for a few weeks, allowing residual crud to be caught by the old filters, THEN swap them out for new ones!

Euronuts

^^^^
Like he said I took mine out to inspect after my idrive said 0 miles and cleaned a little inside the boxes put the old filters back in and the idrive gave me 2k more miles to go...that was over a month ago and still have 1k to go. Will be doing this summer before it gets to hot and the AC is on more.

ssmokn

You can get Mann carbon filters (most likely OEM supplier to BMW is Mann or Mahle -- both excellent quaility) from Amazon.com for 17.55 each.

I purchased these (Mann part no. CUK 3139) from Amazon.com and they are an exact match to the OEM filters that are in there.

Same for the engine air filter and oil filter if/when you need one. Can't go wrong with Mann or Mahle.

Two Mann filters are cheaper than one BMW filter. Same filter minus the BMW printing on the edge of the filter!

It's an easy 10 minute job to replace both (15 minutes or so if you take the time to clean out any dust/dirt in the housings).

As others said above you may buy some time by cleaning/vacuuming the existing filters if they aren't too bad.

Persian_535i

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BMW-E60-E63-...4c4349&vxp=mtr
Charcoal cabin filter $20 for a set of two +free shipping? nuff said.
and another one
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cabin-Air-Fi...7e5336&vxp=mtr

ponnu

Unfortunately I just ordered today (OEM BMW micro filters) , let me check whether I can cancel, goood info. thanks..

JayArras

I'm up to change my cabin filters and just wondered if the Manns are really that much better than some of the other brands I've seen.

From what I've read, Mann-Filter is the manufacturer of the OEM item, so there's something to be said for that, but some of the aftermarket brands are half the price. Is a filter just a filter, or is there something to be said for the Mann brand? I'm talking about the charcoal activated version here.

With fluid filters, I could see it affecting performance, but a cabin filter just filters the interior air. What do you think?

luigi524td

Several years back I took the "cheap" approach and bought a couple of no-name cabin filters from a seller on ebay. After all, I wasn't driving in places with lots of air-borne pollution so wasn't too concerned about the activated carbon stuff.

Well, after a few thousand miles, I decided to pull them to have a look. When new the paper filter pleats looked pretty much just like another filter. BUT - after only a few thousand miles they looked like crap - not dirty, but it looked like moisture in the air that passed through them made them start to fall apart. I still had the old BMW filters that had more than 20K miles of use and they looked like they'd do a better job of filtering than the relatively new aftermarket ones.

I took the lesson learned and bought an OEM Mann set from one of the import parts houses ... and have taken that approach ever since. Mann, Mahle are solid brands!

And here's something that may surprise you I have even found Purolater and Fram items (filters) that are actually marked and made by BMW but sold in Purolater/Fram packaging !