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A little maintenance sometimes forgotten


BowTied
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Those cowl grilles will stop much of the junk from falling in there but they will not stop everything. If you had to clean out the crap behind them, some of that made it into the box. I bet if you remove that blower resistor and check the box out inside you will find some crap inside the box.

Edited by Tungsten
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I bet your right about that, there'd be a small amount of crap in there after years of use. And I bet that is the case for millions of vehicles on the road without HVAC filters. Doesn't make it a typical failure mode.

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That all depends on their cowl grille design. The WD21s actually had revised cowl grilles with finer cowl slits because some crap like rocks could fall in between the older wide slits. I think a small rock shot into my evaporator core and poked a fine hole in it. I replaced the evaporator core and got the revised cowl grilles too. I have not had issues since then but I still do find the occasional piece of a leaf shooting into my face from the vents from time to time, which is why I wish I had that filter there.

 

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Edited by Tungsten
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Oh well, if the early WD21s have that as a common failure mode by all means WD21 owners should get an upgraded cowl screen or see if they can retrofit a filter. Most R50 owners don't report this as an issue that I have heard about.

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The R50 already has the finer cowl screen though.

It does and many new vehicles do but every new vehicle also comes with that filter. It's definitely nice to have that extra layer of protection there. I would retrofit one if I could but wasn't able to find anything that would fit. I'm just hoping that the finer cowl screen is good enough.

Edited by Tungsten
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Your previous experience was probably a fluke. Cars have been made for several decades with course or no cowl screen at all and no HVAC filters. HVAC filters being common is a very recent development in the history of automobiles.

 

 

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Your previous experience was probably a fluke. Cars have been made for several decades with course or no cowl screen at all and no HVAC filters. HVAC filters being common is a very recent development in the history of automobiles.

Yes but cars have also been made for years with no air conditioning packages. The addition of air conditioning to cars also added its own problems which were recently revised and the system was perfected.

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Air condition in cars has been around for decades, it is not a recent development. Nor is cowl screens recent. The common use of cabin filters is recent. Failures of the evaporators prior to that are not common. So I am not sure I see the relevance of your post.

Edited by BowTied
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Failures of the evaporators prior to that are not common.

You probably never worked in a shop that does A/C servicing. That is not true at all. Evaporator issues are in fact quite common.

I am not trying to sell you on filters, I'm just saying adding one would be beneficial. You can probably get away without one but it is still better to have one for better reliability.

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Sure evap failures happen all the time, not saying they never fail - I am saying failure due to small stones coming through the cowl are not common. If that was the case, fine cowl screens and other protective measures would have been common in the 60s and 70s.

Edited by BowTied
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Plus I don't want to have to service the filter all the time for fear of mold and crap collecting blocking off air flow. If I had filters I'd likely remove them.

They take a long time to fill up. Probably 80,000 miles on average.

 

 

Sure evap failures happen all the time, not saying they never fail - I am saying failure due to small stones coming through the cowl are not common. If that was the case, fine cowl screens and other protective measures would have been common in the 60s and 70s.

There are many things that 60s and 70s cars never had but should have had. That's the way the automotive industry works. They keep re-using the same designs but improve them over time to increase their reliability.

Edited by Tungsten
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Awesome info, thanks!

 

What is the part number that I can use to order for a 1998 R50? I can't find the part number from the link provided:

 

http://www.courtesyparts.com/instruct/inst_B7200-00003_02.html

See this thread. Don't waste the money for an OEM filter, aftermarket ones (at least NAPA Gold & Wix) are identical in construction and quality I believe.

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  • 1 year later...

any more details on this repair, after checking the link on this topic they refer to a "clip" when I pulled the glove box and trim I did not see any clip on the plastic box that holds the filters. also when you cut the plastic open I was just thinking of resealing it with black electrical tape. and checking the filters a few times a year.

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