Cabin air filter
02-02-13, 10:59 PM
#47
My 92 didn't have one. My mechanic checked the service manual and the first batch of 92s didn't have the cabin air filter. I think it was halfway into the 92 year they started having them. So if you have an early 92 model you don't have a cabin air filter. At least with Canadian SC400s anyways.
06-02-14, 02:44 PM
#49
09-06-14, 02:55 PM
#50
I just checked my 98 SC400 and there was a filter in the location/slot. It was super dirty. I don't think it ever got changed in years and years. I ordered the air filter and cabin filter via amazon.
Instruction on changing the filter here
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sc-...ml#post3373167
Instruction on changing the filter here
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sc-...ml#post3373167
09-06-14, 04:27 PM
#51
I just checked my 98 SC400 and there was a filter in the location/slot. It was super dirty. I don't think it ever got changed in years and years. I ordered the air filter and cabin filter via amazon.
Instruction on changing the filter here
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sc-...ml#post3373167
Instruction on changing the filter here
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sc-...ml#post3373167
05-13-17, 03:43 AM
#55
Does anyone know the direction of air flow?
i'm retrofitting a set of air filter frames for an sc300 with the filter "paper" from an rx8, which is made with aldehyde paper. takes some cutting and gluing, but i'm not sure which way to face the paper! lol.
i'm retrofitting a set of air filter frames for an sc300 with the filter "paper" from an rx8, which is made with aldehyde paper. takes some cutting and gluing, but i'm not sure which way to face the paper! lol.
07-21-20, 01:22 PM
#58
Driver School Candidate
I removed the under panel below the pass. glove box and then the plug
(held on by 2 wing nuts), and guess what?
NO FILTERS WERE THERE.
Well, I got one new one in, but couldn't get the 2nd one in.
Anyway reassembled everything with the 1 new one in,
and
Then I found your comment on US models don't have cabin air filters.
Do YOU KNOW WHAT THE STORY IS?
Why do US models not have cabin air filters.
07-21-20, 02:16 PM
#59
It could have been a parts supply issue back in 1992 or a slip in the translation from Z30 Toyota Soarer to Lexus SC300/400. The car being designed for this cabin air filter before Denso, the supplier, actually ramped up production for the part. All my speculation only. I've yet to hear of the actual reason why the car was fully designed for the cabin air filter for the very first model year but wasn't equipped with it for that very first model year.
Keep in mind that in 1990 (the year the Toyota Soarer Z30's first MY1991 was sold) and 1991 (the year the Lexus SC300/400's first MY1992 was sold) a standard cabin air filter was still a very new thing that was uncommon on all but a few high end luxury cars and even then was a new thing in the luxury car market for the most part (in 1990-1991).
Today pretty much all cars from economy to luxury models have some kind of cabin air filter as standard equipment but way back then it was a new feature that only some cars had. So the absence of the actual filter even though the car was designed to accept it from the getgo would not have been noticed as much by many customers of the Lexus SC when they were brand new.
Even into the late 1990's not all cars were designed from the factory with a standard cabin air filter.
Back to the SC's strange first year absence of it despite the receptacle being ready for it I think it must have been a forward thinking design decision that hadn't yet caught up to Denso's supply of the filters themselves and/or wasn't deemed a necessary feature to emphasize until a year or two later into production. If the car is already designed for the function but that function isn't "revealed" as an "all-new" feature until the next model year then it's an easy zero-cost improvement Lexus could tout among the new updates to entire customers to trade in for a brand new model year.
Again, just my speculation on how and why some of the 1992's didn't come with a Denso cabin air filter from the factory.
...
Just to be clear, my 1993 had an old cabin air filter installed when I bought it. Maybe the previous owner or their dealer added it but U.S. SC300's and SC400's DID come with cabin air filters from the factory after the first or second model year of production. We are just left to speculate as to why MY1992's had it absent. I suspect that if anyone who worked at Lexus USA at the time would even recall the story as to why it would probably be close to my speculation above or be even less interesting than that.
Keep in mind that in 1990 (the year the Toyota Soarer Z30's first MY1991 was sold) and 1991 (the year the Lexus SC300/400's first MY1992 was sold) a standard cabin air filter was still a very new thing that was uncommon on all but a few high end luxury cars and even then was a new thing in the luxury car market for the most part (in 1990-1991).
Today pretty much all cars from economy to luxury models have some kind of cabin air filter as standard equipment but way back then it was a new feature that only some cars had. So the absence of the actual filter even though the car was designed to accept it from the getgo would not have been noticed as much by many customers of the Lexus SC when they were brand new.
Even into the late 1990's not all cars were designed from the factory with a standard cabin air filter.
Back to the SC's strange first year absence of it despite the receptacle being ready for it I think it must have been a forward thinking design decision that hadn't yet caught up to Denso's supply of the filters themselves and/or wasn't deemed a necessary feature to emphasize until a year or two later into production. If the car is already designed for the function but that function isn't "revealed" as an "all-new" feature until the next model year then it's an easy zero-cost improvement Lexus could tout among the new updates to entire customers to trade in for a brand new model year.
Again, just my speculation on how and why some of the 1992's didn't come with a Denso cabin air filter from the factory.
...
Just to be clear, my 1993 had an old cabin air filter installed when I bought it. Maybe the previous owner or their dealer added it but U.S. SC300's and SC400's DID come with cabin air filters from the factory after the first or second model year of production. We are just left to speculate as to why MY1992's had it absent. I suspect that if anyone who worked at Lexus USA at the time would even recall the story as to why it would probably be close to my speculation above or be even less interesting than that.
Last edited by KahnBB6; 07-21-20 at 02:19 PM.
