Ok, I am not one to grip. In fact I love this car totally...quality is immpecable. I have found one thing that seems odd though. That is the Air Filtration System. We all know that this option only consists of the "HEPA" filter. As all of the WRXs have the ability to accept the filter behind the glove box. The housing is there, if you didn't order the filtration you didn't get a $30 filter. So for, I think, $70 at the time of order or purchase of your vehicle, they will include a $30 filter for $70, lol:rolleyes:

Anyway that's not my gripe.... I noticed small fibers all over my dash and steering column as I have recently used my heater and fan.....Just out of curiosity, and noticing the consistency of these fibers after cleaning them up once, I gathered some up. I am chemist for Boeing and have access to a spectrum analyzer. I found that the fibers all over my dash and car were from the same material used in the so call HEPA filter!!!! True HEPA certified filters do not emit fiber upon used like that. This can't be a very good filter media if it is coming apart just through normal use. I will show my findings to my dealer and hopefully he will give me a replacement filter. Then I will see if that solves the problem. Between you and me....I highly doubt it. lol


Jim

Is it possible that it was installed upside down?

Just reaching...

w

Is it possible that it was installed upside down?

I checked mine the other day and don't recall seeing a specific direction that it need to be installed. Even so, that material should not be coming apart like mr2guru mentioned.
Here in good ol' TX if I use the heater once this year it will be a surprise, so I can't comment on having the same problem.

Here in good ol' TX if I use the heater once this year it will be a surprise, so I can't

Ever use your air conditioner?? It draws air through the same filter.

I used a small piece of filter material from Lowes with some filter "oil" - total cost was under $1 for the part of the filter I used, I got enough to do 12 cars for $6, and the filter spray was $4.

Originally posted by orionf


I checked mine the other day and don't recall seeing a specific direction that it need to be installed. Even so, that material should not be coming apart like mr2guru mentioned.
Here in good ol' TX if I use the heater once this year it will be a surprise, so I can't comment on having the same problem.

The filter has an arrow on one end indicating air flow.

Forgive my ignorance, but while the filter has an arrow on it, I didn't see an arrow on the housing and I dont know which way the air is flowing in the first place. Up or down?

Originally posted by Coati
Forgive my ignorance, but while the filter has an arrow on it, I didn't see an arrow on the housing and I dont know which way the air is flowing in the first place. Up or down?

Well, now you got me - I don't know and to add to my vacuum of usefullness - can't remember which way I put it in! But I'm not having the problem mentioned earlier with all the fibres getting spread around, so maybe I guessed right(!).

If I were to figure out which way it should go in, I'd remove the glovebox again, re-attach the power to the blower and turn it on to see which way it the flow was. Or - if you already have the filter in, remove it and see which side has all the crud on it.

It may be a filter but it's definatly not a HEPA sytle. It will not filter down to that level (0.3 microns). If it were a true HEPA it would cost quite a bit more than 70 bucks. The one in my vacuume cleaner costs like 60 and it's small. I use to work making asceptic food and we would use HEPA hoods in the clean areas. Anyway maybe they crushed the filter or something like that or like you say it's coming apart. Take it out and have a look. I have on in my RS here are the directions and some pics that may help.


Look here:

http://www.scoobymods.com/mods/impreza/cabinfilter.php


http://www.scoobymods.com/mods/impreza/images/cabinaircompare1.jpg

Peaty - do you know if the airflow is up or down? (assuming WRX is same as RS)

Well, in my case I installed the filter as an afterthought last night while putting in the alarm upgrade.
The filter for the WRX is not identical to the one above in the pic. Ours has no plastic reinforcing, and my car has a bunch of wires and metal right in front of the little filter door so I certainly had to give the filter a little squeeze to get it into the slot. I got tiny bits of the element coming from the vents this morning, but I'm not sure this isn't:
a) dust from manufacturing process;
b) element in the wrong way;
c) broken due to my incompetence or some other impact; or
d)just crappy element and now I get to breathe filter bits along with the pollen and dust:lol:

Because I was in the middle of the alarm install, I had the battery disconnected so I couldn't just switch on the fan to see which way was "up."

The filter in the RS goes in by the AC coil. It's perpendicular to the floor so it's more of a passenger side to driver side direction I believe.

Peaty - thanks for the help (anyway!)

Coati - I haven't noticed any dust, but the filter did add an odor either under heating or AC, but it only lasted a day or two. Works fine now, no air or dust that's noticable.

During my install, I did a quick flow check using a small strip of paper, after flipping on the fan, the paper was pulled down towards the fan.

I installed the filter with the arrow down.

Hope this helps.

:rolleyes:
Thanks, Mark. That would mean I installed it correctly and still got the filter bits. So much for the upside-down theory.:confused: