Your 2012 Ford Focus cabin air filter is one of those repairs you can put off if you like. The air filter in your engine is urgent. The one in your cabin is a comfort issue, and it’s there so you don’t have to smell every other engine on the road.
What’s the best cabin air filter for a 2012 Ford Focus?
An OEM one directly from Ford. They typically cost about thirty bucks, but you can check with your local Ford dealer to see what sort of a deal you can get. An aftermarket filter is fine, but an OEM is perfect.
How Often Should You Change the Cabin Air Filter, And How do You do it?
You’ll typically want to replace your cabin air filter every 15,000 to 30,000 miles. If you live somewhere humid like Florida or Louisiana, it might not be a bad idea to check it every 10,000 miles. There’s no harm in replacing it early, it’s a pretty cheap part.
Swapping it out is pretty easy.
- Remove the tabs on the panel under the glove box.
- Open the panel and you’ll find the filter housing beside the fuses. Pinch the tabs and pull the housing cover off.
- Now you can pull the old filter out and pop a new one in.
- With the new filter in place, you can put everything right back where it came from, and you’re good to go.
And there you have it. This fix could cost upward of sixty bucks at the shop, or it could take you two minutes to do yourself. Pretty easy call to make if you ask us, especially since you don’t even need to get your hands greasy for this.
OEM vs. Aftermarket Cabin Air Filters
With the air filter on your engine, we’re always going to recommend that you go with an OEM part. If your engine’s air filter isn’t built to spec, it’s going to take thousands of miles off of your engine’s life expectancy.
With a cabin air filter, if you can save a few bucks with a decent aftermarket filter from AutoZone, go for it.
In fact, if you feel like driving without a cabin air filter at all, there’s really no harm in that. After all, convertibles exist, don’t they?
When you drive by a rubber factory or a skunk, you might wish you’d put a new cabin air filter in, but this part is more about personal comfort, and buying an aftermarket cabin air filter isn’t going to hurt your car any.
