Cabin air filter?

I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere before... do we have a cabin air filter in our Rivs?

nope.

some say the air passing over the A/C evaporator (which if your climate control is left on 'auto' runs darn near all the time) gets cleaned by the dust getting trapped in the condensate as the A/C is running - but I don't get that.

albertj

I thought we didn't have one but Rockauto has them listed for the Riv. Is that right?

NO, are cars were not equipped unfortunately.
It is pollen season and I sure would like to fit a cabin air filter. but from what little i have tried, I can't figure how to get one in the cowl air intake, just not enough room.
They put them in other GM cars of this era, just not ours.
Go Figure.
If they made a 2000 Riv it would have had one.
The G/F's 2000 Suzuki has one.

Wonder if we could somehow retrofit?

I spent a little time on it, but could probably spend more time and with the help of the guys at the Auto Parts store might be able to come up with something.
But if you remove the plastic cover over the inlet on the drivers side you'll see there is very little room and that is where all the air is drawn in for the cabin air, unless I missed something.
But even if there is some air drawn in the passenger side it would still require a custom filter be installed in both locations.
The cars that are designed for them have relatively easy access to the filters and are not openly exposed to water and snow and ice as ours are.
All of that has a drain to run out of, but if we put a filter in there we would experience rain water running through the filter and such.
Really don't know of a work around for it.

Hmmm.... I was once told the idea was that since the A/C runs just about all the time the evaporator is wet, and the air is cleaned passing over it. The way this works is "laminar flow." As the air passes the evap, the air molecules (and airborne dust) nearest the fins actually contacts them. Dust in that air tends to get stuck in the water. Here is the problem. I'm sure that works in the lab but not so much in the real environment. Ever skipped a stone on a pond? Dust particles that are relatively heavy tend to skip too. So the problem will be the same as with electronic air cleaners - in an electronic air cleaner the particles get charged as they pass thru. Light ones get stuck on a collector, but heavy ones have inertia and pass. The evap coils have a similar issue with filtration - they will catch and rinse down the light particles but the relatively heavy ones will most likely pass, especially if the particle surface (as in pollen) is kind of hydrophobic in the first place. This is also why, by the way, sometimes you see yellow scum on top of puddles this time of year. It's the airborne pollen floating around that settled on the ground. Rain comes along, the stuff does not get waterlogged it just floats.

THe only thing I can think of for better cabin air filtration would be to replace the cowl openings with a louvered arrangement something like the flat hood vents on the old Chrysler turbo cars, that had a drain channel underneath, and additional plastic ducting inside the cowl to guide air thru filters. Several small ones that you couldl in fact reach might be fittable.

Maybe you could put a single layer of Filtrete(tm) sheet under the cowl grille and rinse it every week?

Albertj

bonjour qui peut me dire ou se trouve le filtre habitacle sur ma riviera supercharged 95 ?
merci je suis français j habite en france cette voiture est super !! i love

hello I'm french I live in France I bought this great car riviera 1995 supercharged finally a dream that occurs who can tell me where is the cabin filter? I have a lot of work process for restoration of my car is now super in France there is no other than my own Riviera is one I bought in Holland in poor condition I'm going to get pictures of my car is black with gray leather hello america! I do not drive American cars here that

Hi Lucien. To my knowledge, there are no cabin air filters used in any 95-99 Riviera.

WELCOME !!!

Bienvenue frere d'une autre mere!

rivierafrenchboy wrote:

hello I'm french I live in France I bought this great car riviera 1995 supercharged finally a dream that occurs who can tell me where is the cabin filter? I have a lot of work process for restoration of my car is now super in France there is no other than my own Riviera is one I bought in Holland in poor condition I'm going to get pictures of my car is black with gray leather hello america! I do not drive American cars here that

La Riviera n'avon pas un filtre habitacle, (c'est dommage).

Albertj

No cabin air filter. The idea (I was told) was that the AC would run all the time and condensation on the evaporator would filter the air. This somewhat works for particulate matter, not so for odors or fumes.