Pollen filters and cabin filters are practically the same thing; however they do have a different function. When people refer to pollen filters they normally mean a filter that cleans air coming into the car. A cabin filter is the filter that treats the incoming air and the recirculated air. Cars will generally have a pollen filter or a cabin filter, rather than both. Originally fitted to protect the air conditioning systems from dust accumulation and the resulting smells and loss of efficiency that the dust can cause, the benefits that pollen filters gave to car occupants was soon realised. Pollen filters were then fitted to cars and vans with and without air conditioning. Pollen filters are quite straightforward, many originals ones used heat bonded non-woven synthetic fibres and were cased in moulded plastic frames. The media was usually pleated in order to maximise the area of media available to the airflow, which prolongs pollen filter performance and its life. Most modern pollen filters have dispensed with the plastic frame and use instead a ‘melt blown’ synthetic card frame, and melt blown synthetic media. These types of filters rely much more on the filter housing when installed, for their structural integrity, compared to the old plastic framed variants, which were very strong in their own right. Some of the prestigious brand new cars have pollen filters with activated carbon, enabling them to capture smells, nuisance and toxic gases, as well as the particles. Most car manufacturers recommend changing pollen filters at each service interval or every second interval if it is a particularly short distance between services. We at AE Services recommend that the pollen filter gets changed in accordance with the manufacturer’s recommended guide lines. For further details go to www.autoexpressservices.com