‘They always get you with this one’: Expert issues warning against dealerships offering to change your cabin air filter

Professional car hauler and TikToker Jenzi (@jenzi_g) is imploring drivers to stop paying for cabin air filter installations. A recent video of his that accrued well over 618,000 views shows just how easy this part is to DIY.

Don't fall for it

"Here's how to not get scammed at the dealership when servicing your vehicle," he says, holding a box containing an air cabin filter. He then holds up a cylinder-shaped filter. According to Jenzi, the dealer's service center quoted him $90 and $260 respectively for these filter swaps.

But Jenzi says folks can avoid labor charges associated with these filter swaps with little effort.

"After you get these offers, don't accept it right away, head over to the parts desk right next to it," he advises. "Give them the VIN number of your vehicle and tell them that you need a diesel fuel filter and a cabin air filter."

While narrating, he holds up a price quote sheet containing dealer pricing for the filters. "Diesel fuel filter's a little harder to change. But it costs $78 and you can do it yourself. Just unscrew a little thing," he continues. "Pour the diesel out, put a new one in, start it right up and get going."

"And the cabin air filter is $39. So pretty much $40 for a cabin air filter. Instead of $90 and this is how you change it yourself," he says.

DIY

Next, his video quickly jumps to him cracking open the glovebox of his vehicle to demonstrate the replacement process. He presses his fingers against the plastic molding affixed to both sides of the glovebox door—they snap inward.

This visibly separates the bucket from the holes in the dash keeping it in position. Once unhinged, Jenzi then pulls this piece out of the glove box.

Now he has access to the cabin air filter compartment, which sports a small plastic covering. Jenzi removes it with one hand.

"You slide it. This comes right out just like this. Grab that puppy [the old air filter], pull it right out," he says. He then shows the condition of the older air filter, which is clearly filled with dust.

"As you can see it's a little bit dirty," he shares. "Here's the new one, you wanna make sure that the arrows are pointing down. 'Cause the airflow is coming from up, going down. Just push that puppy in there."

Almost done

After placing the brand new, spotless air filter in its proper place, Jenzi reassembles the glovebox. This is as easy as snapping the bit of plastic he initially removed to get to the cabin air filter slot. After, he puts the glovebox bucket back into place.

Jenzi remarks that this process takes less than a minute, which he thinks isn't worth the $50 dealership charge. However, he says fuel filter changes are a bit more involved, but still easy to do.

Jenzi says depending on the make and model of your vehicle, it may have different diesel filter protocols.

He then recaps his final savings.

"So, $180 here, $50 in the air filter. Just saved $230 by doing it myself," he concludes. "And I get it, they're a business, they need to make money it's a big facility. But $230 for literally 30 minutes of work just sounds like an unreasonable price for me."

Fuel filter change

In case you were wondering how easy it is to replace a fuel filter, YouTuber Cameron Norman demonstrates how. He recorded a diesel fuel filter change on his 2024 Chevy Silverado with a Duramax engine. In the clip, he points to the middle of his truck, between the front and rear driver's side doors.

He gets underneath his truck to show viewers what this compartment looks like. Following this, he places a socket wrench onto the bottom portion of the filter's plastic husk. "Just want to gently loosen it up," he says as he slowly turns the container.

Like Jenzi, Norman mentions that drivers should be cognizant of the fact that this can be a messy job. That's because fuel will pour out of this sealed fuel filter cocoon. At the onset of the video, he displays a black pan on camera. This is used to collect the drained diesel/gasoline seeping from the loosened container.

On the Silverado, he does mention that there's a drainage hole embedded into the bottom of this component. It's a Torx female slot that, once cracked open, will allow fuel to evacuate the container at a more controlled pace.

@jenzi_g How to not get scammed at the dealership! #truck #dealer #dealership #service #vehicleservice #maintenance #airfilter #fyp ♬ original sound - JENZI G

A step further

Some viewers stated that there were still more savings to be had. One user on the app said Jenzi made an error in purchasing the parts from the dealership.

"Bro still got scammed by purchasing at the dealership," one said.

Another echoed, "$40 for a cabin air filter!!!!!! You still got scammed."

Someone else also averred this was the case: "Also don’t buy your parts from the dealership they sell them significantly cheaper at a auto parts [store]."

The Daily Dot has reached out to Jenzi via TikTok comment.

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