Every Time I Take My Toyota 4Runner To The Dealer For An Oil Change, They Tell Me I Need A New Cabin Air Filter, They Aren’t Getting Me Again

I brought my toyota highlander in to a toyota dealership a few days ago for a oil change and was told I needed a cabin air filter and a engine filter as well. They tell me this every time I get an oil change. So I took there estimate home looked the filters up on line from Amazon got both filters for half there cost and installed them myself. What can be done about dealerships doing this to customer. What about those of us who don't call them out and get the work done by the dealership.

I brought my toyota highlander in to a toyota dealership a few days ago for a oil change and was told I needed a cabin air filter and a engine filter as well. They tell me this every time I get an oil change. So I took there estimate home looked the filters up on line from Amazon got both filters for half there cost and installed them myself. What can be done about dealerships doing this to customer. What about those of us who don't call them out and get the work done by the dealership.

I've owned Toyotas, Honda, Acura, Hyundai, Mazda, Volkswagen, Chevrolets, and Fords over the past 40 years and Toyota dealers are by far the worst of the bunch.

I have a cleanable K&N engine air filter and cabin filter and I clean them every time I change oil every 10k miles. The engine air filter you could stretch much longer probably double but the cabin filter gets filthy fast. It's important unless you don't like to breathe clean air it also slows down your blower fan. So I would recommend cleaning or changing the cabin filter every 10k. It gets dirty fast.

I have seen similar scams with my dad car. They charges him almost $250 to change a license plate bulb and his the cost in with other major work he was getting done. And yes they always recommend to change the Air cabin filter. Be careful if you got to Stanford browns Toyota in Glen Bernie Maryland.

Just did this for my Prius $10 for a cabin air filter super easy to install.

Well my 93 toyota pickup doesn't have a cabin air filter, does that mean I m gonna DIE?

I stopped this little song and dance by marking my filters with date and mileage with a Sharpie when I replaced them in my Tacoma. Paying a dealer's labor rate to change the filters is ridiculous as most charge from 15 minutes to a half hour for EACH filter. The engine filter takes maybe a minute to change. The cabin filter takes a bit longer if you have a lot of junk in the glove box.

I had a worn out key that would no longer open the door. I went for a new key and was told on top of the cost of the key I had to pay 2000 dollars because the new key would not open the passenger door and soon would not start the truck because the lock on the ignition was wearing out inside. I refused to pay for new locks and surprise the key worked fine in the passenger door. Thank you Bill Currie Ford.

Sadly this is not unusual. One of the reasons they don't want you talking to mechanics and force you to deal with sales people is to sell you anything they can. my best friend is a master mechanic and former coast guard engineer. He had started on cars with his dad at 12 . After his service he went to Japan and trained at the factory to be a mechanic. He quit after being yelled at by the Mitsubishi dealership repeatedly for not finding enough extra things to fix.

If you can find an honest dealership please share

I took my Toyota Cressida to performance toyota for brake service. The day before the service, I changed the rotors. I took it in the next day and they told me that I need pads and rotors. I told them to return my car to me. The service advisor said I needed new brake pads and rotors. I then told him I changed the rotors yesterday! Memphis,Tennessee

Simpson Chevrolet in Irvine did say that I needed a air filter and I agreed for them to replace it at $65, and a few days later I checked on the computer and it still had 40 percent left and it never was replaced, now I don't do business with them, I bought a new truck in 2025 took the truck in when it was time for service not anymore. Next year I plan to buy a new vehicle and I won't give them my business.

They likely just base it on your service history

I brought my Toyota Tacoma in to a dealer for a recall. When I picked up the vehicle, they gave me a checklist with items they had inspected while they had the vehicle was that my tires were worn and needed to be replaced.
This caused me to reject their recommended service items and not trust them. A reputable local shop installed 4 new tires the week before.

Dealer service centers are there to make money, every little bit helps, I wouldn't doubt it there's a total of at least 500 bucks.

They tried to scam me for a cabin air filter at Admore Toyota.
“Sir it’s really dirty and needs to be replaced immediately.”
“So you are telling me you went in behind the glove box. Removed the lever arm. Unscrewed the four screws holding the cover in place. And examined the air filter I put in last month and feel it is so dirty in one month it needs to be replaced immediately?”
“Ummmm. Yes. It was um uh really dirty.”
“No it’s not.”
Haven’t gone back since. All faith in them was destroyed over an air filter they lied about.

The Valvoline shop in Asheville offered to change mine for $57.00. The technician said it was 10 per ent off if I had it done today. I bought the filter from Amazon for $9. It took 3 minutes to swap. The same shop told me I needed a tire rotation on tires that were so new(less than 200 miles) that the receipt was still on the seat next to me.

I have never met a completely honest dealership service department...especially the Toyota dealerships....

That's why they call.them STEALERSHIPS now...because they steal from us, often enough that they are gradually being replaced by direct sales models like Tesla, Lucid and Rivian.

The Toyota service dept in Harrisonburg, VA has done the same to me, about the air filter each time I go for an oil change. I had a gut feeling something was up.

Not only Toyota,
Ford had scammed me many times.
The last oil change, was told need new calibre caused it was sticking for which I paid cause they came at me with the new 60000 bumper to bumper even though it was not in my contract. Windshield wash not topped up even though was stated in invoice, wipers not replaced even though was mentioned and part of maintenance plan. Dent in center of hood from up on hoist and etc.
Previously vehicle had heat sheild drop down on main highway , told never touch it even though mechanic admitted in front of her he had to cut zip ties to get it off and once again etc.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the ford product because of its smooth ride and gas mileage but here on the island of Newfoundland most service depts are inadequate on performing the truth in serving the vehicles.
Like always nothing gets done.

Took out my cabin air filter with my first oil change and threw it in the trash. I've driven 515,000 miles with no cabin air filter. Problem solved. Dealerships are constantly scamming customers, not just on cabin air filters.

Yes, you basically should NEVER go to a dealership for ANY maintenance. Most of them are notoriously unscrupulous, or in the case of telling you to replace things you don't need to just down right scammy and should be sued to make an example out of them. We keep finding more and more dealerships that are sketchy at best or down right lie to your face. We've encountered this time and time again over the years. The bigger the dealership the bigger chance they're looking to swindle you. We confronted one many years ago that we went to for "free" state inspections, but never had any service done there. Always went to independent garages elsewhere for quotes on services, and always came in at around half the
estimate of any dealership. And the confrontation came in when the dealership kept telling us something needed replacing to pass state inspection. The independent garage did certain other things, but not the one replacement and we traveled back and forth across town a few times before the manager of the independent garage came to us showing us the part was perfectly fine and did indeed pass inspection. When confronted the manager of the dealership service department broke down and said "Yes, it does pass inspection, but we can't in good conscience pass it, however if the other garage wants to pass it they'll reimburse them for the sticker". Essentially they realized they were caught in a lie and tried to come up with a workaround excuse. Don't know if the state rules somehow allow it, but unscrupulous garages like dealerships may be allowed to come up with their own rules and specs beyond the state rules. We filed a report with the state police back then (hoping to get our money back from the unnecessary repairs), but never heard anything about it again. Of course we were a little suspicious about filing a report and getting ignored, because we often would see state police cruisers parked outside their maintenance garage for service work. So we suspect they're in bed with that dealership (probably doing all kinds of extra work on cruisers and costing taxpayer money).

Tell what... last time I had my cabin filter replaced; I couldn't believe the level of airflow increase... My AC nearly blew me into the back seat...lol
I just change it myself now every 6 months or so...

Filters are inexpensive from any auto parts store, and a quick internet search will step you through replacement process... usually right behind the glove box... super easy...takes 5 mins tops.

Some years ago bought a used van from a Toyota dealership and the vehicle was not a Toyota. It just happened to be a Chevy Minivan and it had the composite intake issue where the intake would warp and coolant would leak. Took 4 times before it was fixed.

If you don't want to get filter scammed by your mechanic there's an easier solution: pull the filter out and throw it away and forget about it. You're not going to experience "serious health consequences." It's only been the last 20 years or so cars even have cabin filters. It's a convenience item, not a safety issue.

I've been working on cars since I was 13 and never in my life have I taken a car to a dealership for maintenance because it will be absolutely the most expensive service you can get. The last time I spoke with the dealer about buying a factory part (because I was curious about the price) the guy said he couldn't even look it up without a vin number, which i didn't have access to at the moment. I said, "You're telling me you can't look up a part by model?" He said, "Nope!" I said, "I'll go find someone who knows what they're talking about."
The Internet is your friend. You might not have the confidence or tools to change your own brake pads or whatnot, but air filters, bulbs, fuses, wiper blades, even oil changes -- this is super basic level stuff. Look it up and eliminate the chance of getting scammed.

I have been a mechanic for 45 years and the amount of scams there are is amazing. A plugged up cabin air filter can work the fan motor hard enough to burn it out prematurely and slow the amount of air flow from the system. I have seen cars with over 100,000 miles on them, with completely plugged cabin air filters and the fan motor still working, so I can't honestly say all motors will burn up. A lot of the service schedules are just designed to get the car in the shop so you can find something that is failing and fix it before a mechanical breakdown. This being said, it's the honesty of the mechanic that will be your only hope. YouTube has a lot of helpful people showing how to perform service tasks yourself. The change your oil every 3-6 months is a sham for sure. I have 395,000 miles on our 2006 Dodge Grand caravan the oil I use is synthetic, I change it around 10,000 miles, sometimes I don't get to it until 15,000 miles and sometimes more. When I go over like that I just figure it cost me some of the life of my vehicle. The list of things that have been taught are endless that might not be true, and this is not just About maintaining a car.

Unforunately, this scam happens at almost all dealers. I had a leased Nissan and would take it to the 'Nissan Authorized' service center, they tried telling me the same crap about me needing a new air filter. I asked them how often should a filter need replacing cause this car is only 1 year old. I told them stop trying to lie.

I hope a law goes into effect for these kinds of scams and rip off soon. I'm surpised it hasn't been made illegal as yet.

2018 Tacoma V6 a year ago the high pressure fuel pump was replaced under a warranty recall. Drive it for about a year and some change. Truck started to fail again. Took it to Toyota, the service writer told me the fuel pump in the tank was the problem. Estimated parts and labor $1800.00
Under no choice I require transportation I agreed but requested for the old parts.
They replaced the high pressure pump I never saw the old pump from the tank.
"Ripped off"

Pretty much ALL service dealerships do is a scam and consumers need to wake up and be way more critical of what they're doing, ask a lot more questions! Every dealership I've ever dealt with DOUBLES the required maintenance schedule from the manufacturer for starters. For example, if you have to get a transmission flush every 100,000 KM, dealerships say you need it every 50,000. They all do this on ALL maintenance items (except maybe oil because people are much more aware of that one). Look in your manual or ask them if their recommended maintenance is required or recommended - most of them will tell you the truth if you ask, but they are very aggressive about their "recommendation". Once my warranty is done, I don't go back to the dealership for anything but recalls and very specialized work. Independent mechanics are often far more affordable - and generally more honest, but you have to make sure you read their reviews first too.

We all need to push back!

Cabin air filter does not need to be changed every oil change. The 15,000-30,000 is typically the same for all manufacturers. I normally change it every third oil change at approx 15,000 miles. (I go 5,000 mile intervals).