Tesla will now warn to replace cabin air filter before it starts to smell bad

As part of the big Spring Update that brings adaptive cornering headlights, quieter A/C, and other goodies, Tesla would also help owners remember it is time to replace their cabin air filter.

Tucked in the HVAC section of Tesla's Service Mode information, a new Cabin Filter Health metric has appeared, showing an approximation of the remaining useful life of the filter in percentages.

Some users are apparently reporting numbers over 100%, so Tesla might be using fan airflow efforts as a metric, too, rather than just counting down from the last replacement, or considering the time span of the HVAC system operation.

In the general case, Tesla recommends replacing the cabin air filter every 2 years, or 3 years in the case of a Model Y HEPA filter like the ones installed on cars with the Bio Weapon mode, for instance.

Those Tesla filter replacement timeframes are just advisory, though, as the filters can get clogged up much faster. This is where the new cabin filter health metric in Service Mode may come in handy as a notification for even the most organized of owners.

It takes very little effort to replace one, too. Tesla's chief engineer Lars Moravy recently demonstrated that it takes only a few seconds to pull one out from that working man's pickup, the Cybertruck, whose HEPA filter is accessible from the frunk.

Get the Tesla Model 3 cabin air HEPA filter with activated carbon on Amazon