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That actually wasnt my point.Of course it will back to normal when you take the filter out.
People are forgetting that there are different quality filter fabrics, not only the number of pleats.
Without reading this whole thread again I do believe it's 3 people who say they fitted wesfil filters and noticed reduced flow. And I mentioned that the filter material looks more like blue A4 paper than filter paper.Let’s go back a few pages.
These cars are not new anymore. The first VE’s are now 17 years old! 17 years of the blower motor working hard to blow farts out the air gaps. The fan motors can be a bit how ya goin’.
I’m betting in this situation the blower motor is a bit worn out.
Less pleats is simply an easy cost cutting measure as it allows for less filter media to be used. And given the airflow needs of the hvac are a constant, the outcome of using less filter media almost always will result in the filter media clogging up sooner than a quality cabin filter with more pleats.The only explanation people have offered is the number of pleats, and wrong installation. But they're ignoring the fact these filters are cheaper for a reason.
Waaaay too many assumptions used in reaching your conclusion. Sounds like you are simply stuck on one train of thought.Less pleats is simply an easy cost cutting measure as it allows for less filter media to be used. And given the airflow needs of the hvac are a constant, the outcome of using less filter media almost always will result in the filter media clogging up sooner than a quality cabin filter with more pleats.
The quality of the filter medium itself is much harder to gauge but one would expect that the filter medium isn’t going to be more restrictive as it gets cheaper. If anything I’d say that the cheaper the filter gets, the the less filtering it can actually do as the maker would want to avoid airflow restrictions which would be noticeable to the end customer.
Put in a simpler way, cheap filters won’t filter well while still maintaining good airflow…
As such, pleats are still the simplest laypersons method to determine filter quality but like anything, there is no steadfast rule and everything must be taken with a grain of salt.
Heck, the Chinese stuff that some people buy on the www is utter garbage and not even fit for use. So people need to carefully evaluate where they are getting stuff from, what they have and whether it‘s indeed “milk“ they’ve got or they’ve being sold “milk with melamine”…
With this in mind, @tomsan ’s issue would either be (1) forged non genuine and really crappy made product, (2) genuine filter but some poor filter manufacture QC/QA has let a crappy product where too much glue has wicked up and spread across the filter media restricting airflow get through to the end customer, (3) install issue where the fan assembly was knocked and that has caused a performance problem, (4) there is something forgotten within the airstream that is now blocking airflow (wouldn’t be the first time someone has left a rag where it shouldn’t be) or (5) nothing wrong with the filter and it’s just a coincidence that the fan or some other hvac control has partly pooed itself
But tomsan revisiting the install and putting back the old screen filter would be a good sanity check that may rule out some hardware related mishap. And doing such would also allow him to again carefully inspect the wesfil cabin filter is indeed ok and not suffering some QC issue…
It does seem that tomsan wants to go back to mesh but as he trashed not got something to use. Hopefully he’s close enough to @lmoengnr as he’s kindly offered him one of hist spare screen filter. If the offer is taken, then we may finally get an answer..
And they’d almost certainly outflow them while providing SFA filtration being the pointYour logic would imply that the cheapest Chinese air filter you can get online should always outflow the most expensive brands.
Glad you see my point! So the manufacturer has several choices to make to produce something like a cabin filter. Type, quality and the number of pleats/ surface area of filter media to use being just a few. The wesfil I fitted has plenty of pleats and plenty of paper. Unfortunately, to the naked eye the paper seems to be a very cheap and restrictive type. Don't forget we are talking about paper not a woven fabric. Woven fabric you save money by reducing the number of fibers, this increases the space between the fibres and increases flow but reduces the amount of crud the filter would actually catch.And they’d almost certainly outflow them while providing SFA filtration being the point