Did you vacuum out all the leaves and other debris that gets trapped in the box and ducting?
Changing the cabin air will not unbalance anything as long as you put the new filter in correctly and it would be very tough not to.Nope. Just scooped out with my hands. Note: this is the CABIN filter, not the engine filter. How do you get to the ductwork behind the cabin filter?
FWIW The sound sounds like something has become unbalanced, not something rattling around....
Leaves I bet.Changing the cabin air will not unbalance anything as long as you put the new filter in correctly and it would be very tough not to.
Pull the cabin air filter out and then run the fan motor and see if the noise/whine is still there.
Something possibly dropped into the fan??
Yep, that is what I would put my money on and it should be easy enough to find and remove.Leaves I bet.
Cabin air filters are directional but even if the direction was incorrect, that would not cause the issue mentioned.Is the cabin filter directional? Some filters have arrows that need to match the airflow.
The maintenance schedule would say that is a no-no but because it is synthetic and as you say approx 4500 miles, I personally would not have a problem with once a year. I am aware of others on this forum that have stretched the oil change much longer on a PHEV.The replacement filter is made by WIX and cost $15.00. I think I'll replace it every six months. I tougher question is how often to change the engine oil. With 100% synthetic oil, and top-quality oil filters, I am tempted to go 9,000 miles between changes. That's about one year, and probably 4,500 miles on the ICE.
Chuck
I have always change my own oil, regardless of vehicles I have owned.I will likely have some major issues with changing oil every 4,500 miles.. I have a PHEV and going to be using mostly the electirc until winter and road trips. My 2010 Prius the last 10 years I owned it was changed 1x a year and was supposed to be changed every year or 10K miles. Used Mobil 1 0-20.
This car looks a lot easier to change oil compared to Prius... Anyone else change own oil regularly>
I have 87,000 miles on my Niro, and that's like 8 or 9 oil changes. I have never changed the washer and it still does not leak even a tiny bit.Don't forget to replace the crush washer on the drain plug.