Why The Heck Are Air Filters So Expensive

[Crossy]

[whinge]

Just got my 2006 Ranger back from the 60k service. Total bill was 8,233 Baht (Ford dealership on Chaeng Wattana).

Now there's no way I could get anywhere near a service for 160 Quid in the UK so I'm not complaining about the overall cost.

But the single most expensive item on the bill was the air filter at a whole 2,100 Baht, at around 40 quid that pretty darn near UK prices. I did reject the offer to have it 'cleaned' as we had that done last time.

So, why so expensive? It's not like it's a special item.

[/whinge]

[Lancelot]

Because they can... TIT

[aussiebebe]

If you're changing oil and oil filter every 10,000km, then air filters aren't a great cost because you change them less often. K&N are the best and expensive as they're imported, but even the Ford filters will last 40,000+km with cleaning every 10k km.

[Pomthai]

I'm guessing you got ripped off, I have a Dmax, filter for that from the dealer is about 400 baht or so. Mom n Pop shop further up the road its 250baht for the Chinese copy or 300 for the Isuzu one (well its in an Isuzu box at least).

I doubt theres anything more special about the ford filter to make it worthy of that price tag you got.

[floridaguy]

You definately got ripped off. Paper air filters, even factory filters, should cost less than 1000 baht, more like 300-400 as previously stated. Take the bill back and clarify the type put in, why was it so expense, typo? etc etc.

[Crossy]

Part installed is 'genuine' Ford WAC200ML, I have the box and old filter.

Like I said in my OP, I'm not complaining at the overall cost (although will be looking at a pattern or K&N filter now the beast is out of warranty), just that this one bit is so crazy expensive.

IIRC the air filter for my old Beemer was also a madly expensive item compared with the other service parts.

[Crossy]

Trans, you got a source for K&N units in BKK? Be needing one in about 10,000km time

[aussiebebe]

K&N are imported by Worldtech, on Chalermprakiat road in Pravet, south of Bangkok towards the airport. You can find them on the K&N website. I've used one drop-in type K&N filter and found re-oiling them tricky as I put too much on even using the Recharge kit. I would suggest checking on the K&N website to see which type you need and then buying one from ebay.com or similar. These things are always cheaper in the US - the most extreme example of this I've found so far is a Mazda CX-7: THB3.6M in Thailand and just THB800,000 Stateside.

Having written all this, I still think the guy did the right thing getting an official filter, if the car's under warranty, and although some cars have filters which drop in, I don't know about the Ranger, but some car's filters are sealed and can only be serviced by qualified mechanics.