Full pollution protection 'pollen filter'
 

Drivers take more pollution than cyclists... even though cyclists are breathing more air due to working harder.

In heavy traffic you can suck up a lot of fumes. It depends on many factors including fuel quality regulations in your area but generally it's a heady mix of badass particulates and gasses like benzene and carbon monoxide.

Of these, lead(where unleaded fuel isn't in use) and benzene seem like the best candidates causing a nausea like feeling and carbon monoxide for that general drained, lack of energy feeling. This is from my own acedotal experience of living in a country with different regulations on fuel. I need more experience but i can say that driving with a gas mask definately makes a big difference on a 4 hour drive in heavy traffic.

Particulates are easy and cheap to block, plus you can see the dirt collecting on the filters.

Filters in cars are designed to filter particulates. That's good. But when did you last change your filter... Or is the cabin air coming in from poor sealed doors? What if we could upgrade this filtering?
Certainly gas mask filters are expensive... but carbon is not. The cost could be reduced further by buying filter paper wholesale. How are the nastier gasses filtered out in gas masks anyway... Beyond a simple filter paper and carbon filter that is.

So, I'm looking to upgrade my cabin air filter and i wondered if anyone has any experience to share on this.

Absolutely.
Tunnels are even worse.

CO is filtered out in racing and military applications.
There are special filters for that as activated carbon doesn't filter it properly.

Where do they still use lead in petrol :confused:

You can filter the bigger particles, which as it turns out, are not the real problem.
Filtering out PM2.5 is going to be a lot more difficult, but it's the most harmful stuff and it comes out of DPFs

Most filter pollen these days, but pollen are big compared to small PM.

Active carbon won't filter out everything.

http://www.safety-centre.com/SafetyCentre.nsf!Open
You can see a filter for gasses (big carbon filter), one for particles (the thin one) and the combination gas / particle

This is a combination ABEK P3 (dust) filter :
http://www.safety-centre.com/html/br...ombinatie).jpg

The bottom part filters out the dust particles.
The top carbon part filters out the nasty gasses.

We only use them as-required, but especially the combination filters (less carbon) are more prone to let gasses seep through after they've been used a while in a toxic environment.

These are meant for 1 person's breathing, and won't last long in high volume / continuous operation.
The carbon can only absorb so much, and the dust filter would clog.


If you'd want to build your own, the carbon must be well packed so it doesn't shift because of vibration - but pack it too hard and airflow will be reduced.
Active carbon should also be kept out of your lungs and eyes, so you need to contain it well, but still let air through.

The different parts of the filter need to be sealed well, and of course the filter needs to be sealed well against the car so you don't get air blown/sucked around the filter.

It's going to be a lot bulkier than the regular pollen filter, so you'll need to find some space for it somewhere.

...human reaction to air pollutants is similiar to use of EGR in engines, colloquially referred to as "...sniffing your own pharts..." It won't kill you, but why would you do it?

Building something that would be bettr than a fastory filter is possible. If you want to build one similar to a gas mask check out Improvised Gas Mask it can get you started.

Building a custom filter should not be much work if the original filter is a simple shape. It could mostly be built of lexan or some ABS add a gasket around the edges and size it as large as you can fit. If you wanted to it might be possible to open the bottom where the filter sits now and open it up for a larger filter (possibly deeper).