Why does the cabin filter get dirty much faster than the engine air filter?

Hello everyone,

I have owned a Hyundai i20GB for about 9 years.

Up until now, I have always had maintenance carried out by the authorized workshop.

For cost reasons, I decided to do the light maintenance myself this year. This included, among other things, the two air filters.

The maintenance schedule calls for changing the cabin filter every year and the engine air filter every two years.

As a layman, I wondered why there was this difference in the indicators…

The last minor maintenance (annual, with cabin filter) was overdue for a good year now and the following picture presented itself to me when I changed the filters myself:

The cabin air filter was definitely broken. A cloud of dust, almost like a full vacuum cleaner bag. Animals had even been living inside…

The engine air filter still looked almost new. Sure, when I replaced it with a new one, I could see a difference, but it was nothing compared to the cabin filter.

Now my specific question: How can it be that the filters get dirty at such different rates? After all, they suck in the same amount of air.

Thanks!