Hey, welcome to the forum. I may be mistaken but I know from owning older Honda and Acura before that some did not have cabin filters. I have not owned a gen 1 CRV but it looks like your vehicle does not have one to replace.

 

I think you're right. I just wanted to make sure I want being silly.
Cheers.

 

There is in fact a cabin air filter—I even have a replacement one waiting. The reason it’s. it installed is you have to take the dash somewhat apart to do it. Brilliant!

 

What a turn of events...An estimated location would be ideal!
Cheers.

 

Agreed, your market didn't seem to fit the cabin filter. Your pic doesn't show the white support bar that you need to move away, that is visible at ~1:53 of the video below. Neither does it show the filter cover, visible at ~2:10.

If it makes you feel any better, your A/C undoubtedly flows better... 🤪

 

Thanks for the video! I would go change mine right now if it weren’t -35C outside 🥶🥶🥶🥶

 

Want to read something really ironic?
You might even get mad.

My 99 Integra LS has the AC housing that uses the cabin filter, it even has the removable cover to slide filter in. But guess what!
The dash bar is right in the middle. Plus the air bag has to come out as well.
no oem or aftermarket cabin filter can be fitted.

 

They obviously realized after the fact:
Wait a minute, this bar blocks everything! Doh! Too late to rearrange everything now for the convenience of some technician.
Sometimes happens in engineering.

 

Lol when I saw it , I though of the same thing. I was like, nooo waaayyy. Really!
And the Darwin award goes to....
Lol

 

There is a cabin filter, need to take off part of the lower right dash and a couple support brackets, real pain in the butt, but doable. Check youtube for a videos on it. I replaced mine last year (2001 model), it takes 15-20 minutes to do.

 

At the dealer - the technicians cut that support bar out of the way. They told me that is what Honda Tech Line said to do back in 1998. They use a cutting wheel to remove it. It is not seen from the cabin as a passenger. I watched them cut out one in an older Odyssey to replace the filter.

 

It seems to me what happened is they were not planning to put a cabin air filter in at all, but the CR-V was their first suv, and it was the first vehicle they designed for off-road driving, so they didn't have the benefit of experience.

I think they found out after driving the first few test vehicles on dirt roads that you get lots of dirt coming in through the vents if you don't have a cabin air filter, and they retrofitted the design as minimally as possible to put a filter in just so that you're not breathing dirt when you drive on trails, and I think they had to make as few changes to the design as possible because of being so close to actual production.

This could all just be in my theory in my head, but it makes sense to me.