So again this is a 98 DX. The car doesn't have a cabin air filter (according to everything I see online) is there anything I can do to prevent all this crap from blowing into my car when I turn on the air/heat?

 

You can get a cabin air filter box tray from a first gen cr-v. Or just clean the intake vent under the passengers side window with a shop vac.

 

Drop the blower motor and clean out the debris from the fan cup and from around the evaporator.

 

Adding the filter from the CRV will prevent this..

When adding the filter, it will be open so you can clean the coils and vacuum out the debris.

Theres a write up on here if you search civic cabin filter.

 

I'm not absolutely sure, but I think you can just add a filter to the 99-00 Civics because there's an access door to the evaporator. For 96-98 Civics, the access door is absent, so making them compatible for adding a filter is a major job.

 

I belive the 98 models came with the box slot as part of the change from obd2a to obd2b. I recall my 98 hx having the box with a blank slot where as my 96 just has full plastic and foam

 

All 98 Civic models are OBD2a. Surprisingly, even the 99-00 HX Civics with a manual transmission are OBD2a.

I can't refute, but I'm pretty confident that 96 Civic lacked the access door.

 

OP - Remove the glove box and check whether your evaporator box has the lid shown in the diagram. If so, you can just add a filter into the slot covered by the lid.

 

My 96 is a solid piece of plastic so I can confirm that much

 

https://honda-tech.com/honda-civic-d...civic-2112319/


half the pics are missing..

 

Some more pics

96-99 Civic A/C Removal of Expansion valve