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DIY Cabin Air Filter Change: How-To Guide w/Pics

296K views 368 replies 189 participants last post by  Midnight Cowboy 
#1 ·
I replaced my cabin air filter today in my 2006 Mazda3. It has 45,000 miles, I've never had this replaced before, I live and drive around Chicago, the car is garage kept. With picture taking, it took about 4 hours. I had searched through these boards in the past to find a good write up on the cabin filter, but no real good one existed. These boards rock when it comes to How-To's so I figured I'd grab my camera, some tools, and document my experience. I had to stop after taking the passenger’s side all apart and re-read some posts because I couldn't find the filter! These boards have helped me with plenty in the past, but have not done too well with the cabin filter. So to you, fellow DIY'ers and forum members, and cabin filter want to replacers, here is YOUR guide:

Tools needed:
1) Philips head screwdriver
2) Flat head screwdriver
3) Long nose pliers
4) 12mm socket head and ratchet with extenders
5) shop-vac


Here's my replacement filter (I paid $37.35 for it at my local dealership):




Open the glove compartment door:




Remove the plastic trim by pulling up underneath the trim from where the glove compartment door closes. NOTE THE HOOK AT THE RIGHT END OF THE TRIM! Don't expect the trim to first pop off from the right because it first pops out from the area over the glove compartment, then bows out, and carefully pull back to completely remove:




Unscrew the two screws with the Philips head:




I have the navigation system, thus the DVD player in the glove compartment makes this next step pretty difficult. You'll have to first pull out and down from the top of the glove compartment and carefully wiggle out:




Once unlatched, you'll notice the lamp. I unscrewed it out:




There a plastic cover, right above the passenger's feet, that's held up by two tabs. Tough to explain, but too easy to remove. Push the two tabs towards the front of the car, pull down, viola:




There another plastic cover to the feet's left:




Use the flat head to pry the center plug a bit. CAREFUL, don't pry the outside plug or you'll risk scratching everything and not accomplishing anything:




There two twist plugs holding up the fuse box. Give each about 1 turn and the fuse box is loose:




Unplug each of the connectors to the fuse box by turning the black loop by 180 degrees. This was a bit tricky, but once you see how it works, it's a piece of cake to do the rest:




Use the ratchet with the 12mm socket to remove the two nuts from the fuse block bracket. I used two extenders to make removing them easier. There were tightened to about 980 lbs. Seriously, they were pretty tight.





Move the bracket and plugs away from the center console, as that's where we’ll be working next. I found that by removing the gray cable tie (in picture) from the fuse block bracket (with pliers) gives plenty of lee-way to maneuver the bracket and plugs away from the center console.




Remove the two screws holding the black sensor:




Unplug the white sensor connector, move both out of the way:




Remove the 4 screws holding the white plastic cover:




Slide out the bottom cabin filter (there's two, one on top of each other), then slide out the top one that falls after you take out the bottom one:




Here's what the inside looked like BEFORE I cleaned it out with a shop-vac and a windexed cloth:




Here's what it looked like AFTER:




Here are the old filters above the new filters. Yes, folks, I had a tough time believing this. It made it all worth it:




This part was tricky. You have to slide the top filter in first:




Now slide it up, use your magic powers to hold it up, then slide in the bottom filter. Oh wait, I didn't have any magic powers handy! Somehow, I got it anyway:




Now put everything back in the way you took it out and congratulate yourself on a job well done. Here's my only casualty.
 
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#255 ·
Changed my filters out yesterday. Took about 45 minutes working at an easy pace. No issues encountered at all. Old filters were dirty!!! Thanks to the OP for the great write up and pictures.
 
#262 ·
#263 ·
[quote author=CoolMax link=topic=96166.msg3755246#msg3755246 date=1281215966]
changing the in-cabin filter is this much of a PITA? dealership quoted me $109...it almost sounds worth it. Plus, I'm lazy and it's 100F out there...
[/quote]
So I went ahead and did it anyway. It took me a bit over an hour, including a couple of breaks (yes, I needed them...100F in the garage!)
I didn't remove the glove box and only disconnected the negative terminal before replugging the fuses.

I bought the WIX filter from Amazon (which I Febreezed); the original filters were not very dirty after 25k miles.


The hardest part was holding up the top filter while trying to insert the bottom filter.
 
#265 ·
Great write up! Did it on my 2005 Mazda 3 2.3L and I really took my time as I am new to this. Took me about 1h 30min. Nothing was difficult per say.

Pay attention to the connectors when you reconnect them. It's very easy to make a mistake there. Hint: Each connector, when connected properly, is FLUSH with the fuse board. So if you see a portion of the connector sticking out, it's not correctly in place. Remove and retry. What baffles me is that the retaining lock will engage even when the connectors are not properly seated. Bad design if you ask me, let alone the entire procedure to access those filters.... ridiculous! But it's worth it.

Only downside to this maintenance is that you will lose some ECU programming and will have to reprogram your radio stations and whatnot, because you unplug the negative pole of the battery. That's another thing that baffles me. How come Mazda didn't add a small battery backup to prevent loss of data on that chip when it is required to unplug the battery for maintenance? I don't get it.

BTW, no CEL after doing it. Everything is fine except the idle strategy and A/F ratio data is lost... so I have to drive the car around to have it relearn its thing. No big deal.
 
#267 ·
I just finished this up. To be honest, I'm not sure what all the fuss is about. Following the OP's instructions, this install is really easy. It took me about 45 minutes start to finish, and I could have done it faster if I didn't get distracted by the football game.

I got the Wix filters off of Amazon and they fit great, plus are treated with some anti- microbial coating.
 
#271 ·
Just did mine today. Probably took an hour. Will be about 30 minutes next time around. My filters after 60k were really bad. This was a horror show. No "PROBLEMS" encountered, aside from the fact that replacing a maintenance item took this long. They did the same thing with the air filter - hiding it under stuff. PITA.

I too got CEL - I suspect it had something to do with the fact that I forgot to reattach the MAF after changing the engine air filter...
 
#272 ·
Step by step guide worked awesome! Bought my filters off ebay i think they were somewhere from 5 to 8 bucks. HUGE difference. The guy before me smoke in the car and now you cant even tell. This is totally worth it! Took about 45 mins... hardest part is getting both filters in! I suggest disconnecting the battery
 
#274 ·
Is there any sort of filter at the front of the intake before the air gets to these filters? I just replaced mine today with these helpful instructions after 70k miles. There were some little grass clippings, leaf pieces, and other stuff on the dirty side of the filter. That doesn't seem good.
 
#275 ·
[quote author=Disantinon link=topic=96166.msg3852055#msg3852055 date=1289172104]
Is there any sort of filter at the front of the intake before the air gets to these filters? I just replaced mine today with these helpful instructions after 70k miles. There were some little grass clippings, leaf pieces, and other stuff on the dirty side of the filter. That doesn't seem good.
[/quote]

I think that's pretty much normal depending on where you park and what you drive through. That's why you gotta change the filter and wipe down the filter box.
 
#276 ·
[quote author=mazda dude link=topic=96166.msg3855417#msg3855417 date=1289421074]
[quote author=Disantinon link=topic=96166.msg3852055#msg3852055 date=1289172104]
Is there any sort of filter at the front of the intake before the air gets to these filters? I just replaced mine today with these helpful instructions after 70k miles. There were some little grass clippings, leaf pieces, and other stuff on the dirty side of the filter. That doesn't seem good.
[/quote]

I think that's pretty much normal depending on where you park and what you drive through. That's why you gotta change the filter and wipe down the filter box.
[/quote]

Also, If you don't already do it, it's a good habit to keep the gap between the windshield and the hood clear of any debris. The intake for the cabin air vent is located there, so if you keep that free of leaf litter and whatnot, there will be less chance that it gets to the filterbox to be caught by the cabin air filter.
 
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