Topic: Cabin Air Filter - Change It!

[99 rs]

This probably goes without saying but if you haven't changed your cabin air filter in a while do it now. My filter was worse than it looks in the pictures since much of the crap scraped off as I was pulling it out. The filter looked like it was starting to grow fur on it. I'm guessing it wasn't changed since new. Each bolt "cracked" open with the same amount of force and none of the paint was marked on the screw heads. So 6-7 years of build up I would estimate.

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

To scare you even more... Not all subaru's came with them (even though they have a place to put the filter).

[snackers]

To scare you even more... Not all subaru's came with them (even though they have a place to put the filter).

But at least that means those cars don't have a big square chunk of mold sitting in the air path that you breath.

[Alex]

That's disgusting. Mine made my car smell like mildew when i turned the A/C on after just 1 year. I will now be replacing every spring minimum.

[Claw]

To scare you even more... Not all subaru's came with them (even though they have a place to put the filter).

Yup.. I had to retrofit one from a 2008 into mine.

[99 rs]

I took my own advice and decided to do the filter on the girlfriend's 2005 Legacy today. Just as LDS and Claw mentioned my 2005 did not have access to the filter but the cage was there. That didn't stop someone from stuffing what felt like the equivalent of Scotch abrasive pads in there (just they weren't abrasive). Again I'm estimating about 7-8 years of crap in there. The Fram filter comes with the charcoal odour absorbing stuff on it so it already looks dirty. I cleaned a bunch of stuff out of the bottom of the squirrel cage as well. Some Owners amaze me with how far they'll let things go...













Claw, I too had to take half the plastics around the dashboard off to get to the filter. I looked at your thread and I think all of the filter holes in the glove boxes were pre-marked. Mine had equally not straight lines drawn on it and it looked like the line was put there during the forming process. I'd like to think I made slightly straighter cuts than what was marked but you can barely see the opening once the glove box is in. You actually can't see anything if you sit like a normal person in the seat.







The line below was already there on the back of the glove box.




Completed "mod". Filter changes will take 5 minutes now.