Replacing the Cabin Air Filters

[SyntheticAtmosphere]

A mouse ripped up the filter when he decided to nest in my plenum. If you happen to have some debris pass the fan, the bottom of the plenum opens up, 1 screw and 5 tabs later you can vacuum the crap out of the evaporator with a brush attachment. Careful, tabs are delicate!

[azarashi]

Fucking hell, coming from my old car I was assuming it wouldnt have been that bad;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHkKlp2g3-w

[MadOzodi]

Replacing the filters didn't end up being as bad as I thought it would be. Cleaning all the crap out of the housing did...don't go 76k miles without changing your cabin air filters!

I ended up removing some of the driver-side dash panels, then went on the hunt to eliminate as many squeaks and rattles as I could identify.

[jax ms3gt]

Did this today. Just hit 70,000 miles and after getting my car back from shipping company from Guam to VA I could notice a smell. Fixed

Unfortunately I didn't disconnect the battery and now my HVAC air temp is displayed in Celsius and when I switch to Ambient temp it is "---"
No idea how to fix that, or reset cabin air temp to F*
Any suggestions?

edit- also remote no longer locks and unlocks the doors... wtf did i do wrong..

[pzr2874]

Did you unhook the neg terminal for a little bit afterwards?

[ArmanRus]

I didn't remove the negative battery terminal when I did mine. Recheck and redo all the connections in the fuse box.

[theurgy]

Yeah, disconnect the negative on the battery, press the brake pedal to drain the residual charge and then reconnect.
If it's still occurring, I would unhook the battery again, then look at your connections on your passenger junction box, see if any pins got bent...etc.

[azarashi]

Originally Posted by jax ms3gt Did this today. Just hit 70,000 miles and after getting my car back from shipping company from Guam to VA I could notice a smell. Fixed Unfortunately I didn't disconnect the battery and now my HVAC air temp is displayed in Celsius and when I switch to Ambient temp it is "---" No idea how to fix that, or reset cabin air temp to F* Any suggestions? edit- also remote no longer locks and unlocks the doors... wtf did i do wrong..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbO4...etailpage#t=18

watch this explains how to change from Celsius to Fahrenheit.

[jax ms3gt]

That video is annoying and I've viewed it before.. holding those buttons didn't do anything for me. Thank you tho, I'm not bashing your help.. just the guy who made that video lol
I will disconnect battery today, I got busy yesterday and didn't get to it... pretty much Michigan game came on and I had to watch them lose their chance at a bowl game..
I'll update after disconnecting battery and hope it works

[cruisin3style]

first a big thanks to the OP for the video. so an hour and a half and a sore elbow and ankle later and the job is done. but i was hoping someone could help me out with my retardation

@ 2:02 in the video, he pulls on that plug thing and i couldn't figure out how to get that bitch out. i tried pushing on it i tried "squishing it" with my fingers i tried digging a screwdriver in at various angles...eventually it came out with a decent amount of force applied by pulling on the panel

right now the panel is back in place and the plug is sitting at an angle holding the panel on. it will probably stay that way for a while, but i'd bet a good passenger kick is all it will take to come loose

i know i'm an idiot for even having to ask but assuming it isn't broken, can someone explain to me how that stupid plug thing is supposed to work? and how i might get its ass back in the way it was meant to?

[replayreb]

I just did this and it was a huge PITA. While I was down there I took some close-up pics of the inside of the air box so you can see the grooves where the top air filter slides up into.

[SpeedThrills]

Did this a few months ago, good thing because the filters were original (134k miles on them) but damn that job was a pain in the ass. Not looking forward to doing it again it 20-30k miles. Nice walkthrough!

[sharksinspace]

I changed mine in May and come on, guys, it honestly wasn't THAT bad. Tougher than it should be to swap a simple cabin filter, absolutely; but people make it out to be worse than it truly is...it's more tedious than difficult, IMO. Maybe wear long sleeves, though...I scraped up my forearms in a couple of places.

[08speed]

At 82k miles im betting mine is either original or hasn't been changed in a long time. I'll be adding this to my to-do list.

[replayreb]

Originally Posted by sharksinspace I changed mine in May and come on, guys, it honestly wasn't THAT bad. Tougher than it should be to swap a simple cabin filter, absolutely; but people make it out to be worse than it truly is...it's more tedious than difficult, IMO. Maybe wear long sleeves, though...I scraped up my forearms in a couple of places.

The biggest headache is that you have to unplug those connectors from the fuse tray and that resets everything in the car from the ECU to the radio presets.

[sharksinspace]

For sure; it's definitely absurd that you have to drop the glovebox and unplug/remove the fuse tray. I don't ever use the radio, myself, so for me it was just a matter of resetting the clock after everything was buttoned back up.

[Exodyus]

Resurrection!

So I just used this video as a guideline, but it being so shaky and difficult to see, I just listened to him and kinda winged it. Lol.

But!

I'm running a 2008, and apparently this model is notorious for the temperature controller switch overheating and won't cool down until it's under 117°, which then turns the A/C off, and heats up 10x faster on days around 100°...

So it'll be nice and cool and then BAM—95° air blowing in your face.

The dealership sells a $130 part . . . Which is legitimately a series of wires and two connectors, with a resistor in the middle wrapped in foam. It goes in line on the CAF cover with the 3 screws in it.

All in all, 25-30 minutes to do all of it, but holy shit—getting that other air filter in there ... I felt like Gumby...

[craig busskohl]

thanks so much for the video. but what a PIA for something that is a mntc. item?! One minor deviation on my 2007- the filter cover had 6 screws if you count the 2 for the finned sensor that is attached to it. can skip that and leave it on i suppose, but then just one more set of wires to wrangle around- sheesh!

[craig busskohl]

Originally Posted by replayreb I just did this and it was a huge PITA. While I was down there I took some close-up pics of the inside of the air box so you can see the grooves where the top air filter slides up into.

wished i'd seen this photos before the job, but felt around in there while all tangled up in the box and could sort of feel what it looked like....thanks!

[Lex2007]

Thanks for the video. Much appreciated.

This video helps as well as it shows filter orientation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh0ygdeDvPc

I used a $8.50 (delivered) ULTRA-POWER 24482 from Rockauto. Seems like decent quality but no instructions.

First filter change at 150k miles.

This is a bizarre design with one filter sitting on another. What?

Have a scanner to clear the CEL P606 if you dont wanna disconnect the battery before doing this.

Have a vacuum to suck out leaves from filter compartment.

Change the certainly-dead-by-now light bulb in the glove box while you're at it.

For me the worst part was figuring out how to align these filters in the box and getting the screw at 2 o'clock on the access door. Its hard to see where it goes. Dropped that bastard behind the carpet 4 times.

Here is a pic of the door with the 4 screws installed.

mazda cabin airfilter door

I think this is how it fits back in...

https://youtu.be/qniekFZ3D-U



MAZDA instructional drawing: