I just bought my sister's 04' TL with 126,000 miles and the she probably didn't change the filter in the 70,000 miles that she owned it! Needless to say, it's the best $12 and 10 minutes I've spent on the car so far!


Check out the old vs. new:




The A/C blows much harder and it smells so much more fresh!

 

mine looked the same after 45k..... easy job, hope you took your time and removed the few screws and snaps, rather then cutting through the plastic cover of your almost 40thousand dollar car "when new" just to get to the filter and save 5 minutes like some morons on here did.

good work!

 

The 04' has no screws at all. It was all snaps and I was very gentle. Didn't break anything.

 

looks fresh. well done sir!

 

Yup, it really does make your car so much better =)

 

Yes, I was one of those morons, but I'm a happy moron because I don't have rattles or lost screws or broken clips like those smart people that don't cut the back of the glove box.

I'm now changing these filters every 10K since it's so easy and breathing fresh air all the time now.

There are some good deals at AdvanceAutoParts.com for stocking up on these filters: use coupon code SN10 before 12/10 to save $10 on orders of $30 or more (hint buy 3 filters) or use NVBB to save $50 off $100 purchase by 12/6. I wound up buying cabin filters AND the Redline typeF ATF recently.

Best wishes from the happy moron with no rattles and no need to use tools to replace the filter.

 

well thats funny cause rattling "most likely from" lost screws and snaps, are really not that hard to put "back in" once you take them out.

unscrew, screw back in.
pop out, pop back in.

Didnt seem too complicated or requiring much intelligence for me... and was rather simple... and best of all no rattles or an ugly hole in my TL like some ricer kid.

matter a fact next time you need to change your oil, dont take off the drain bolt or fill cap "CAUSE YOU COULD LOSE THEM AND THEY COULD RATTLE" just drill and cut right through your block

wow, so you want to work on your car but with no tools except a saw????? lol, ok Id hate to see how you do general maintenance on your car with out these so called TOOLS.... I think the only "TOOL" in your garage is well...... I think we all know.

 

Cutting a 12x3" hole in the glovebox is the way to do it.

 

just think she was breathing in all of that.

mine was also like that when i swapped in a new one..

 

I know when I saw mine I was like dam, and i still dont have allergies after breathing all that in? whew glad I changed it

 

I think you need to knock off the personal attacks- now.

 

Excellent reminder!

Working on my lady's car and did not think to scoop up cabin air filters for both cars. For those frugal shoppers, I found coupons online that will save a few pennies when buying online at Advance Auto Parts.

http://www.offers.com/advance-autopa...clq-gls-107a1a

 

I have to change mine once a year. Kind of weird that the engine filter gets done every 2.5-3 years and the cabin needs it once a year. It's so dusty around here that air flow has noticably fallen off after a year. Usually no large items in the filter, just light dust.

I'm going to use one of the baking soda+activated carbon filters next time which will be soon.

A little off topic but these filters are great and all. They trap dust so you don't breathe it and the interior compared to an older car without one say my GN requires much less dusting. But now you're drawing air past all of the trapped dirt all the time. It seems like it would pick up any bad smells that may be trapped in the filter. Thinking about this makes me want to replace it twice a year.

 

Easy going ! Do you know what we're even referring to and have you seen what the hole is even? There are many threads regarding glovebox rattles so my concerns appear very justified. Maybe these rattles are for other reasons but taking the glovebox apart for each filter change was a chore I can easily skip now.

The point here is that cutting a one-time hole in the back of the glovebox (where you can't see it because there is a liner that covers it completely) is no big deal. And yes, I happen to own all types of tools even a saw and dremel, but that doesn't mean I want to or need to use them all the time.

I think the new TLs already have such access already, so Acura wised up on this area. I replaced the cabin filters in both my Pilot and TL and the TL was not hard, but scared me about the flimsy plastic and how that will hold up in 10 years time. Guess what, the Pilot requires cutting a larger piece of plastic just to get to the bloody filter and that is SOP for that vehicle for the first change. After the first change the Pilot is much easier, but is still 3x longer than my TL is now. You can do the job in the TL with the passenger door closed and sitting in the seat, unlike the conventional way which helps if you're in a tight space. So I'm sure this won't convince you but that's OK with me.

Oh and regarding the drain plug idea ... I happened to buy a Dorfman Drain plug for both TL and Pilot (same part number) that allows you to drain oil without any tools via my earlier AdvancedAutoParts.com purchase. Haven't installed yet but hats off on that call... Naturally I wouldn't be worried about rattles, but instead stripped bolts, burning hands on hot oil, and the ability for doing an oil analysis if desired are my moronic motivations for that upgrade.

Anyway, I read moronic stuff all the time on this board and would not dream of calling someone a moron for it (e.g. how many gas mileage threads are there here?).

Take advantage of the coupon codes I gave earlier though ... and you're welcome too

 

^LoL I don't mean to laugh at you, but damn you cursed his ass out in the most respectful/professional way ever... my hat is off to u sir!

 

^ Thanks- just trying to show another side to things.

It's kind of timely, but I just got an Acura coupon book in the mail today and the dealer wants $89.95 to replace the cabin filter and that is a 'as low as' quote so it could cost more. My guess is a my Wife could replace my TL filter now with just two minutes instruction and that could mean some savings down the road for less-than-mechanical people like her. More than likely my daughter will eventually get my car in a few years who would otherwise go to the dealer and waste both time and money.

 

Ironicaly I just replaced my Cabin Air Filter yesterday after having put it off for quite some time. From the looks of the filter it looks like it was replaced if once in its 100k KM life before finding its way to me. After driving it this morning I could tell the difference in interior air quality immediately.

Honestly everything for the install was as easy as it appeared in the YouTube video if you search for Acura TL Cabin Air Filter. It takes the guy in the video 5 minutes but I took my time and I was done in all but 15 minutes just took my time at a few key steps.

To those who did the 'cutting mod' I say to each their own and thanks for the coupon code LaCostaRacer.

 

Are you the original owner? The reason I ask is I doubt Acura changed the access on the 3G and you most definately have a few screws to take out if it's unmodified (without the hole cut).

As for the other debate now going on, I'm split. I've never cut a hole in mine, it would probably bother me knowing it's there even though I can't see it. I change mine once a year so it's going on it's 5th change. I've actually thought about cutting the hole just because I'm always worried about producing a new rattle by taking it apart and putting it together. So far so good but I may cut it this next time but who knows.

 

I cut mine when I did my first filter change. I wish I did a better job on the cut, but it's not a big deal to me. No one can see it. It sure makes it a very quick and dirty job. I'm glad I did it. I haven't have any rattle issues for the last 70K miles.

Here's a picture of my awesome Dremel skills, no comments from the peanut gallery please (that'd be you, OnTheJob ). I took this when I had my rodent problem. That's about 6 cups of cat food my little friends were storing...:

 

Yes, Acura did change the glovebox housing a little on different yeared 3Gs.

Mine is an 2004.

It's an earlier 2004.

It didn't even have the 2 "push pins".

The only screws I removed are the 2 that attach the glovebox.

These two: (not my picture, this car is a later 04 I think, hence the push-pins)



Supposedly you don't even need to remove the glovebox, and let it hang.
Hence, no need to remove the two screws, which is what Slick 6MT probably did.

Couple sources:


https://acurazine.com/forums/showpos...84&postcount=6

 

That is very interesting. I assume they changed it for a reason, maybe rattles? I wish I knew the answer to this because if I weren't afraid of rattles I would convert mine if possible. I broke one of the tabs off a long time ago when it slipped out of my hand with only one screw on. I need to replace it anyway. I'm going to go over and look at the differences to see if it's possible to convert just in case.

 

I guarantee you they did it because of rattles. I have an 05 (with the screws) and had a glovebox rattle. Fixed it by tightening those two screws and that's it. The way the bottom of the glovebox is mounted affects the way the rest of it sits against other parts, resulting it rattles if its not tight enough. So I'm guessing the screws allow it to make a snugger fit.

And nfnsquared that's disgusting. Damn.

 

DAMN, if I was your cat I'd be pissed!!

 

haha, I saw where you said- "the ac blows harder now" in the first post, and I figured this thread was from summer- but no its from Dec... Then I saw that you live in Miami. Damn you. I need to do this too

 

2004 TL is different from the rest of the years, guys. There was no need for tools at all. No rattles either.

 

That's because you didn't remove the glovebox from the housing.

You just pulled on the housing with the glovebox.

Hence why you didn't need to unscrew the 2 screws attaching the glovebox to the housing.

 

Wrong. I did remove the glovebox without having to fiddle with any screws.

 

So you're saying that your glovebox just hovers?

I'm pretty sure you need to have two screws on the pivot point...

If not, there's nothing your glovebox's pivot point is attached to.

Without the two screws, your glovebox wouldn't hold up.

I have an 04 made in 03, so I would know =P

Whatever you did, I hope nothing broke =)

 

With all this thread activity and a nice day, I thought I would check my filter and see how dirty it gets in a shorter time interval than the annual replacement cycle I had. I decided to also time how long this takes me taking advantage of my access port.

First off, the filter can get pretty dirty. The photo below will show what I mean. This filter was installed on 7/11/10 so it's less than 5 months old by a week.

[IMG]<a href="http://s239.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/LaCostaRacer/Cabin%20Filter/?action=view&amp;current=IMG_3780.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/LaCostaRacer/Cabin%20Filter/IMG_3780.jpg" border="0" alt="Filter After 5 months"></a>[/IMG]

I wound up vacuuming the filter and reverse blowing it out with a garden blower (like a back-flush for pool owners). I didn't take an after shot because the filter still has the gray tint to it and did not have that new look I was hoping for. However, it is certainly clean and free of all the crap it trapped earlier.

The time to remove/replace the filter was just 4:21 and covered time putting on a band-aid on my index finger from a minor cut removing the filter on the tight right side of the access port. I wanted to have plastic support on the right side as shown in this photo:

[IMG]<a href="http://s239.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/LaCostaRacer/Cabin%20Filter/?action=view&amp;current=IMG_3781.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/LaCostaRacer/Cabin%20Filter/IMG_3781.jpg" border="0" alt="My access port- little tight on the right though"></a>[/IMG]

So with the access port mod, you can do this easily < 10 minutes which includes vacuum/blower time and have fresh air all the time. You could also probably save a few bucks using the vacuum/blowout technique since you're cleaning the filter long before it becomes downright nasty. I think I'll go on 9 month filter change cycle with 5 month vacuum based on today's results.

So I might find myself doing this type of maintenance much more frequently than originally planned and the time/ease will add up over time.

Go Chargers!- time to get ready to watch that game.

 

mine was filthy also! i couldnt believe what it looked like? mine only had 39k

 

Why would I lie about not using any tools??

Here is a picture of the glovebox pivot point:



As I said before... nothing broke either.

 

I know you're not lying, but there are two screws to fully remove the glovebox =P

I have those side piece tabs.
Those tabs (and the plastic arm thing are there just so your glovebox doesn't open to a point where everything would fall out.

If you were able to remove your WHOLE glovebox off, just by removing the two tabs, something's wrong LOL

Just hope you didn't pull out the two screws?

If you pull out the two tabs, and unlink the arm, this is what you should see:



By pivot point, I mean where the glovebox pivots (hinges onto).

Those side pieces, are not a pivot point LMAO
They're just "Stoppers".

Anywho, glad you got it done, and glad to hear your car blows air better =)

 

Oh if that's the case then I didn't fully detach the glovebox, no.

There's no need to in order to change the filter. Why would I?

 

LMAO! =P

Your reply:

LOL

 

You feel better now? haha

 

Just a little confusion

 

Relax buddy. It's alright. I hope the confusion has gone away.



Anyways... back on topic.

 

changed mine yesterday (well Ack05TL changed it for me) and it was nasty...car only has 36k on it

 

^ Thats 36k miles of NJ air. And I can say that, because I live here too.