CheeseyPoofs McNut

It's that time - many of us have had our TLX for over a year now which means it may be a good idea to swap out the cabin air filter for a new one. Replacing the filter is traditionally a decision of paying $789.42 to the local dealer or spending an afternoon taking apart your dash to get to the filter yourself.

Ladies and gents - I have good news as it seems Acura has done it right this time and they genuinely made things easy for us.

Let's get started, shall we?

First you'll want to gather the following items:
1) A 5 gallon orange Home Depot bucket.
2) A Craftsman socket set with the metric conversion tip.
3) A can of WD40
4) A pair of needle-nose pliers
5) A pocket lighter
6) A jewelers ball peen hammer with a steel tip
7) Last months issue of Car & Driver
8) An LED flashlight
9) Some twine
10) A giant roll of duct tape
11) The greatly underrated debut solo album by Robert Plant


Step one - take all that crap and stick it in the bucket because you don't need *any* tools at all to do the job.

Step 1) - Empty your glove box

Step 2) Locate the little shelf that sits directly inside the glove box:


Step 3) Remove the shelf by simply tugging on it - sliding it forward until it comes out:




Step 4) Look into the glove box - you'll see a plastic panel with a couple grooves under it where you can grab the panel with your fingers:



Step 5) Pop the plastic panel off by pulling it outward:



Step 6) Look into the glove box - you'll see the filter cover with two little tabs on the outside of it:





Step 7) - Squeeze the tabs inward and pop the cover off:



Step 8) You can now see the filter and simply need to pull it forward to remove it.



Step 9) Replace it with the filter of your choice - I bought the seminal Wix replacement from Amazon:




Step 10) Replace the plastic covers and slide the shelf back in and enjoy a Fresh Cabin for another year!!

le^2

That was unexpectedly easier than I thought... which is naaaise :ghey:

ConradValmont

You forgot to show us a pic of how dirty the filter looks after 1 year.

Mike_TX

Damn, I got all that stuff together, and that Robert Plant album was a bear to find. Then I read the rest of the post.

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thoiboi

I was like.. wtf why does OP have so much shit in his glove box..

mapleloaf

Nice!! The photography was stunning, the directions were crisp, and….a happy ending. I gotta give it a 5 star rating!!

CheeseyPoofs McNut

Ah - it's still in the garage - I'll snap a photo of it tonight. Frankly I don't know that it was very dirty but at the price of a filter and the ease at which they can be replaced I may do mine once a week!

Thank you kind sir - as this is *the* definitive guide I felt quality was important. Glad you found it helpful and I only hope you think of me from time to time as you drive around breathing FRESH air in your car!

Cexarin

Great direction
Thanks a lot!!
By the way, how much is this service at the dealer??

CheeseyPoofs McNut

I didn't ask my dealer but my wife has a Mazda 3 and they just quoted her $69 for the service - I would be surprised if Acura was less.

Rocketsfan

I think they charge something like $130 or something (I could be misremembering, though). The filter is something like $30? The first thing I did when I got my car last year was figure out if they kept the "ease of replacement" like the 4G had with the cabin filter (I believe) because the 3G was a damn nightmare. I went into the glovebox and saw how easy it was and was happy. I think I should check mine again this weekend. I checked a couple of months ago and it wasn't too dirty.

Mr Hyde

Thanks for this. Much simpler than it was on my 2G.

Of course nothing beats my BMW & Audi with the filters easily accessible under the hood. Same for the top mount oil filters.

Cexarin

Then I prefer 30$ + my time over giving 100$ to the dealer.
Nothing against mechanics, but for some maintenance services, you don't need a b.s in mechanic engineering.

jhendra83

Should we have a tutorial section for this? I will do mine this weekend. She just turned 1 yo last week lol.

audioxbliss

I'm ready for Part 2: The Quest for the Other Air Filter.

youngTL

Awesome instructions.

As a side note, this was my reaction when I saw the picture of the woman on the front of the new air filter box:

tmitch2315

Great Job CheeseyPoofs. This will become one of the most visited threads on the Blog.

NoTrace

Great DYI. Should go in the TLX garage (if it's not already there)

kmackenzie

Little bit of an old thread... but just doing mine today. First I have a 2015 TLX Tech V6. I have the same WIX filter showng but it is a different size then the one in my car.... Off by quite a bit. Definitely the wrong size




2nd question. Filter is about a year old and it was covered with what looked like torn up insulation. Anyone ever see that?

CheeseyPoofs McNut

Wow - I forgot all about this thread.

I've got the 2.4 TLX however Amazon shows that same filter works for the V6 version as well. Not sure what's going on there.

wlkeel

Little critters????

LAMike240

I 2nd that. Looks like a nest in progress. That the 2nd one I've heard of. Dealer actually said mine looked like it was chewed on one corner. He couldn't find any obvious openings.

kmackenzie

On the filter I think it was labeled wrong. The dimensions don't match the Manufacturer's site. Pain in the but.....

i am afraid I agree on the critters. Wonder how they'd get in. wonder how fast that can happen.

LAMike240

For the filter I used this one off of Amazon. Fit fine.

EPAuto CP134 (CF10134) Honda & Acura Premium Cabin Air Filter includes Activated Carbon

dezymond

You got some kinda rat infestation, might wanna check out your other cars too if you have any others. And a ways of getting rid of them before they cause further damage to your car.

kmackenzie

Good point. I changed the filters in the other car (Honda Odyssey) yesterday as well. Will look a little deeper today. Both cars park in a garage at night... So will check there for symptoms as well. I was in a parking garage for 4 days with travel a couple weeks ago... Just hoping that that insulation wasn't from somewhere else in the car....

kmackenzie

I have a camera that I could snake into the backside of the filter compartment. Don't see anything more in there... hoping it is a old next and they moved on.

Anyone know where the input is for this? Where does the air come from? Looked under the hood and all looks good... Really clean still so think something would stand out. I guess the other question would be should I take in to be checked out....

New filter comes tomorrow. So I can keep an eye on once it is clean.