DIY - Replacing the dust pollen filter (also know as the cabin filter)

[VgRt6]

I had some free time and all the necessary pics, so I put this little DIY together. Hope it's useful to someone.

REPLACING THE DUST POLLEN FILTER (ALSO KNOWN AS THE CABIN FILTER)

The following outlines the procedure for replacing the dust pollen filter on a MKIV Jetta and Golf/GTI. The procedure below was based on a 99.5 Jetta GLS VR6 - it may be slightly different on later-models cars. Please do these procedures at your own risk and be ready to make small adjustments while doing them. Also, please be observant while removing parts so that they go back together correctly. If you have a Bentley manual, this procedure is covered on page 80-9.

The VW part# for the pollen filter is 1J0-819-644. The cheapest I've been able to find it for is $14.40 at Auburn VW (http://www.1stvwparts.com or 1-888-528-5280 - if you call, you must tell the parts guy you're an internet customer to get the cheap price).

__________________________________________________ __________________

STEPS:

1. The dust pollen filter is located at the rear passenger's side of the engine bay, just below the plenum. It is accessed by a removable cover on the plenum, indicated by the arrow in the picture below.

2. Remove the four T25 Torx screws from pollen filter plenum cover. These screws are indicated by arrows in the picture below.

3. Pull up on the rear hood seal (yellow arrow in picture below) and move it out of the way. Begin to remove the pollen filter plenum cover by lifting the front edge slightly to clear the lip at the front of the plenum (metal) and then pulling toward the front of the car (red arrows).

4. After pulling the cover part way out, you'll need to lift it up slightly to allow two wide tabs on the bottom of the cover (indicated by the arrows in the picture below) to clear the lip at the front of the plenum.

5. With the pollen filter plenum cover completely out, it is easy to see the pollen filter (indicated by the arrow in the picture below) seated at the top of the blower motor assembly.

6. The pollen filter is secured to the top of the blower motor assembly by the pollen filter frame. There are two tabs at the front edge of the frame that need to be unclipped (driver's side clip shown in picture below) to remove the filter frame and filter. Pull both retaining clips toward the front of the car to release the tabs (1) and then move the front edge of the frame upward (2). After moving the front edge up about 1.5", slide the filter frame and filter together out from under the plenum.

7. The picture below gives a better view of how much pollen and debris the filter actually prevents from getting into the cabin of the car. While the filter in the picture had not been changed in about 50k miles, I routinely scraped the pollen and debris out from between the fins. The space between the fins was free of pollen and debris only 4k miles before these pictures were taken.

8. If you would like to spray some disinfectant into the HVAC system, now is the time to do so. With the filter frame and filter out from under the plenum, you should now be able to see the fan blades of the blower motor assembly just below where the filter normally sits. I've never done this, but I believe you start the car, turn on the fans, turn on the A/C and then spray the disinfectant into the blower motor.

9. Remove the old pollen filter from the frame and install the new one into the frame. Make sure the air flow arrows on the long edge of the filter are pointing in the correct direction - they should be pointing toward the ground and the frame should be on top of the filter. When installing the new filter into the frame, make sure that the long edge of the frame covers the long side of the filter, as shown in the left picture below. Make sure the short edge of the frame slides into the first (shortened) fin of the filter element, as shown in the right picture below. This ensures that all airflow passes through the filter element and not between it and the frame.

10. On the rear edge of the filter frame, there are three small tabs which must slide into corresponding slots when the filter frame and filter are reinstalled under the plenum. One of these tabs is shown in the picture below.

Now for the hard part - getting the filter frame and filter and the plenum cover back in place. I hate these next steps. The top of my hands always manage to get scraped up by the plastic trim above the plenum cover opening. Definitely have a after doing these next steps.

11. Slide the filter frame and filter into place underneath the plenum together as a single unit, as shown in the picture below. Make sure not to let the frame and filter separate too much while doing this. If the filter drops too far out of the frame, the sides of the frame will come out from in between the end fins of the filter and the seal will not be correct when installed. Make sure the 3 tabs on the rear of the frame slide correctly into place and then push the front edge of the frame downward to get the two retaining tabs to catch. This is somewhat difficult to do and may take a few attempts. I needed two attempts to do it while taking the pictures for the DIY and I've done the procedure about a half dozen times.

12. The picture below shows the filter frame and filter correctly reinstalled. If the reinstallation is done correctly, the two retaining tabs on the front edge of the frame should click into place easily and there should be no gaps between the filter frame and the top of the blower motor assembly on the sides. It's hard to describe, but you'll be able to tell when the frame and filter are installed correctly.

13. Next slide the pollen filter plenum cover back into place. This will take some wiggling back and forth due to the weird shape of the cover and the extremely tight space. The hardest part is getting the leftmost (passenger's side) edge of the cover (yellow arrow in picture below) to slide under part of the hood hinge mount (red arrow in picture below) and below a metal tab which sits directly below the rain tray at the base of the winshield (approximate position is show by the green arrow in the picture below). It takes quite a bit of force to get this to happen - don't be afraid to twist and push hard on the cover piece. It's relatively tough to break/harm.

14. One the cover is back in place (and you put down the celebratory ), put the four T25 Torx screws back in, reinstall the rear hood seal and you're done.

Let me know if you have any questions.

As always, do this procedure at your own risk. I am not responsible for any mistakes that you make.


Modified by VgRt6 at 9:14 PM 5-10-2004

[Eric24v]

nice DIY... alot of us should benefit from this

[LuisV]

Nice and easy write up... thanks buddy!

[VgRt6]

Thanks. I'm trying to think of all the questions that get asked 10 times every day and put together DIYs to help answer them.

Any suggestions? IM me.

[Redline18T]

I'm sure many others skim by and feel the same way, but it's nice to hear too.
I really appreciate the time you spent doing this. This is one of those things I was thinking about taking care of soon, and now I'm sure it will be much easier. Great work.

[njbora]

now if i can do it iam not big on patience

[jddaigle]

Man, are you going for Vortex Member of the Year or what ?

Thanks for the continued contributions--by the time you're done no one will need Bentley!

[VgRt6]

Quote, originally posted by jddaigle »

Man, are you going for Vortex Member of the Year or what ?

That's what my wife thinks. Really, I just have a lot of free time since I'm unemployed and thought I'd help my fellow Vortexers out. I've learned a ton of infor from the people on here and just wanted to return the favor.

If there's anything else that you'd like to see written up, let me know. If I know how to do it, I'll take the necessary pics and write it up.

[Sawdust]

Very nicley done yet agian.

[PaintsOnly]

i wish someone shown me this 2 weeks ago, i had piece of insulation fall off and rubb against the fan inside making fluttering noise. well, i didn't feel like taking it to dealer and wait two days, so after 3 hours scratched arm and 2 scraped knuckles later i fixed the noise and clean the filter(sprayed it with some lysol(sp?))

[badfishGLI03]

This is what the vortex is made for, thanks for all the contributions buddy. Mods please put this one in the DIY section!

[jettabean]

Great write-up! My cabin's been getting kinda stinky with the air on so I was definitely going to do this soon ... but I was clueless until now

[VgRt6]

The funky smell with the air could also be due to bacteria growing in the evaporator (it's dark and wet - a regular bacteria paradise). You can kill it by spraying something into the blower motor. The real stuff is called Aeosept or something like that. I guess you could try Lysol or another disinfectant too.

[kaljer]

I did this a couple months ago couldnt get that cover back on, we broke it!

[VgRt6]

Twist and push hard, but not that hard.

[ni4ni]

Now that's what I call a DIY instruction! Nicely done, VgRt6. You should write to Bentley and give them a few pointers.

[dygoro]

how much does that filter cost?
and where exactly is the blower motor so that I might spray some disinfectant in there?

[Jenkins]

good write up.. I am going to put this in my DIY section, with credit mentioned and goes to you obviously. Hope you don't mind

[samc]

nice work
one day we'll have a DIY for a Turbo upgrade

[gorilla800lbs]

Excellent write-up!

Just to add, for those interested: pollen filter part number is 1J0 819 644

[VgRt6]

Quote, originally posted by gorilla800lbs »

Just to add, for those interested: pollen filter part number is 1J0 819 644

I knew I forgot something. Thanks.

[VgRt6]

Quote, originally posted by dygoro »

how much does that filter cost? and where exactly is the blower motor so that I might spray some disinfectant in there?

I just added to the DIY that the cheapest I could find the filter for was $14.40 at http://www.1stvwparts.com.

Once you remove the filter, if you look below where it used to sit, you should see the fan blades of the blower motor. You can spray stuff directly in there.

[dygoro]

nice

[babbkutz]

thanks for the write up! (dieseldorf cross posted it at Fred's where I saw it) Good work

[ambat]

Excellent write up, I did pretty much the same a few months ago to get rid common vw problem Stinkus Ventus .

However, I was too cheap to replace the pollen filter so i gave it a good tapping and pulled out all debries by hand, i even though of vacming the filter, but didnt need to in the end.

I sorta was unsure of spraying Lyson into the hole so i decided to literelly soak the filter with Lysol and then ran the fan on high speed with the windows down.

It did cure the problem but that does not mean the problem does not come back. The only way to stave off the Stinkus Ventus is correct use of the a/c: turn off re-circ about 3 miles before your destination and turn off a/c about 1 mile before destination and use the A/C as much as possible. The less frequently you use it the more time the bacteria/fungus has to grow in your system.

[KOG]

nice write up ps; i hate that plastic cover that yoyu have to remove to get to the pollen filter takeing it out is easy putting it back in sucks

[VgRt6]

Quote, originally posted by ambat »

I was too cheap to replace the pollen filter so i gave it a good tapping and pulled out all debries by hand

I did the exact thing for over 50k miles and finally splurged for a new one. The filters last way longer than the recommended 20k if you scrape the crap out of the fins (be careful not to puncture the filter if you do this).

[VgRt6]

Quote, originally posted by babbkutz »

thanks for the write up! (dieseldorf cross posted it at Fred's where I saw it) Good work

Do you have a URL for Freds? I'd like to check it out.

[jddaigle]

Quote, originally posted by VgRt6 »

If there's anything else that you'd like to see written up, let me know. If I know how to do it, I'll take the necessary pics and write it up.

Well, you've pretty much covered everything inside of the car; there are a ton of things I'd like to see on the outside & under the hood, like a coolant flush, PCV valve cleaning, brake fluid flush, etc. (since I'm sure these will all be a little different than on my old Volvo )...but I suppose I could just stop being so cheap & buy myself a Bentley!

I sympathise about being unemployed--I was there this time last year & it's no fun. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

[VgRt6]

Thanks man.

[VgRt6]

[QUOTE=jddaigle]Well, you've pretty much covered everything inside of the car; there are a ton of things I'd like to see on the outside & under the hood, like a coolant flush, PCV valve cleaning, brake fluid flush, etc. (since I'm sure these will all be a little different than on my old Volvo )...but I suppose I could just stop being so cheap & buy myself a Bentley!QUOTE]

I'm planning on doing these things at some point. When I do, I'll put together a DIY for each one as they happen.

[FLdude]

Nice job!

[dieseldorf]

Quote, originally posted by VgRt6 »

Do you have a URL for Freds? I'd like to check it out.

VgRt6, yeah, really nice effort.

This is a topic that comes up over and over and I think few of us are changing that darned filter as ofter as we should...especially after the winter season.

Thanks.

here's Fred's URL: http://forums.tdiclub.com/dose...=last

[genikz]

great write up!

one more thing:
1999.5 Jetta GLS VR6 - (136,500 miles and counting!) Damn!


Modified by genikz at 9:05 PM 8-6-2003

[Simans82]

Very nice as usual. Great write-up!