DIY Cabin Filter Replacement

[hot pockets]

great write up, the housing and the junk left inside after i pulled the old one, was soaked. normal? figuring it's just from running the a/c....

[humanoid]

Wet filter is not normal.

[hot pockets]

Originally Posted by humanoid

Wet filter is not normal.

it just rained for about 24hrs straight here. the filter wasn't wet, the housing on the right side was. along with all the debris that was in there (pine needles, crushed up leaves etc). do you think thats just from sucking in the rain?

[86LXJunker]

Hi all - thanks for the great write up - I just changed the cabin filter on my wife's 08 Pilot and it was a piece of cake - once I cut the plastic piece off - I swung the metal braket down and pulled off the cover.

The Pilot has 42k and the filter was dirrr-ty....cleaned up the inside and I was good to go.

Thanks all !!!

[bilal]

in 2011 , changing the A/C cabin Filter easier , no plastic to cut , no even a tool need it , and it is on the passenger side .
i dont know if this filter same what you talk about gents .

[Busted Knuckle]

Thanks for the great write up, follow the steps and you'll be done b4 you know it, very easy to do , witht he correct info and tools, you thought yours was dirty after 42k+ miles , mine was original and just changed @ 130K YUCK! , thanks again Dan T

[giwan1259]

Many folks have stated how black the filter was but failed to realize that the original filters have a charcoal backing.

[tangotango99]

I always clean the coils with a evepurator coil cleaner when I replace the filter.

[noanswer]

Originally Posted by hot pockets

it just rained for about 24hrs straight here. the filter wasn't wet, the housing on the right side was. along with all the debris that was in there (pine needles, crushed up leaves etc). do you think thats just from sucking in the rain?

Sounds as though you could have a plugged or kinked drain hose coming off of your condenser housing.

If you feel around the back side of the housing, you'll feel a rubber hose that's about 1/2" in diameter that comes off of the housing and through the firewall. Check for kinks or debris blocking flow from it.

[Selfdestruct]

I am new to the forum, having just purchased an 03 Pilot EX-L with 92,400mi. Thanks for the great DIY Guide! I plan to tackle this as soon as I get the filter from Rockauto.com.
I'll make a new post with some more questions for all of you experienced Pilot DIYer's.
Thanks again,
-Scott

[cofetym]

Welcome neighbor.

[RobK]

I have an 05 Pilot with 64k on it. I took it to Valvoline Instant Oil Change today, and their inspection showed that everything was ok except for the cabin air filter. They showed me a dirty one, but I was a little surprised since my wife has been good about getting her Pilot serviced regularly, so I figured something like this would have been taken care of. I asked him to show me where it went, which he did. When he told me it was $50 to replace, I told him no thanks, since I know I can do it myself and I knew something like that was a lot less than $50.

I bought a new filter, then came home to install it. When I opened things back up, though, I came across that metal bar with the plastic piece in front of it. I searched around, but could not figure out how to get around this. I also did not think he would have had enough time to get it all apart even if it were possible with the time it took, so I thought something must be up. I did some googling, and came across a nice youtube video of someone replacing the filter (it has probably been posted before, but off the off chance it has not or is buried elsewhere, here's the video)

YouTube - Cabin air filter replacement- Honda Pilot

YouTube - Cabin air filter replacement- Honda Pilot

That's where I saw the info about the piece needing to be cut. At that point I thought that was odd, but I came here and saw all the posts here about the molding process and the perforations that are on that piece, and it made sense.

This is when I was convinced that I was nearly duped! I almost laughed at it since when the guy showed me where the filter went, I think there was still a filter in there! I thought what I was looking at was a holder for the filter or some such thing. I am surprised more alarms were not going off as I tend to think I am being ripped off somehow in those situations, but fortunately my cheapness was there to save me.

Now that I see that this is most likely the original part, I think I have a few bones to pick. First, with Valvoline (obviously), but second, with the dealer where we bought this used, as they showed us a Carfax report showing that at the scheduled intervals (or very close to them), "Manufacturer's recommended maintenance performed". I didn't know that sort of thing would be on a report like this, but I figured it was a NY state thing. Since the cabin air filter is a 30k item, I would think that would fall under this 35k maintenance or earlier, right? Finally, possibly with the mechanic where we have had services done since we have owned the car, as it should have been done AGAIN at 60k, right? I need to dig up the paperwork on this to be sure, though. If he did not do this even though he was supposed to according to Honda, I would be mad about missing it, but that would be better than lying that the work was done.



SO, now that my rambling story is done (sorry, but I wanted to get it all out as I am not sure what else to do to relieve some of the rage here), I am wondering what my next steps should be. I am planning on leaving the filter in place for now so I don't have to cut that bar in case I need to prove anything to anyone. Next, I want to be guaranteed that no real "parallelogram solution" is possible, which I guess would be something to get Honda to confirm. Once that is done, I guess I should file complaints with the corporate offices of Valvoline and Honda, right?

I know in the grand scheme this is a relatively small item, but it seems like a good canary-in-the-coal mine to PROVE they are pulling shenanigans, and therefore I want to do something about it rather than just vent.

Finally, if you are still reading this (impressive attention span!), THANK you to all members of this site for the great threads! This is not the first time I have gleaned some wonderful info on piloteers.org - I am actually quite the lurker on a number of these types of boards (for motorcycle and other car as well). I never post, though, as anything useful I have to add is usually already covered many, MANY times. You people are AWESOME!!

[cofetym]

Nice find.

[Mr.Police]

Amazingly this was the second time this has been replaced. It had been at least 5 years and 60k miles.

[samc]

Anyone have any experience with those filterheads.com filters? Certainly $15 sounds cheap but how are they?