DIY: Drop-in Air Filter Replacement
 

This is a guide to "properly" instal a drop-in air filter. I put this together because I am seeing questions about how to instal a filter (i.e. just shove it in the box and force it closed) which will not seal the airbox and can let dirty air into your engine.

It's actually a pretty simple process.

Tools Required:
- 10mm socket wrench
- Your replacement filter

1. Start by removing the three bolts circled here. The blue circled bolts hold the front half of the airbox while the red circled bolt holds the back half. (some people might say that you don't need to remove the blue bolts, but I wanted more leverage so YMMV)
http://i.imgur.com/jbJOcuw.jpg?1

2. Once the bolts are removed you can slide the airbox back and off of the snorkel.
http://i.imgur.com/mbUigPy.jpg?1

3. Release the silver clips and the airbox should open up into two halves.
Take out the stock air filter and put the replacement into the front half of the airbox.
The air filter will have 3 rounded edges and one that sticks out. Align that tab with the airbox as shown in the photo.
http://i.imgur.com/43ljdB2.jpg?1

4. You will now need to slide the two halves of the airbox back together. I say slide because if you try to wedge the two halves back together, you're going to have a bad time.

Put this tooth...
http://i.imgur.com/RG6EdsU.jpg

...into this hole. (there are two teeth and two holes...figure it out)
http://i.imgur.com/vLoan1U.jpg

5. Now just kind of work at the two halves of the airbox until they fit together. It took me a few tries to get everything to fit correctly but you'll know when its right.

The airbox is aligned correctly because there wont be any force trying to open the box back up, you should just be able to hold it closed without any force.

6. Double check the alignment tabs on either side of the airbox, I've put example images of a bad seating and a good seating.

BAD BAD BAD
http://i.imgur.com/bEqjQHi.jpg
You can see the that one tab is pressing on the other, which makes it stick out. open the airbox up and try again.

Good Good Good
http://i.imgur.com/nhUJR4B.jpg
The tabs sit next to each other but do not touch. The airbox is rigid and does not flex or wobble when force is applied in any direction.

7. That's it, slide the airbox back around the snorkel and rebolt the airbox to the car. You have successfully installed an air filter...

Nice diy

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

thank god for your tutorial, I'm such an idiot with cars. This is idiot approved!!

Simple fix, but always nice to have a DIY. Thanks!

i should have read this when doing my drop in installation. i put in the filter into the second half and tried closing it, and it wouldnt close 100% and was wondering what was going on, drove it like that for a little bit and car felt strange so i switched filter around and put it into the front air box (side that is behind the front air scoop) and it fit perfectly. car also drove normal again

This was quite a bit more difficult than I thought it would be. I thought maybe I had gotten the wrong filter, it just didn't seem to be fitting.

Same here. I am just going to redo again. My car seems like having air leak because it's not fully closed?

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I'm pretty certain I got mine. It couldn't stay completely closed without pressure, but it was lined up right. The bottom of the enclosure looked a bit off though, I'll take another look at it tomorrrow.

Definitely have to remove the airbox to do it. Both parts, which means disconnecting the MAF line, which has one of those gray clips, which was also a pain.

You are right and that is what i am going to do

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There's no need to remove the MAF sensor unless you want to completely remove the airbox from the throttle body. You just have to work it a bit in order to get a good seal.

It's very hard to explain what that means but I will try...

The airbox has four things holding it closed:
2x Metal clips on the top side
2x plastic "teeth" that slot into holes on the bottom side.

The main issue is that the teeth might not be set all the way into the holes. As you can see from the photos, the tooth has two widths and the hole is in a T pattern. The risk is that you only get the tooth halfway in and only on the bottom part of the "T". You can close the airbox with the teeth half set like this, but the bottom half will be loose (if you apply pressure to the top of the airbox the bottom will wedge open a bit).

Just work to get the teeth all the way into the upper part of the "T" and everything will line up proper. Of course, that requires two hands and the air filter is not going to cooperate unless you take your time as it likes to pop out and slide around if you even look at it the wrong way.

I took out airbox and redid it. It fits tight but made sure i got in. Only took10min
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Found this after replacing my air filter with the K&N -- this was exactly how the process went for me, and for anyone who has never done air filter replacement before this is a good guide.

I came here to write a quick one up, but this is more than sufficient. Nice work OP! :happy0180:

PS: First post :burnrubber:

will be doing this soon thanks for the DIY :)

This made it really easy. Thanks for the quick easy DIY guide.