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'02 Honda Odyssey cabin air filter replacement

Just for the edification of anyone Usenetting or Googling...

I've just got through a chilly February episode replacing the cabin filter in my neighbor's van. It had never been done before on this particular vehicle, so the plastic dash reinforcing strip was still there.

The Purolator instructions found here

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slightly flawed. Details follow... Tools needed:

  • 8mm socket, ratchet, 3" extension.
  • Larger Phillips screwdriver (not the very biggest one, but the one just down from that).
  • Small flat-blade screwdriver (for CAREFUL prying).
  • A very short hacksaw.

Procedure:

  • Sharply pull up and remove the scuff plate from the door sill.
  • Use flat-blade screwdriver to pull rubber door frame trim up so you can pop the kick panel free from the body. (This has a fuse box door in it).
  • Leave glove box SHUT.
  • Using Phillips screwdriver, remove black screws from hinges at bottom.
  • Open glove box a bit and lift it free. You do not have to remove the rollers at this point.
  • If the wide horizontal plastic bar at the bottom of the aperture is still there, you will notice that it has several slits molded into its ends. These are alignment marks for your hacksaw. Now cut the damn thing off at the marks and throw it away.
  • Once the plastic bar has been cut off, you need to remove the yellow screws just outboard of your cut lines.
  • Now remove ONLY the OUTBOARD yellow 8mm BOLT on the unpainted metal bar that is now exposed. You will probably have to push the dashboard plastic out of the way to get at the bolt.
  • You will be completely unable to remove or reinstall the INBOARD yellow bolt on account of the center console being very much in the way.
  • Therefore, you must carefully BEND the unpainted metal bar downwards until you can release the plastic door for the filter.
  • To release the plastic door, use the flat-blade screwdriver to pop the top latch open.
  • Change filter, then replace door. To replace, just aim it straight on, then push bottom and top in place at the same time. Don't try to hook the bottom in place first, then pivot it up to engage the top. That will not work.
  • Bend unpainted metal bar back up, and bolt the outboard end in place with its yellow BOLT.
  • Push down on the inboard end of the unpainted bar so you can get the inboard screw hole to line up, then reinstall the yellow SCREW.
  • Using your common sense, remove the rollers from the sides of the glove box.
  • Hold glove box in place and latch it.
  • Install black screws in the bottom of the hinges.
  • Open glove box enough to get your hands inside and reinstall the rollers.
  • You're done!

Repeat in a year or so. What the hell was Honda thinking when they added this feature?

Reply to
TeGGeR®
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well, i've been thinking of ways to retrofit my 89 civic with one because:

  1. they keep the interior of the car cleaner. that includes things like the instrument gauges and interior electronics.
  2. they stop things like the a/c and heater matrices clogging up. especially the a/c evaporator. when condensate wets the fins, dust sticks and dries in place. that leads to very expensive and/or tedious cleaning when the air flow gets so low, the car won't heat, cool, or most important, defrost properly. ask me how i know that!

agreed, it would be good if they were located/fitted so that they were more easily accessible, but in principle, they're a good idea. especially filters with activated charcoal which can reduce pollutants, allergens & odors.

Reply to
jim beam

jim beam wrote in news:84OdnUCvrr8PDGvenZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@speakeasy.net:

Shee-it. I think the boy's actually got it.

Reply to
TeGGeR®

sales.

"little billy has allergies. so we NEED a van with an air/pollen filter"

then they drive around with the windows open.

and of course the extra added maintenance is a boon to the repair shops and filter makers.

what would happen if youd have just taken it out and left it like that?

Reply to
SoCalMike

nothing at all. It would behave as all cars did prior to having such idiot things.

Reply to
Elmo P. Shagnasty

Go to

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and you can find instructions with pictures as well as almost anything else you want to know about the Odyssey.......

Reply to
Woody

"Woody" wrote in news:KZFJf.21901$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr14.news.prodigy.com:

I had a look there before attempting this. I found nothing related to the cabin filter replacement. Far more informative was the Purolator site.

The aftermarket filter purchased by my neighbor also came with a set of instructions, but they were appallingly written and would have been little help had I relied on them.

Reply to
TeGGeR®

"Elmo P. Shagnasty" wrote in news:elmop- snipped-for-privacy@nntp3.usenetserver.com:

I suggested to my neighbor that he might want to leave it out for that reason, but he's convinced it's doing some good for their lungs, especially when he saw how astonishingly filthy the old one was. The most hilarious thing about this? He SMOKES! But not in the car.

We replaced the engine's air filter as well (old one was OEM Filtech). The old one was fairly clean. The cabin one was a deep grey and covered in particles and leaves. I'm a bit surprised at the difference in contamination. I can only assume either dealer had changed the engine's filter at some point, or the convoluted engine air intake knocks most of the shit out of the air before it meets the filter.

Reply to
TeGGeR®

From the link at

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download the pdf at
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Reply to
Woody

--------------------------------------

Big downside to leaving the cabin filter out would be the eventual loss of efficiency as your AC and heater fins get a coating of dirt on them (and a bu&&er to clean). Might not matter to somebody who lives in a climate it never gets too hot or too cold, but when it's -40, I'd like to know my heater is able to transfer every possible bit of heat to the cabin.

It doesn't take much accumulation of dirt on cooling / heating fins to cut their efficiency. Water distillers are a good example. If the water that comes out of a distiller is HOT, but used to be cold when you first got it, the condenser fins are (sometimes imperceptibly) dirty.

'Curly'

Reply to
'Curly Q. Links'

Could be bad things. Cabin air filters first widely appeared in the mid-90s, after a rash of evaporator failures. For example, the 1993 Volvo 850 was the first Volvo to use R-134a. But within a year reports of pinhole leaks in the evaporator began surfacing. By 1994 the reports were a flood, and the cause was identified. It seems the evaporator designed for R-134a was being corroded by dust and pollen mixed with normal condensation. In 1995 Volvo added a cabin air filter to cure the problem and offered it as a retrofit. Current production Volvos run the A/C fan for a while after shutdown to dry the evaporator.

I've heard of other manufacturers that had similar experiences, but I wasn't close enough to the other makes to follow them. Anyway, I consider the cabin air filter to be a necessary fact of life for cars with R-134a A/C.

There is also a line of thought that cabin air filters are valuable for preventing evaporator mildew, which is a recurring complaint in many cars and a devil to cure. See

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Mike

Reply to
Michael Pardee

"'Curly Q. Links'" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@interbaun.com:

That's a good point. The A/C (or heater) core was immediately downstream of the filter.

Reply to
TeGGeR®

I hope that my '83 Honda Civic does not have a similar feature...

JT

"TeGGeR®" wrote:

Reply to
Grumpy AuContraire

ive bought aftermarket engine filters that were made from a dark grey material. kinda dumb. i like the white paper ones i can hold up at the sun to get an idea of how dirty it is.

Reply to
SoCalMike

"Michael Pardee" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@sedona.net:

Then the alloy used for the evaporator is prone to failure? I know R-134A is corrosive, where R-12 is utterly stable and inert.

Very interesting! I'm adding the link to the "Funny Smells" portion of the FAQ. Thanks.

Reply to
TeGGeR®

I don't know for sure, but that's what I assume. I've been told by the garage mechanic at work (a semi-reliable source) that 134a needs a different condensor. It might be that the reports of evap failure just coincided with the introduction of R-134a.

Mike

Reply to
Michael Pardee

SoCalMike wrote in news:Kcadnc0RgpdMVmvenZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:

I was in for an oil change this morning and noticed "$135.95 for cabin air filter change" on the board. Umm, my civics, accords, and crvs take

5 minutes to do this...taking your time.
Reply to
Nobody

Nobody, wrote the following at or about 9/5/2006 2:05 PM:

Was that at the dealership or a "Jiffy-Screw" clone?

I could understand it at Jiffy-Screw as it becomes very time-consuming. First they have to get the workers to stop playing with themselves, retrain them on basic skill sets, review the specifics of the job at hand, then, last but not least they must retrieve the required filtration unit from the secure storage area where they also maintain a supply of $24.95 wiper blades.

Reply to
Unquestionably Confused

Unfortunately the cabin filter in the 99-04 Odyssey is not just a pull and replace option. It is behind the glove box and that has to be removed along with a bar that is not that easy to get at the screws. a decent DIYer can replace it in a half hour or so. For instructions with pictures search on Cabin Filter at the forum at

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If you own an Odyssey that is the place to be.....

Reply to
Woody

Cabin air filters are an excellent idea. For one thing, they reduce the amount of crud which builds up on the A/C evaporator and can prolong the life of said evaporator.

The Odyssey's failure is that the make the cabin filter too ****** hard to change. This is one of the few places where GM's minivans are better than Hondas. On the GM you simply open a door at the rear of the glove box, slide out the old filters and slide in new ones. Length of time required only depends on how much junk you have to empty from the glove box first :).

I changed the cabin filter on a friend's Odyssey for them and I was shocked by how much of a PITA it was.

John

Reply to
John Horner

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