# Phaeton Air and Pollen Filter Replacment DIY (17 Pictures)



## tomasty (May 24, 2011)

*This is a DIY post on how to replace the engine air filter and cabin pollen filter on 2004 Phaeton, the engine air filter replacment is easy, and there are alreay several posts on this forum on that subject, but the pollen filter is a little bit tricky, and I couldn't find any post about it on Internet, well, this might be the very first one.

1. Photo of the new Air Filter and Pollen Filter, ordred them from www.thevwpartsstore.com, this is the new site for http://1stvwparts.com/, the best service I ever had.









2. Remove four screws on each corner of the air box and undo one clamp on the air hose, then you can remove the air box and expose the engine air filter



3. Old filter and the new filter





4. Installed new filter



5. The location the cabin pollen filter, it is on the hood



6. You need to open the filter housing frame to remove the old filter, but the way I see it, the design of the pollen filter housing is a failure, if you have never done it before, you can easily break it.







7. Each frame is secured by four clips, my 8 clips has three broken, must be from previous people who worked on this car.The way I removed the old filter is actually just squeeze and pull it out by force, then I can see the clips inside, but it is still hard to get the clips to un-clip, I used my finger to pull on the clip from inside, after several tries, finally able to get the frame to open, maybe it is just me.





8. After you succsesfully opened the frame, you can put in the new pollen filter, and clip it back.





9. Now enjoy the fresh air! (both the Engine and You)

Thanks for reading!

Tomas
*


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## heisenberg2000 (Mar 26, 2008)

I recently replaced the pollen filters. After getting really frustrated when I could not open the filter holders an idea came to me and it worked very well.
I covered the air intakes underneath the filters (to keep dirt from falling into) and than simply tore the old filters out. Once the filters were out of the housing, it was very easy to open the frame. Not a single tap broke .http://www.vwvortex.com/Anthony/Smilies/biggrin.gif

Gernot


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## itsallbeendonebefore (May 13, 2007)

Tomasty, 

Thanks for the detailed DIY. This will certainly help me when i decide to change mine at the end of the month. Does anyone else think that there are a lot more DIY's cropping up, we should have a DIY only sticky thread? any opinions?


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## invisiblewave (Sep 22, 2008)

I took a few more pictures of the cabin pollen filter housing which might help anybody thinking about doing the job. It's not that difficult, but takes some patience, and I'm of the opinion that they're unlikely to come out without causing at least a couple of cracks in the plastic frames (and since mine didn't already have any, I'm pretty sure they haven't been changed during regular servicing). 

The design of the housing, as Tomas says, leaves something to be desired for ease of removal. The upper edge where the thumb tabs are (the bulges you can see) evidently are designed to be pushed down and out, releasing the hidden tabs on the inside edge. Hopefully it's clearer after seeing the pictures, but the top edge must be pushed inwards towards the lower edge to release the tabs. Once that upper edge is off, the frame will swing loose and be held by the lower tabs. You can view the lower tabs before removal, they're on the outer edge of the housing rather than the inner like the top. You don't really need to take the frame right off, but to do it you have to hold it open at about 30 degrees, otherwise it won't slide off the long lower tabs (particularly on the larger of the two filters). I had difficulty on both sides with the narrow end of the frame, for the larger filter I had to get the outer end unclipped, then pull out the filter, and get a small screwdriver in to lift the catch over the tabs on the upper inside edge. Breaking or cracking the frames isn't that big a deal, they fix easily with superglue. 

The filters themselves do have an air direction arrow printed on the side, although it's not immediately obvious. The dark side is visible when fitted.


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## 73blazer (Feb 19, 2020)

tomasty said:


> 6. You need to open the filter housing frame to remove the old filter, but the way I see it, the design of the pollen filter housing is a failure, if you have never done it before, you can easily break it.


Total failure is an understatement. All My "upper" (forward) clips were all broke except for one on the larger side and someone had used doubled sided tape to keep them up. 

I just drilled some tiny holes in the plastic rim not through the metal (there is enough space, but location is important here to far inboard and your in the way of the filter, too far outboard and your into the metal of the inner hood panel, which isn't really the end of the world, but I'd rather not create a place for rust to form if I don't have to).
Then I used some plastic small screws to hold the top in through the holes I drilled. They just go in thru the plastic base of that housing, but it's plenty to keep them up.

Now I can unscrew the top and it flips down. No fuss. No hassle.


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