This thread is maybe a little simple compared to my usual "stuff" but I hope it will be helpful for our older or less mobile friends.
My oldest boy bought a 2012 1.4 8 valve a bit more than 2 years ago. Within a few days of buying we spent a day going over it and I was very surprised and impressed by how well the dealer (a big chain) had prepared the car. New discs and pads on the front, engine oil and filter renewed, air filter looked pretty new, wiper blades nearly new, etc, etc. Last summer I did a big service on it and we found "a dirty little secret". I had not checked the Pollen filter when he'd bought it because it looked very difficult to get at. The pollen filter was filthy.
The Haynes manual and some others advise removal of the glove box but the glove box in this car, whilst looking the same from the outside, doesn't have retaining fixings that look at all like the ones shown and I just couldn't figure out how to remove it. There are a number of you tube clips recommending that only the foot well shield needs to be removed (it just pulls off) Now, because the glove box is in the way, it's not so easy to access the cover for the filter. It's a quite narrow, vertical molding of black plastic which is hooked on at the top and has a wee finger released clip at the bottom (some, like mine, have a small screw to remove first).
This is where the problems start if, like me, you are not so flexible any more. Kneeling, on my metal replacement knees, on the ground outside the passenger door, trying to look out of the top of my glasses (bifocals so the top won't focus on near items) and get my hands and arms to work in the restricted space available was very difficult and uncomfortable. However I got the old, minging, filter out. Putting the new one in defeated me and I ran out of time when he arrived needing the car to pick up his wee one from school. So the car has not had a filter in it for a year now.
Having watched a number of videos of people doing this job there was one that really struck me as maybe working for me. First chock the wheels because you are going to release the hand brake. Nothing to do with the filter but it makes it more comfortable for you as you are going to lie across it. Now place a long slender screwdriver, a tool to undo the wee screw on the bottom of the cover (if your's has one), a light (cree led works for me) and the new filter all together in the passenger side footwell. Now walk round and, getting in the driver's door, lay across the front seats, on your left side. It's now relatively comfortable to wriggle your top end into the passenger's footwell, looking under the glovebox, and remove the cover and old filter. installing the new filter is not so easy until you realize it's not going to just slip into place. Look at the new filter, The top and bottom are stiffer than the sides. Angle the filter so that the top goes into the housing first. At this point the bottom of the filter is still outside the housing (so the filter is at about 45 degrees to where it will be when fitted) now, because the sides are quite flexible, you can "scrunch" up the side that is nearest the housing until the stiffer reinforced bottom edge can be entered into the housing. Now, with your hands and that long screwdriver (take care not to damage the matrix inside the casing) you can encourage the bottom edge into the bottom of the casing until the whole thing squares up inside the casing. A wee jiggle with the screwdriver helps the filter to "unscrunch" and you just need to refit the plastic cover to complete the job.
I took me maybe 5 minutes (I struggled, without success, for maybe a half hour with it last year) Because I was looking out of the bottom of my glasses I could see what I was doing all the time and, because my body was relaxed lying across those seats, even though my top end was partially in the footwell, I ended up relaxed and pain free.
My oldest boy bought a 2012 1.4 8 valve a bit more than 2 years ago. Within a few days of buying we spent a day going over it and I was very surprised and impressed by how well the dealer (a big chain) had prepared the car. New discs and pads on the front, engine oil and filter renewed, air filter looked pretty new, wiper blades nearly new, etc, etc. Last summer I did a big service on it and we found "a dirty little secret". I had not checked the Pollen filter when he'd bought it because it looked very difficult to get at. The pollen filter was filthy.
The Haynes manual and some others advise removal of the glove box but the glove box in this car, whilst looking the same from the outside, doesn't have retaining fixings that look at all like the ones shown and I just couldn't figure out how to remove it. There are a number of you tube clips recommending that only the foot well shield needs to be removed (it just pulls off) Now, because the glove box is in the way, it's not so easy to access the cover for the filter. It's a quite narrow, vertical molding of black plastic which is hooked on at the top and has a wee finger released clip at the bottom (some, like mine, have a small screw to remove first).
This is where the problems start if, like me, you are not so flexible any more. Kneeling, on my metal replacement knees, on the ground outside the passenger door, trying to look out of the top of my glasses (bifocals so the top won't focus on near items) and get my hands and arms to work in the restricted space available was very difficult and uncomfortable. However I got the old, minging, filter out. Putting the new one in defeated me and I ran out of time when he arrived needing the car to pick up his wee one from school. So the car has not had a filter in it for a year now.
Having watched a number of videos of people doing this job there was one that really struck me as maybe working for me. First chock the wheels because you are going to release the hand brake. Nothing to do with the filter but it makes it more comfortable for you as you are going to lie across it. Now place a long slender screwdriver, a tool to undo the wee screw on the bottom of the cover (if your's has one), a light (cree led works for me) and the new filter all together in the passenger side footwell. Now walk round and, getting in the driver's door, lay across the front seats, on your left side. It's now relatively comfortable to wriggle your top end into the passenger's footwell, looking under the glovebox, and remove the cover and old filter. installing the new filter is not so easy until you realize it's not going to just slip into place. Look at the new filter, The top and bottom are stiffer than the sides. Angle the filter so that the top goes into the housing first. At this point the bottom of the filter is still outside the housing (so the filter is at about 45 degrees to where it will be when fitted) now, because the sides are quite flexible, you can "scrunch" up the side that is nearest the housing until the stiffer reinforced bottom edge can be entered into the housing. Now, with your hands and that long screwdriver (take care not to damage the matrix inside the casing) you can encourage the bottom edge into the bottom of the casing until the whole thing squares up inside the casing. A wee jiggle with the screwdriver helps the filter to "unscrunch" and you just need to refit the plastic cover to complete the job.
I took me maybe 5 minutes (I struggled, without success, for maybe a half hour with it last year) Because I was looking out of the bottom of my glasses I could see what I was doing all the time and, because my body was relaxed lying across those seats, even though my top end was partially in the footwell, I ended up relaxed and pain free.
