This would be a great DIY to do coming into SUMMER, will make that A/C run smooth, fast and COOOOL
Recently my cabin air fan is feeling very weak and according to a sticker in the drivers door frame, this generally means it needs a new air filter.
It says to contact subaru, but id rather skip forkin out money for them to do something simple..
It also says that this should be conducted every 15oooKms or 1 year; so chances are, Yours needs a clean!
I randomly found this thread for a forester so im going to look around the same area and hope its very similar.. This is whats inspired me to do a DIY here on SC.
http://offroadsubaru...hread.php?t=677
^after doing it; overall, its pretty different to the forester!
Here's how to conduct it; and I'm sure you could apply this, or some of this method to other models..
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First; open up the glove box, Pop out the two plastic runners on either side by pushing the sides of the glove box inwards.
Alternatively you can pull them out of their runners.
They look like this; I was a little unsure if i was going to break them as i was going in blind...
This will allow the glove box to swing down 180degrees. While still squishing both sides of the glove box inwards, open it up.
This gives you access to most of the screws.
Learning from experience; don't remove these screws yet.
First, you'll need to remove the light and the 'spring button' from the plastic housing. The light is simple, twist it (to the right or left) and then it will fit straight out of the back of the plastic.
This next part was what gave me the greatest trouble out of the whole ordeal..
To remove the spring button from the housing, you'll need to detach a loom that sits behind the airbag compartment, kind of.
After finally finding this loom, i realised going in through the left-most air vent would be ideal.
The air vent simply pops out with a flat head screwdriver.
Looking in through this air vent hole; this is the loom:
The white part towards the back detaches from the black part.
Getting this detached was the next big struggle, as it's hard to reach; i eventually got it out using pliers and other things.
I found that holding pliers in through the air vent hole with your left hand to grasp the loom, and using your right to go in from underneath works ok.. its difficult and awkward.
A small keyring light helps a lot! A stupid big torch gets in the way!
When you manage this; you can take the 'spring button' out of the housing.
Therefore, you're able to undo the screws around the border of the plastic. There's 9 ..for now: (circled in red) (blue circle indicates location of another screw, explained later)
Ok so after these 9, there's still one more (blue circle) which i had a lot of trouble finding as i didnt know it was hidden behind the plastic.. After pulling but it going no where, i did some searching.
To get to this one, you have to take off the plastic panel along the left hand side of the centre console and centre dash.
To do this you need to pop out the gear stick surrounds, unscrew the tray thing at the front via removing 2 screws; remove 2 more at the rear under the lid to the centre console compartment, then lift it up and out over the gearstick and handbrake (Its not required to FULLY remove it though, as the panel we need to remove is not constricted now).
Then firmly but gently pop out these 3 tabs that u can see in the below picture
And also remove a screw-tab at the bottom end under the glove box, just to the right of the air vent you can see in the above picture (I didnt take a more specific pic, unfortunately).
Now you have access to the last screw which was behind the plastic on the right side of the glove box. (Refer to above picture, the blue circle.)
After unscrewing this one, the glove box simply falls off.
SO NOW; you'll have access to the air unit.
you'll be faced with this:
We need to open it up and get out the filter..
Orange cirlce/square are two more looms which have something to do with the running of the air con.. i disconnected them (just coz).
The red box indicates the door. To open it, hold the two tabs inwards indicated by blue. Pull the door downards a little, until u can pull it off with a bit of a downwards motion.
Here's what you'll see:
Pulling out the panel air filter:
Pretty Dirty huh! leaves everywhere; the panel filter is FILLED with gunk.
Gently but firmly clean the filter. Cotton buds can be handy.
You can take it out of the plastic casing (remembering the orientation it was at!).
An air compressor gun would be a good idea. ... I dont have one. Lol could go to the petrol station even!
As you can see, lots of shit comes out.. (there was more than this!)
Get a vacuum cleaner into the open door area.
After cleaning, put the filter back in its plastic casing the right way up.
Then put this back into the open door.
An arrow on it marked AIR FLOW indicates which direction.
I plugged it in and turned it on at this point to make sure it was running. All was.
Put the door back on, starting with the door a little bit lower over the opening than where it will end up; then push it upwards.
Here's the important test.
If its made a difference, your air should be moving better through the air vents.
Mine improved dramatically! Back to its good old self!
If not, a trip to mechanic/subaru/someone with knowledge is needed..
Have fun putting it back together
don't forget to connect up all the plugs!.
.
peace.
