Kizashi Club

Dealers charge a fair amount to change your Cabin Air Filter. The replacement is fairly straight forward and will save you money (vs paying a dealer).

For this project you'll need a light and a new Cabin Air Filter. (NOTE: I'm using the Fram 10546 Air Filter. It's not marked for the Kizashi but for the SX4. )

Bring those items inside the passenger side of your car. Open and clean our your glove box. Also remove the manual from it's holder on top of your glove box.

Next step is to take your glove box off. On the right side is a little cyclinder for something. Push it down a bit and flip it out of the hole. On the back of the glove box are two tabs that keep the glovebox in place. Push just in front of the two tabs and pull forward. The glove box will flip down.

(NOTE: These pictures are of the tabs after they are taken out. I didn't think I could do the tabs justice by taking a picture of them in place.)

Remove the glove box and the manual box.
* The glove box hangs on via a couple of C shaped hooks. Lift up a back and the glove box will pull out. (You can see the hooks on the last two pictures above. I didn't take a picture of these out.)

* The manual box can be slid to the right and it drops down. The first photo is the manual box out. This lets you see the how the hooks work.

Now that the glove box and manual box are out of the way you can see the Cabin fan area and cage that holds the Cabin Air Filter. This is the second photo.

The next step is to open the door to the cage that holds the Cabin Air Filter and remove the Cabin Air Filter.

The door is rectangular panel on top of the fan. The front has some numbers and an arrow indicating which direction is UP. On each side of that panel are a couple of clips. Gently squeeze the clips together and pull towards you. The door should come right off. (The last photo above you can see the door on. In the photo below is the door and the left clip.)

Now that the door is open the rectangular air filter is revealed. Grab it and pull it out. The old air filter is in place shown in the last picture with the door removed.

The next step is to ensure you have the correct part.

With the cabin air filter out compare it to the new air filter. (In the first two pictures you can see the new Fram 10546 vs the old dirty filter.)

The Fram also has a tab that the original filter did not. I broke that off. (The last two pictures are the filter with the tab on and tab off. If you buy the proper Kizashi filter you won't find a tab to break off.)

Now you're ready to reassemble.
* Put the new Cabin Air Filter into it's cage.

* Snap the white door panel back onto the cage.

* Put the manual holder in place.
** Put the tabs into the holes on the dash and slide the manual holder to the left.

* Put the glove box back together.
** Put the C hooks onto the tabs.
** Push on the side tabs as you lift the glove box in place.
** Just before everything goes together you'll need to move the cyclindar on the right back into it's hole.
** Push a bit more and it should all snap together.

Check your work -
* Open and close the glove box. Re-insert the manual and all your junk.
* Start the car and turn on the blower to make sure you're getting air out of the vents.

Assuming that all worked you should be good to go with your new breath of fresh air.

(NOTE: I wanted to use the Fram CF10546 filter because it's carbon impregnated. The factory filter appears to not contain carbon. It should help filter out any incoming smells. Like the cows I drive by each morning.)

Happy Motoring!

I got raped by the dealershiop a month ago for changing the cabin filter, wish I had seen this sooner lol. Thanks for the write up!

Thanks for posting these instructions. I bought the same filter and did this to my wife's car yesterday.

I'm not sure if the glove boxes have changed at all between model years, but on ours there was a slot cut into the back of the glove box so you could access the cabin air filter without releasing it.

Took 2 minutes and no more smelling like a dirty gym bag in the car!

Northernstar wrote:I got raped by the dealershiop a month ago for changing the cabin filter, wish I had seen this sooner lol. Thanks for the write up!

That's too bad. Fewer people are aware that there’s a cabin air filter in most newer vehicles that must be changed on a periodic basis. Unless you like dust, soot, gases and other odors to circulate within the passenger compartment of your vehicle as you drive, you should know how to change a cabin air filter.

BEFORE REMOVING THE GLOVE BOX, READ Gentle_Ben's post!!!!!!!!!! In all likelihood you don't need to remove the hinged glove box, even on the model shown in these pics. The tray above the opened glove box can be slid to the right and then it drops down exposing the cover to the air filter (since the notch in the back of the glove box allows the tray enough clearance to slide). After removing the tray I was able to reach on each side of the cover and pinch the clips to release the cover. Then reach in with some tongs or needle-nose pliers and pull the filter out.