Gord
Seasoned Member
Hi All,
Just a little heads-up regarding the cabin air filter, at least on the 04-05 and probably for all years.
I decided to change mine (yeah, it was a bit dirty), bought a 'Denso' brand via RockAuto because I had some other spares coming from one of their warehouses so that saves on shipping.
Link: 2004 cabin air filter options from RA
When I removed the old one, I noticed it was kind of crushed and didn't think much of it. Attempting to install the new one today, I now understand why. The filter you may receive, at least the Denso brand confirmed, is very stiff and would sit flat on a table and you would not be able to bend it *in to the curved slot* that retains the filter.
Sketch above (GM) showing that the cabin air filter absolutely, positively has to be pliable. The pleats run longwise / across the bend. The 'sides' on the Denso brand were far too rigid to achieve that bend i.e. impossible.
I'd highly suspect most aftermarket brands have failed to pick up on this detail - perhaps if you know of a brand that is flexible enough, let everyone know? I've ordered a genuine GM OEM filter to give that a try however I'm even suspect of it not being (no longer being?) pliable to the degree the old XLR and Corvette models need.
I've also Googled by the part number and have found other people mentioning the same issue.... and... with GM OEM original (or at least that's what they thought they were getting).
You can Google 'XLR cabin filter' and as a matter of fact, at the top of the results I received was a video of a so-called filter shop doing a XLR filter install. And you can see very clearly that whatever filter the installer was using, was not properly installed - it simply couldn't bend as required. When they're installed like that, might as well just leave the things out - they're not properly filtering!
Easy to check your cabin filter by the way so you may want to have a look-see at the condition of yours in the event it was not you who installed it the last time.
Gord
Just a little heads-up regarding the cabin air filter, at least on the 04-05 and probably for all years.
I decided to change mine (yeah, it was a bit dirty), bought a 'Denso' brand via RockAuto because I had some other spares coming from one of their warehouses so that saves on shipping.
Link: 2004 cabin air filter options from RA
When I removed the old one, I noticed it was kind of crushed and didn't think much of it. Attempting to install the new one today, I now understand why. The filter you may receive, at least the Denso brand confirmed, is very stiff and would sit flat on a table and you would not be able to bend it *in to the curved slot* that retains the filter.
Sketch above (GM) showing that the cabin air filter absolutely, positively has to be pliable. The pleats run longwise / across the bend. The 'sides' on the Denso brand were far too rigid to achieve that bend i.e. impossible.
I'd highly suspect most aftermarket brands have failed to pick up on this detail - perhaps if you know of a brand that is flexible enough, let everyone know? I've ordered a genuine GM OEM filter to give that a try however I'm even suspect of it not being (no longer being?) pliable to the degree the old XLR and Corvette models need.
I've also Googled by the part number and have found other people mentioning the same issue.... and... with GM OEM original (or at least that's what they thought they were getting).You can Google 'XLR cabin filter' and as a matter of fact, at the top of the results I received was a video of a so-called filter shop doing a XLR filter install. And you can see very clearly that whatever filter the installer was using, was not properly installed - it simply couldn't bend as required. When they're installed like that, might as well just leave the things out - they're not properly filtering!
Easy to check your cabin filter by the way so you may want to have a look-see at the condition of yours in the event it was not you who installed it the last time.
Gord
