15,000 miles and time to change the interior cabin filter. I have the shop manual on CD and the procedure didn't seem too complicated but in reality it was a major PIA - so difficult that you would think it was engineered by a European car company.

You have to remove the glove box which wasn't all that willing to just slip out and once you get it out you discover that they don't leave enough slack in the connected wires to manuver it very well.

The worst part is getting the old filter out and then trying to postion the new filter in the opening. You can't see any of this as the slot if too far forward and pretty much hidden. It seems like the opening is smaller than the filter.

The old filter I took out didn't look that dirty so I would say that another 30,000 miles would be soon enough for the next change. Not looking forward to doing this again - maybe go to the dealer.

 

For some reason, Nissan doesn't seem to like to make the cabin air filter very accessible. On my Nissan Murano, it's a little simpler than the Altima, but it doesn't sound like it's by much. With my Murano, I just change that filter every 15000 miles. On my Altima, since I have a long commute, I'll just change it once a year.

 

the nissan service facilty has to make money somehow...

just look at the headlights...have you ever tried to change those bulbs? you have to go through the wheel well, booo!!!!!

 

Stupid question... What do miles on the car have to do with the interior air filter? I hardly had to use my A/C this year at all.

 

Well, mileage is used as a unit of measure of how much you've used the ventilation system (air conditioning or not.) The better unit of measure might be the number of minutes the ventilation system is operating, but that's not a function that is tracked by the user or by the car. So instead of trying to invent a new unit of measure to determine the life of the filter, a correlation was made between approximate miles versus degree of dirtiness of the filter.

Using the AC just means that you've got the compressor engaged and are actively cooling the interior of the car. But even if you don't use the AC, but have the blower motor fan on in ventilation mode, you're still drawing in air through the filter.

How often a filter should be changed is really dependent on your driving environment. If you live in a very dusty area (lots of dirt roads, lots of pollen, etc.) then you might need to change more frequently than a place that has very little dust.

 

What does PIA mean?

 

Pain In the A$$

 

I usually use PITA

 

Sorry - I should have used PITA but didn't realize my mistake until after posting the thread and you can't edit the subject line in a post - but I think most readers got my drift from the description.

 

Hiya,
Newbie here. OK, I removed the glove compartment and it doesn't slip right out but wasn't too bad. Now, I've been known to miss the obvious but, for the life of me, I saw nothing that indicated there was a panel/door that could be removed. If I'm sitting in the passenger seat looking at the glove box opening, where should I be looking/feeling around? I consider myself a pretty savvy mechanic (sans hybrid at this point) but I am definitely clueless here. Any direction is greatly appreciated.

FWIW, I have 27K miles and use the AC/Auto setting almost exclusively so I believe I'd due for this change. THANKS!!!
Bob