Last week I changed out my stock air filter for a clean OEM filter. What looked like to be a simple 2 minute task was more than I wanted to deal with. In the previous Xs the airbox is held in place with 4 clips, 2 on the front and 2 on the backside. The 05 X only has 2 clips on the front side... easy enough, just unclip and pull the lid off, replace filter and reclip the lid. Right? Not so fast...

So with the front clips removed you then slide the rear inserts from the 3 loops until the lid is freed. Remove the filter and replace. Here comes the tough part, and I caution you that it's not as easy as it sounds.

With the upper lid ready to be reattached you first need to slide the inserts and then pull the lid down to where the clips can latch on. For the life of me, in the middle of a light snow storm with snow hitting me in the face, I could NOT get the inserts to go back into the loops! 15 minutes into it the lid finally latched but not after breaking one of the loops. I had the dealership confirm that it was locked correctly on the next visit for an oil change and they cleared me with the original loops.

Has anyone else changed out their air filter and struggled so much with putting the top lid back on? Hind sight, I should have let the service guys put a new one in for me and charge me a couple more bucks.

On a brighter note, if that loop that I broke was critical to latching appropriately I could have convinced myself of upgrading to a cold air intake...

Comments anyone?

I had a simliar run in with the airbox lid. It seems that they wanted to use the least amount of fastners possible, all the while making it the most difficult to remove.

I have changed my own air filter. I didn't think it was that bad. Of course my last truck was a Ford 6L diesel. The air filter on that is a knuckle buster. The air filter on the X does take some jockying around but not that bad.

Why were you changing your air filter in a snow storm?

I have not changed the filter yet, but I have looked at it and I didn't have any problems. I'm going to have to keep this in mind when I do actualy change the filter here soon.

Just curious as to why you go to the dealer for an oil change, but change the air filter yourself.

Hmmm. I've taken the air filter off several times, and haven't run into this issue. I think you have to be patient lining everything up before you clamp it down.

BTW, I modified that "snorkel" that intrudes into the airbox. I noticed that only an 1/8th of the air filter had any dirt on it. I just took a sawzall and cut most of that thing off. I'd like to increase the size of the opening that goes out into the fender, but haven't figured out a clean method yet.

I haven't had any issues with the air box either. I took it off just to see how complicated it was for when I did get around to doing my air filter. That reminds me I probably gotta change it here soon since I'm at 8k miles already.

Dan, I am at 12400k and have wheeled it at least once a month since I got it in July and as of 2000 miles ago the filter was actually still very clean. I plan on changing it at 15K.

I just let them to the service on the X... it's not worth my time to save the money.

When I started the air filter change it was cold... eventually it started to snow... had I known it was about to snow I would have waited.

It really looked like an easy task but getting them all to line up and engage was a bit more than I needed.

i got a K&N drop-in today just for something to do. I grew up with them for the last 15 years, so its just a logical choice for me. (When I'm not interested in any larger intake system). I am very interested on this "seal leak" someone mentioned about the K&N. I will be checking sometime later to see if the K&N really is letting dirt past the filter into the top cover. I have never experienced an issue like that with K&N.

took a few seconds to swap the filter. dont know what all those problems are about. Noticed nothing really, after putting in the K&N. But didnt expect to either.

Could have been that it was cold, which made the foam seal of the filter less malleable (squishy), which made it harder to line up the pegs and clamp the lid closed.

I changed my filter before a road trip last summer and I noticed that it was an awkward design, but not impossible. Getting it to seal correctly did take a little more effort than it probably could/should have.

That said - you all better be checking the seal on that thing after you have the oil / filters changed at those quick lube places. I can just see the service guy half ass clamp the thing down with the pegs not seated.