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So how do I open the cabin air filter housing?

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by dulecki, Dec 27, 2007.

  1. dulecki

    dulecki New Member

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    With the mouse-brought dog food fiasco, I still have a number of leftover pellets in the bottom of the housing. They don't appear to be impacting anything, and it looks like if I could remove the housing a bit, I could vacuum them all out. There appear to be a couple of screws in there, but I'd hate to remove one and find it is connected to several other critical items.

    So... anyone know how to "open up" the housing for the cabin air filter?
     
    #1 dulecki, Dec 27, 2007
  2. jdchappie

    jdchappie JD on RR2

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    You don't have to unscrew anything--if you have the glove box release on the left and right pushed in and the black arm on the bottom right removed. The glove box drops down enough to reach the filter. The friction catches are on the right and left. Just pull with your finger on each side and it should come out. Just pulled mine on the 07 --nasty.
     
    #2 jdchappie, Dec 27, 2007
  3. firepa63

    firepa63 Former Prius Owner

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    You can find instructions with photos at John's site.
    http://john1701a.com/

    Look under Prius Info > Air-Cond. Filter on the left side nav column.
     
    #3 firepa63, Dec 27, 2007
  4. efusco

    efusco Moderator Emeritus
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    Do you mean how to take the entire housing off or just how to remove the old filter?
    If you mean the entire housing I have no idea...I suspect it's not terribly difficult to unscrew/unlatch, but it may not be possible without removing the entire dash (assuming they put it in first then the dash after.

    How do you know there's still food in there? If you can see it why not use a long extension/tube attached to a vacuum and just suck it out? Are you just hearing it but can't see it?
     
    #4 efusco, Dec 27, 2007
  5. dulecki

    dulecki New Member

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    Yep... it's not the filter, but the housing. I got the filter out already... sorry for not making that clear.

    If you look at page 7 of the PDF showing how to remove the cabin air filter (CAF, which I can now do in less than 30 seconds), the area below the cabin air filter is where I need to get to. Where the picture shows a grey-black foam in the area outside the white half-circle, my foam is up near the top, parallel to the CAF.

    Let me back up a step.

    When you take out the CAF, the area left behind is roughly a box. Beyond the 1-1/4 inch opening for the CAF is a slight platform of sorts, with a circular bowl towards the back of the box. That bowl is a rotating fan of some sort, and when dog food falls into it, it's very noisy :) Fortunately, my kids have small enough hands that they can reach in there and pull out dog food. I can only do it by leaving parts of my flesh behind... and I still have a couple of scabs from it.


    Food that falls to the side can get pushed down to the bottom part of the box, which you can see in the pictures on page 7. I've tried running vacuum cleaner parts to get to the stuff on the bottom, but I've run into two issues:

    1. The slats are too narrow (or the tools I've got are too wide) to get in to the back where the food has fallen.

    2. The food is too wide to fit through something narrow enough to fit through the slats.

    It does appear, however, that the whole housing is open from the top, if I could get there. Because of the position of the CAF opening, there's no good spot to be able to get a narrow vacuum tool down to reach the bottom.

    Hence, my thoughts of removing the box... although at the moment, I'm considering just how much reach I'd have with a pair of chopsticks... Fortunately, it is not making any noise down there, and an inspection last night showed that the mouse has not made his way back in there... yet...
     
    #5 dulecki, Dec 27, 2007
  6. Godiva

    Godiva AmeriKan Citizen

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    I've got some small vacuum cleaner attachments designed to clean computer keyboards. If you had anything like that, it would probably fit. I think mine bend too. Might be big enough to suck pellets depending on the size of the pellets. My dog's pellets are pretty small as it's pricey food. I find the more expensive the food, the smaller the pellet.
     
    #6 Godiva, Dec 28, 2007
  7. jimnjo

    jimnjo Member

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    I have the same problem...and have decided that the acorns (as it is in my case) can stay there. It seems to have no effect on the fan motor, which was my worry. It almost looks like they left a place for that debris to live! If it comes to needing to get them out, a little vacuum might well work. If you push on the the casing at the bottom of that whole housing, a hinged part will allow access to the spot for something really small. Jim
     
    #7 jimnjo, Dec 28, 2007
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