Polen filter housing replacement

[Michael Maurice]

How easy is it to fit the pollen filter housing on my A6 Avant early 2005 model?

I can see two bolts which need removing but on the new housing it looks like there may be a third.

It looks like I may need to remove the scuttle where the wipers go, to get the old one out. How does that come off?

I dont have a service manual and Haynes dont do one for the A6.

Many thanks

Michael

[Phutters]

How easy is it to fit the pollen filter housing on my A6 Avant early 2005 model?

I can see two bolts which need removing but on the new housing it looks like there may be a third.

It looks like I may need to remove the scuttle where the wipers go, to get the old one out. How does that come off?

I dont have a service manual and Haynes dont do one for the A6.

Many thanks

Michael

There is a third nut, and it is indeed totally and frustratingly inaccessible without taking the scuttle off first.

Taking the scuttle off involves removing three clips, one at each end and one in the centre. They slide off towards the engine. If you're unlucky, they'll ping off and disappear into the most inaccessible corner of the engine compartment or catch you smartly in the eye. The wiper arms have to come off too - pop the plastic cap off, undo the exposed nut and slide the arms smoothly and effortlessly off the splines of the spindle. That's the general idea, anyway.

In reality the arms won't slide effortlessly off the spindle splines at all. Well, they might have had your car come off the assembly line yesterday, but the corrosion between the alloy arm and the steel spindle will have stuck them on good and proper. You'll probably need a puller of some sort to free them. Google 'wiper arm removal tool' for the kind of thing that'll do the job.

Once the wiper arms are removed, the scuttle panel will come off.

You'll think it won't.

I did until someone showed me the knack.

The knack is to press gently on the bottom edge somewhere in the vicinity of the filter housing, rocking it just enough to be able to get your finger tips under the edge which rests on the screen. Once you can do that, slide your free fingers (i.e. those on the hand which doesn't have its fingers trapped excruciatingly between the top edge of the scuttle and the surface of the screen) underneath the scuttle until you can feel the edge of the channel which is permanently attached to the screen itself, and into which a ridge on the back of the scuttle is located.

If you pull firmly with both hands away from the screen and at ninety degrees to its face, the scuttle will pop off where your hands are and you should be able to work your fingers along towards the driver's side, freeing the ridge from the screen channel.

Once that's off, you can get at the third nut.

I feel I should sound a cautionary note at this point.

It's not difficult to break the scuttle strip. This will require spending twenty seven quid or thereabouts on a new one.

I learned this the hard way yesterday. Having got the strip off without even chipping my nail varnish, it started to lash it down with rain. In my haste to get it back on again (and avoid the very problem of filling the car with rainwater that I was trying to solve), I snapped it neatly in half.

[Peter D]

It is held by a slightly dove tailed section into a piece of hard plastic bonded to the bottom of the class. The scuttle has to be eased up perpendicularly to the glass starting at one end. DO NOT try and start this in the middle as you will probably break the windscreen, yes seriously. Use only your hands, no levers. To replace it clean all parts thoroughly with a tooth brush. Start at the centre making sure of the position which of course you marked before you removed it and gently work outwards in either direction. Take car because you can break the glass. Personally after I have removed the trim and cleaned it I apply a smear of Amorall to lube the plastic.
Press the trim back in with your fingers and repeat several times. Regards Peter

[Peter D]

We were both posting. Beware that the technique can break the windscreen. Ask any Audi VW garage. I have had a screen crack 2 days after I replaced the trim. Start at one end, the screnn here is bonded to the body on two sides so it is less vunerable. Regards Peter

[Phutters]

Personally after I have removed the trim and cleaned it...There is one advantage to accidentally breaking the old trim.

A new one is nice and clean already.

[Phutters]

We were both posting. Beware that the technique can break the windscreen. Ask any Audi VW garage. I have had a screen crack 2 days after I replaced the trim. Start at one end, the screnn here is bonded to the body on two sides so it is less vunerable. Regards PeterI apologise if the way I described it suggested starting rather nearer the middle than the end. That wasn't the intention; I got mine off starting at the pollen filter end.

[Michael Maurice]

In which case I think I'll chance not replacing the filter housing, The car is 7 years old, has done 70K what are the chances that the seal has failed? I could always take it to a VAG specialist like inde tech who recently sorted my gear box out. The car has to go back anyway as they recommend changing the oil in the gearbox after about 5K.