Passat B5 TDI 130 Air Filter Change - intervals?

[Tractionist]

Guys - have just changed the pollen/cabin filter on my B5 TDI 130 Passat Sport (currently with 177K on the clock). The thing was full of clag and far filthier than its predecessor - albeit that both were changed after the prescribed 20K of use/as per spec. I also 'sterilised' the A/C system too .... as this had never been done and I used to smoke in the car etc.

I was a bit surprised at this - because I no longer do much city driving ...... and we've hardly had 'Sahara-like' weather over the last eighteen months!

Anyway - this got me thinking about the air filter (specified to be changed every 40K) i.e. "if the cabin filter looks like this after 20K - what does the much harder working air filter look like?".

I have to confess that this car is now probably a tiny bit 'over-serviced' since I bought it off my old company (only I have ever driven it and I did the 17K 'hard ones!) but at the price of fuel I believe this makes economic sense!! (I run it on synthetics, and on long runs frequently get 55/50mpg at 70/80mph).

40K seems to be a very long service interval for an [any] air filter - anybody got any thoughts?

[Hex69]

Change the filters every 10k along with the oil. Anything longer than that, and you're potentially opening yourself up to a world of pain.

[JustinM3]

Filter is probably £2-3 on euro's when they have a 50% off deal, cheap and easy to change as often as you like.
40k does sound a lot, diesels consume a lot more air than petrols.

[passat 130 tdi]

they don't recommend k and n filters for a diesel , too much air !! nowt wrong with a grubby air filter imo , if the cars running ok then 40k is what vw say then so it be . id pop mine out and bang it from time to time against a wall , but only ever changed it once in 7 years and 70k miles.

[JustinM3]

Too much something yeah....
Won't be too much air as running no filter doesn't change performance or pressure.
Stick to OEM with 10x better filtration.

[fleamoo]

On the subject of pollen filters, beware of Crosland filter C40085P (part no 507 44 0038) sold by Euro Car Parts as being suitable for Passat B5.5. It is a couple of mm too big, and if squeezed into the filter holder it bows in at the edges leaving a sizeable gap. The Hengst filter sold by the same company has fitted ok in the past.
Euro C. P. customer services were apparently unable to act on this info and refund return postage.

[caldirun]

I change the air filter every other service, in between I tap it on the floor then reverse blow it with a compressed air gun.
The cabin filter gets much bigger crap in it as the intake is facing up, the engine air filter intake faces down and the crap
collects in the bottom of the housing.