How do you change air filter on a 2008 Mazda 3?

Answer 1

Not very difficult, I just did it yesterday on my 08!

The filter housing is located on the drivers side of the car at the very front.

You must take off three plastic components before you can access the air filter housing.

1st take off the plastic piece in the corner. It has three screws holding it in place. If you need directions look where the base of the hood support rod (the thing holding your hood up) connects to the car...one of the screws is 3 inches up from there.

Once that piece is off then take off the batterys plastic cap. Its only held on by a few plastic clips...so un-click them and pop off the cap.

After that you must remove the plastic piece that looks to me like a ventilator for the battery. It zig zags from the front of the car into the battery housing. Now that you have those other 2 pieces off it just slides up and out easily!

Once all that stuff is out of the way you will have somewhat easy access to the air filter housing...I say somewhat because its still quite tight in there.

You must un-clip 4 metal clips which hold the lid down first...then carefully pop the top off. Be careful not to put too much force on it as there are a bunch of electrical connections you could damage if you yank on it.

Once its all un-clipped and opened you can grab the old air filter and pull it out...and drop your new one in.

I found it took a bit of playing to make sure the new one was sitting right and to get the cap back on snugly.

After that simply replace all those plastic pieces in the order you took them off. Hope that helps!