6ft6in_Giant

I changed my cabin filter on my 2000 E430 today and I took a few pictures and made a DIY. Hope this helps anyone interested in doing this.

RichardM98

Nice job and great pictures. Maybe Mr. Benton will make it a sticky. BTW, top screws are often missing in older cars.

ejsheltra

That was really nice of you to do that. I am sure some people here will benefit. I just did. These cars are easy to maintain if you understand a little about how they go together. They are not that complicated and dealer dependence is not required in order to own one. Thanks for the informative piece and welcome to the group.

ejsheltra

BTW is 6'6" a real height? If so yo have me by 3/4". Nice to look up for a change.

kevinC

Great job. Thanks.

Fabio D

Exellent!

Fabio Daniel

cool_breeze

Nice write-up. As a FYI to anyone interested, I very gently trimmed about 1/3 of the material off of the two friction fins on the back of the glovebox, allowing for super easy and fast subsequent removals. (This is a tip I read about on either this site or the other Benz site.)

ohlord

DIY for both types of cabin filters is in the diy section on
www.benzworld.org w210 forum.
www.autohausaz.com has them cheap

6ft6in_Giant

Sure is. Picture a lineman and that is about how I look. Minus being in good shape. The W210 is a great car for tall people. It has great ergonomics.

dmwil

Thanks for the great post! I joined this forum looking for just this information!

Now, where is the charcoal filter?

raymond g-

http://www.hastingsfilter.com/Litera...ll/AFC1150.pdf

RichardM98

raymond's link is a bit idealized for your car.

To remove the under dash panel on the right side you need to remove the air vent grill (small black plastic) on the side of the transmission tunnel. There's a round black fastener with a slot for a screwdriver or similar. Then removing the screws will free the panel.

dmwil

I took the air vent grill off and two screws in the black panel. I'm searching for more screws, because there's no movement in the panel and it won't yet come off. Mine is a little different than what is pictured.

dmwil

Ok, charcoal filters are done. The Wix filters are very different. I can't tell how much the original filters were used. There's no visual way to indicate this, because they are black. The Wix filters are dark with a slivery weave over the filter elements. It is certainly a different philosophy of charcoal filtering. I wish I knew which is best, but either way, the air coming through this car's filtration system is probably the best air I'll ever breathe, in terms of dust and pollen.

Now I'm working on the regular filter elements.

RichardM98

Early W210's had a charcoal filter filled with a large amount of charcoal and felt very heavy. Sometime during the model run the design was changed to more of a carbon impregnated paper one. Probably because the old one was overkill. I think for most of us changing it every four years is wasting money. Since it traps gases no easy way to tell if dirty unless it's 'loaded' and smells.

However, the dust/pollen filters are worth changing on schedule since if they get plugged the blower could overheat (a known weak point).

dmwil

The dust/pollen filters were pretty gross, so the change was timely. (12 years, 49,000 miles). I went ahead and changed the charcoal filters, even though I suspect the button was rarely, if ever, pushed. I'll probably let that go another 5 years or more. This car doesn't get driven much. I hope to change that over the next few years, but it will be mainly monthly exercise or long road trips. I hope I remember to engage the carbon filters now and then. Its just an unusual feature, albeit a pretty neat one.

E_Class_Benz

Thanks for the write-up.
I went to change out my cabin air filters yesterday, and to my surprise the car didn't have any. I have only had the car for about 8 months, so some shop out there made a nice penny off of the previous owner.

kajtek1

Did you check oil filter?

E_Class_Benz

I didn't check the oil filter, but that's a good point.

Surely if there was an issue, I would have received some sort of maintenance required or check engine light, right?

kajtek1

nope. I am not sure MB has any warning other than no pressure.
On my 1980 Peugeot diesel, I had red light coming when oil filter clog and bypass valve open.
I am not even sure MB has bypass valve.
Per my observation -it is not that uncommon that unscrupulous mechanics change the oil without replacing the filter.
Why get messy for something owner has no way to check.?
I see the same trend in house repairs. The add-on insulation is put heavy close to attic door, while far, hard to access corners have no insulation at all.
We are only human.