You are the 'dad' I never had showing me how to do anything. Your approach is very soothing even when you are working with complicated procedures. And, all while recording, lighting and explaining each step. Thanks for all the videos.

I give you a lot of credit for having the patience to film this as you did it. I replaced mine last week and it was frustrating because I'm 6'2, 230 lbs. My hands are big and I'm not flexible. I had to contort my body and hands in ways my girlfriend would be proud of. My filters had 26k miles on them and were a hell of a lot dirtier than yours. So glad I replaced them.

Wow they made this process a good bit easier with the 2021 models. The screw for the filter door is now on the bottom.

This is an insane design by Tesla engineers. There's no reason why they could not have made the access easier instead of having to go through this convoluted process. Very excited about receiving my Model 3 LR next month, but will definitely have Tesla service folks perform this task when it's time. Hats off to the Frugal Tesla Guy for taking this on. I consider his videos to be the most informative of anyone's.

Great video, it helped a lot. Thank you for posting. Some tips from a first-timer: 1. You can use a thin bladed screwdriver to start the tunnel carpet panel removal, but a door panel clip remover tool really helps pop the panel loose. 2. You do not have to remove the cables attached to the filter access panel, as while tight, you can push it out of the way. 3. Removal of the screw uses a Torx 20 head. I used a 6 inch long 1/4 inch socket screwdriver type tool but a shorter one would be better. 4. I bought an inexpensive filter set from Amazon, turned out the filters were 1/8 inch short compared to the originals. Don't know if significant air will bypass the filters because you cannot see inside the slot.

Wow! Under your encouragement, at 7:40, I pulled that damn thing out without worrying damage the orange cable. Whew! What the hell of Tesla engineers! Why they make this so difficult? Luckily, the filter kit I bought from Amazon came with a Z torque driver. I makes much easier to remove that screw. However, positioning myself to make it work requires some acrobatic move to fit in that tight space. Thank you very much! Mission accomplished.

I felt like I was over in a neighbor's garage putzing through some Tesla DIY and male bonding. One of FTGs best videos!

I'm watching this for a 2nd time in 2022 as my Model Y is now 2 years old and it's time. Thanks again, Mike, for all you do for the Tesla community.

What an awful pain in the ar$e... I'm glad this is done only every two years!!! Thanks for posting!

Thank you. I replaced the filters in my Model 3 this afternoon. Great instruction video ... albeit one step not covered was cleaning the airco coils with a spray foam which I strongly recommend. I found pulling the clips to remove the panels to access the filter compartment initially quite daunting as I didn't want to break anything. The process was tedious, but it all worked out fine. Thank you.

FTGuy thank you for your effort, filming and lighting on this project. Not an easy task. Great information on how to do this job which should be easy but the Tesla Engineers building in problems to get you to their garages to do this. Anyway: 1. it is a MUST to remove the under panel of the glove box. Impossible to access the screw which is the challenge in all of this. 2. your flex driver is a great suggestion after I struggled w/ the Allen wrench supplied by filter manufacturer. 3.Second most challenging part is unclipping the orange wire at the top. Once off push them toward the front of the cabin. then access to panel is easy. 4. getting everything back in place was ok that screw again was the challenge. For this 73yo guy squirming under the dash was not easy but I did the entire project in 25min. thanks again.

Just did my swap out for the first time (14 months; 11,000 miles) and it looked as though the filters definitely had 10 months left in them. If I saved myself $60 over what Tesla would charge to do this, then it definitely isn't worth the trouble. I'm quite handy, and hardly ever hire anyone for small jobs. But this was a LOT of trouble and not very fun. The easy: getting the 4-5 clips out of the plastic piece under the glove box, the light switch is easy, and getting the filters in and out is not particularly difficult. The difficult: that damn speaker cable is quite snug and I kept thinking I was missing a springy lock or something...you simply just have to pull it like you are going to break it! The carpet side panel is quite difficult to get started and I cut both hands in 3 places as I started it and was bleeding. And what is glazed over in these videos is how hard those two clips that hold on the orange cable/wire are to get off. And then getting to that screw is quite a contortion. What I learned from this, after making my 49-year-old back sore, is to just pay Tesla to do this every 24 months. I suppose I could have used gloves to protect my hands from sharp plastic pieces, but then I would have lost the feel and dexterity that this job requires. Having just replaced the cabin filter on my wife's Mercedes, I said I would never do it again but it is quite difficult and really not worth saving $50 in my book. It also took 30 minutes and lots of cussing. My daughter's old Honda Civic literally takes 15 seconds to change the cabin filter...now THAT's worth saving dealer install pricing. Now, off to book my $80 massage to work out the kinks from saving $60 to install these filters...

It would be so easy for Tesla to make this 1 minute job, with a special access small carpet panel that directly accesses the filter... without dropping the panel under the glove box, pulling the whole side panel off, moving electrical wires. They should make these changes for all new cars going forward.

This video was a lifesaver. Without it's guidance, this job would have been impossible. Having said that, I will NEVER attempt this again. It took me over an hour to do and I'm a pretty good wannabe mechanic. The filters are way up under the dash, which requires a lot of physical dexterity to remove the filter cover screw and door. Next time I'll pay Tesla service the $75 to do it.

This operation was way easier than the changes to your screen. That was real work!

Before the new filters are replaced I noticed that you did not spray air conditioning coil cleaner like every other filter changing had done. The spray cleans the coils and drips down to the ground. This as I thought was essential to the filter changing procedure.

Great (stressful) video. I appreciate that you did this so carefully (and with only one hand) and filmed it for us!

Best video I have seen so far, you show the hardest part instead of cutting through like other youtubers.

Outstanding DIY video. Just finished changing my filters by following your video. That screw was a bear, but could have been much worse if I was not prepared with the tools you covered. Many thanks!

Best video showing how this done without a bunch of “edits”

Great video. That really helped me. Now, I confirm from some other posts that you don’t need to remove the two upper clips that hold the orange cable. The cable can remain attached to the cover. I also bought the Hepa filters and sprayed the Kool-it foam cleaner on the coil. Everything went well. Thank you again.

Great instruction. Just did mine. Recommend 1" T20 bit with finger rachet and it worked well for me. Very tight working space.

After seeing 5 minutes this video I decided that Tesla will be doing my air filter changes

I followed instructions and was able to install the filter. It was not easy but worth it. Thanks

I found this cabin filter video very helpful. I put in HEPA filters in my model Y. The process was much the same as you showed with 2 exceptions that made the process easier. 1) the orange cable is routed differently in the Y. There is no need to move any wire in the Y 2) the plastic filter cover is flipped over so the plastic clip is on the top and the T20 ( which is a 1/4 nut on the Y) is on the bottom and very easy to access . with a socket and ratchet. The whole process was fast and easy. Thank you for your help.

Best install video I've found. Thanks again Mike.

Awesome video!! You are the reason KZfaq is so helpful; thanks for the great angles, lighting and coaching. I definitely could not have done this without your help. Kudos.

Thank you for sharing a realistic video with all the hard bits left in. I almost gave up on getting the final panel in until I saw your tip about sliding the bracket first. Clearly, not designed for ease of maintenance!

Thanks for this video. Finally got around to swapping over to new air filters and this was a lot better than the animated GIF on the Tesla website.

I just changed mine. Wow…tight space! Thank you for this video. I found it to be better than the one included with my new filters. I was able to do it, however, without removing all of the clips from the orange wire and without unclipping the speaker wire.

Thanks for the guide. I just gone done changing my filters. Yup! those orange wires was pain to take it off so I decided to take the filter cover off without taking the clips off those orange wires and it works. Plenty of space to work on, enough to take the filters off and put it back on. I'm not trying to correct you or anything but I'm just throwing it out there for other people. Thank you for this guide. I would have call tesla to get this thing done if it wasn't this video.

Excellent video. This is going to help many owners. Thanks for the great work.

I Think you're the best guy out there on KZfaq to practice the American Accent :) Love your videos!

Your video was extremely helpful to us. Seeing the challenges associated with removing the under panel and side panel made the process more doable when things did not pop off as other videos seemed to imply. Removing the orange cable clips was not easy but did come off. The biggest challenge by far was removing the torx screw from the cover. The video made it appear that it was easily visible, but for our model 3 the screw was only partially visible when we put our head way up into the foot well and twisted our head to look up. We had ordered the XTechnor hepa filters off of Amazon for $50, which included an allen wrench with a torx head. Unfortunately, the space was small and the position was awkward. We did not try your flexible screw driver approach but instead used just the torx head of a ratchet set and were able to twirl it to unscrew the screw (and we only dropped the torx head 4 times while doing this operation). Putting the side panel back in position to have the snaps align correctly required some adjustment. The tip you provided about the placing the one piece in the back left of the under panel into the notch saved much aggravation.

Very useful and informative. You go into an excruciating level of detail, which I appreciate: I’m paranoid about taking my car apart, just because there are so many fiddly bits that I’m sure I’ll miss something.

This was amazing, thank you for your hard work, this made the process sooo much easer.

This is a very helpful and informative video - Thank you for posting it!

Excellent tutorial. The best I've seen on this subject. Thank you! You've just earned another subscriber!

Great explanation; gave you a thumbs up. I recently did a similar video so this is fresh on my mind, and I have a couple pro tips for your viewers. If you don't have any special tools, you can insert your torx t-20 bit into a small socket/ratchet (that most people have around the house) that will easily fit up there. If you don't want to spend $100 on HEPA filters made by 3M, you can buy a generic from Amazon for $39. I bought them, and they are a big upgrade from the stock filters. Again, great job and thanks for showing Tesla owners that they can absolutely do this by themselves!

Great video. Grateful for all your efforts to film it so well.

Very helpful -- thanks a lot! I used a small 1/4" right angle ratcheting drive with a T20 bit, and it wasn't too difficult to get that top screw out.

thanks for this video. it was pretty difficult to change, but managed it

Excellent video. Very easy to follow. Thank you so much.

After watching your excellent video, I decided to give it a go. Whoo hoo! I did it. Thank you!

Very helpful video. Plan to do mine soon. Thank you for the video.👍👍👍

I liked this one the best out of several videos I watched so far on the topic. You kept it real and have motivated me to try it myself. Thank you.

Love your educational videos. I rewatched your air con filter presentation and realised here in Australia the access is via the drivers side. Amazing how tesla have created a product that can be so easily swapped from left to right drive. Note the screen doesn’t change. Thx. Thought it might be worth noting in your videos.

I was looking at your video and changed it thank you 😊.

Just finished this myself. Great video and thanks for taking the time. I went and bought a tool to get to that screw but in the end did not need it. My T20 screwdriver fit perfectly above the plastic for straight shot to the screw. Screwdriver is about 5” long. Finished in 15 minutes once I got the screw figured out.

I almost nope'd out of doing this after watching the video but it ended up not being that hard, except for getting that screw off the cabin filter cover, that was a huge pain at first, just like FTG said, you need the right screwdriver that lets you transfer torque at 90 degrees. Getting the side panel off and the panel under the glovebox were a breeze, and the electrical connectors for the light and speaker just pop off and on. Very helpful video, I was done in 30 mins.

Great job on the video - very detailed; thanks!

Thank you for this video. It was such a hassle to change it.

Very good job and, overall, very usefull. Thanks

Awesome, vid, having OCD I probably would have gotten out my vacuum cleaner and sucked out that filter area before installing the filters.

Changing mine this spring, thanks for the video.

Well to no avail , I had a problem doing it with my short torx20. I need the flexible devise you have. Do you have a link where I can purchase it?

thank you!!! I did it all by myself! our filters were nasty!

Thanks for the size on the torx😊

Thanks Frugal. This screw is a challenge to get it out. I finally get the new filters replaced after a couple of hour struggling with this screw. Very bad design. I drop one of the Tox20 screws inside. Luckily, I have one more to finish this job.

As a tesla girl, o hell no way im doing all of that! I better start making an appointment at Tesla

Great video. Thank you.

Thank you for your video very helpful 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽

I'm also tall, with large hands. This was not an easy task. I'm seriously considering letting Tesla do it next time, now that we're finally getting a service center close by. I will make one suggestion: an interior trim pry bar (plastic) makes removing the side panel and the glove box pins a bit easier. Your flexible driver rocks! I found dealing with the torx screw to be the hardest part of the job. That, and my large frame compressed into that footwell...

Thank you for sharing, great. Regards, Henri from Woorarra West Australia

Great video. Thanks. It’s a keeper. One question: Who the heck designed the access to this? I figure his name was Rube. Like in Goldberg? 😂

Thank you for this video. But WOW was this harder than it needed to be. Tesla really messed up on where these filters are, especially since they need to be periodically replaced....

I just ordered a model 3 performance. I’m wondering if the procedure is the same in the 2021 refreshed models. I’m a mechanic so I’m sure I can figure it out lol but still nice to know.

I truly dread this task.

Thanks for share your videos.

Useful information ❤️👍

I've bought the HEPA Filters for around $100 and the can of cool it. I plan on taking car if this soon.

What’s the screw head type for that filter screw? I assume a ratchet set with a screw driver head attachment would work.

This is complete opposite of pretty much all Hondas. No tools required or take off panels to replace the cabin filter: 1. Open glove box 2. Release stopper to open glove box further 3. Open cabin filter door Takes about a minute.

Just changed out wife's cabin filters on Model Y. Hopefully my model 3 (6/2021) is the same design with cabin filter door plate screw toward the bottom. Even if not you made it look relatively easy.

If something fell behind the glovebox do you think I’d find it if I opened that panel?

Do you happen to know the name of the convenient extension tool that you used to unscrew that back screw on the panel?

is the screw necessary to put back in since there are other outer layer to keep the cover in?

Could you have used a small socket set to get the screw out?

That Torx screw is nuts. It should simply snap on and off. The entire design is poor, at best. I appreciate all the tips you provided. Great video! Subscribed... Thanks again.

air filter links on amazon?

Thank you !

Good job

Where did you get the tool that you used to remove the screw?

Why didn’t you spray clean the coils?

wow, this was a project. I replace my Honda Accord air filter in 2 minutes.

thank you!

Thank you for the instruction. I found I have to lay my left cheek on the carpet and use my left hand to reach that screw.

I am a pretty new Tesla3 owner. As my phone works fine connecting and opening, I am puzzled by the fact that I have to locate my phone using the bluetooth connection and connect it every time. My wife's phone does the same thing. Neither phone is listed in the left column when i access the bluetooth screen. It has to look for them. Any suggestions?

I had to view it again as i had forgotten what i did last time.

Thank you

What does Tesla charge to do it?

You can clearly see the cutout for the right hand drive car’s steering column!

It didn’t have a bad odor that you didn’t need to clean the coils?

Did the musty smell go away?

Your video convinced me that I'll let Tesla replace the air filter (or just never do it!!). It really is a poor design for a part that needs to be replaced periodically (like some spark plugs in old muscle cars with big engines and little room to work under the hood!)

Honestly removing the clips on the orange wire was not necessary and in fact Tesla’s instructions make it clear that it is a high voltage wire not to be messed with. I almost wrecked the clips before looking at other sources and finding the Tesla instructions. I was able to replace the filters easily without removing those clips.

Most of the comments talk about a T20 screw. On my 2019 M3, it is a T15 screw. Also, I did not need to remove the two orange cables from the filter door.

What's the bit size for the screw you have to remove

Changed my today noticed there is a speaker there but not working is there a way to turn that on

Thanks! One tip, a small ratchet (1/4” craftsman) with a t-20 torx bit will fit up in there, if you (like me) don’t have that flexi thing.