DIY: Secondary Air Filter Removal

Ok I would really like to thank 007 for coming up with this. However especially for the mechanically uninclined like myself the guide posted on page 1 doesn't show those of us with a V6 really what to do. So it with great humility that I will be adding this as an addendum to the original guide.

Please excuse my dirty truck =)

The first thing you will need to do is to unbolt the engine cover, there are two bolts on the front of the cover you can see one of them here, they are really easy.
The next thing you need to do is unscrew the bolt clamp on the intake hose #1 (left side of engine bay when looking at it).

There are now two form of clips simply unlatch these:

You can now remove this part of the air filter, I put tin foil over the tube just encase.
Now you can work on getting the secondary air filter out. There are two bolts holding down this part of the assembly (one in the front) look down and left sorry forgot to snap a pic here.
One in the back:

You will need to remove the plug to the MAF (Mass Air Flow) sensor, you will see a little tab on the front push down on that and then very gently pull the unit out. There are in total 3 hoses connected to this assembly the one in the very front you just push the prongs on the metal tie holding it tight, push that down and pull off the tube. The second hose has another bolt clamp simply undue that like the very first one. The third one is the tricky one, it is on the very back of the filter unit but is not attached with anything so just yank it off, you can see it here:

Where It plugs into:

The final step on pulling out the box is there are two little clampy ties holding some wires to the box, grab some needle nose pliers and yank like hell. They will come off. This them near there original points after having been torn out:


Then repeat all above processes to reassemble your engine

edit: So this being my first mod, i've ever done to a car let me know if anything above is inaccurate or not clear enough. Just wanted to help all the people out there who opened up the hood and went WTF, this looks nothing like those pictures @&^!

 

Thanks for the addendum!

 

i just took my secondary filter out this morning. took me like 10 mins to take it all apart and 3 mins to use a flathead screwdriver and pry the filter out and 5 mins to put it all together. does it sound like i did nething wrong?

 

naw man thats the regular filter. do you see what wildcataco posted like 3 comments up? the whole taking the big intake box out, unclipping all the wires.. and freeing up that middle box piece. thats the secondary filter. you keep that triangular filter in.

 

I just wish I had a V6 so that I could know what the hell you guys are talking about...

My pictures show exactly what I had - nothing more - nothing less.

 

I took some time to look over my V6 this weekend contemplating this mod. I'm with you jhodge, I just undid the clips. The stock primary air filter is on the left, and what I thought was the charcoal secondary is accessible on the right.

I suspect taking more pieces apart lets you put the secondary filter and the box it's in on a workbench to carefully drill out those plastic welds. It looked kinda awkward to me to try to get those off while the box was still mounted.

 

Ok sorry for the confusion guys. yeah I took the entire box out so I could work with it. I'll probably delete the post above and redo it with more/clearer pictures tonight. I suppose you could drill out that filter in place but that would seem like a total pain in the ass to me and somewhat dangerous.

 

have any of you V6 guys noticed any change since removing the second filter? This was discussed a while ago and the general concensus was that it made a difference on the 4cyl but not on the 6

 

ND,

I also posted some pages back that I saw a 3/4 mpg improvement while towing, and a 1 mpg improvement running solo. I also noticed the better throtle response that Jhodge mentions. If I were you I'd take that puppy out. I followed 007 method though so that if I need warranty agravation I can set the filter back in there and hope the "factory trained tech" doesn't know any better.

 

Yeah, I'm concerned about the "grab and rip" approach too. I don't think anyone has had an emissions test since doing this (if you have, speak up!) and I'd like it to be reversible, just in case.

 

I did not choose to save the filter for emissions, and here in Jersey our laws are almost as stupid as Cali's, and that was not what I was worried about. I just did it to avoid a potential warranty headache.

 

honestly ND ive been concerned on my gas milage when i switched to mobil1 full syn. on my first oil change because of all the hype and noticed a drop in milage. but this week before last i filled up and took it easy on the roads (driving 68-70) n smooth accelerations and my last mpg was 19.5 after a horrible 17 the time before. but the first tank after the mobile1 i didnt lead foot it and did exactly what im doing now and it was worse.. idk but now it seems to be doing better. this weekend i ripped out the charcol filter with a full tank.. i have been driving gas conciencious(spelling) and today i hit 75mph and up to 81mph(sucks down gas bigtime) on the highway because i had to run 20 miles down the road in 20 mins and make it to a friendly gas station to cash a check early to put money in the bank for the taco payment tomorrow and i have 215 miles on the odo. and just under 3/4 of. a tank. and Ive NEVER had that before in any driving conditions. so im hoping to make 425 miles on this tank of gas this week which is great for me. So i honestly think that removing the secondary filter on the V6's really help airflow into the engine and give a little bit better gas milage.

 

Thanks for the responses guys, i'll have to do this at some point. i may wait till after the warranty expires so i dont catch any crap from toyota if i have any problems