Gang -

About time for the 37.5K service on my 2004 V70 (2.5T). It's the first service that I'm going to have to pay for and they quoted me $298 which includes: oil change, brake fluid change, balance & rotate tires and air cleaner change. This seems a little steep but what do I know?

I don't know how all that breaks down and I plan to call to see how much the brake fluid change portion would be a la carte. I'm guessing the oil change will be about $40.

Since the weather was about 40* here in New England today I rotated the tires myself. Then I tackled the air filter. What ever happened to the good old days when you just undid a wing nut and dropped in a new one?

I undid the 3 clips at the front of the air box, undid the electrical connection and loosened the big worm clamp that holds the big corrugated air hose to the box. When I went to take the cover off it only raised about 2" before meeting considerable resistance. There are three "hinges" in the rear but the unit didn't want to pivot very much. I might have been able to get the filter out through this 2" opening but I wiggled and pried and the entire top piece finally came off.

Easy, eh? Not so fast! Getting this cover back on was very difficult. These 3 "hinges are not very user friendly. The 'hinges' are rectangular openings in the top rear portion of the bottom part of the air box and 3 'protrusions' on the rear of the top piece. None of these protrusions is the same! The 2 outboard ones seem more like positioners. The center one has some little 'cups' that appear to be designed to fit into a couple of tabs that are part of the rectangular opening. [This stuff is hard to describe.]

The center one was very tough to engage. After a lot of time I managed to get it to engage by pressing down and back (very forcefully) on the center rear portion of the top and it finally popped in.

[Is there a question here?]

In the future should I bother to remove the entire top or should I just try to do it through the small opening in the front?

If I should pull the top off are there any tips to getting it back on more easily?

Thanks.

Bob