Changed pollen filter today. The one that came out was black and well overdue a change so put new pollen filter in and now when I use the heater in the car it now has a loud wistling noise whilst in use. It was almost silent before is this normal with a clean pollen filter or is the blower motor getting tired?

i take it there isnt any leaves stuck anywhere causing the noise?

Yes I gave it a good clean out before putting the pollen filter back in the housing ill have a second look tomorrow just to be sure

Just check you have got the pollen filter retaining cover/lid on properly, because if its not fitted corectly you will hear air blowing past the cover seal and i think this is what you can hear, Phil.

And check you have got the pollen filter in the right way around.

i replaced the filter exactly as it came out making sure the arrows for air flow matched up but as mentioned before ill just double check tomorrow nobodys perfect

Just check you have got the pollen filter retaining cover/lid on properly, because if its not fitted corectly you will hear air blowing past the cover seal and i think this is what you can hear, Phil.

And check you have got the pollen filter in the right way around.

Thank you both - I took mine out recently to check whether there were any leaves in there (there weren't) and I don't think I refitted it correctly. Now I have the whistling noise has stopped, however...

i replaced the filter exactly as it came out making sure the arrows for air flow matched up but as mentioned before ill just double check tomorrow nobodys perfect

... I didn't have any arrows on my filter to show which way round it goes. However there is a small lug on the centre of the one side and the housing has a similar gap in it to correspond. What I found was that after pushing the filter up into the housing it needed a final "shove" to get the lug to properly locate into the gap - once I did that the fitting of the cover was much easier since the filter was higher than previously and the sliding clips slid easily into place.

What is disturbing though is that according to the service book the pollen filter should be changed every 20k miles but my car's pollen filter is dated 01/2007! I bought a "mint condition" one owner, one dealer, full service history car which has had Inspection Services at 8k, 16k and 24k intervals - and the 16k one on 16/6/09 notes the 20k works were carried out - but the car currently has a pollen filter dated prior to the car's manufacture! Surely the spare parts stocks wouldn't be so old in 2009 if it had indeed been replaced? Yet another black mark against my dealer!

Edited 12 December, 201015 yr by DRJ

mine still had genuine vw pollen filter in it and it hasnt been near a main dealer since 20k now on 93k as you ca imagine dirty wasnt the word you literally couldnt see any white on the filter at all no wonder i was struggling for warmth. now i put the heaters on number 1 position and im boiling up where as before i had them on 2 or 3 constantly and was still cold.

ill going to have another look at the pollen filter when i get in later i did it in a rush so could have easily installed wrong will let you know. just out of interest did your filter fit into the plastic cage perfectly as my filter seems a little to big??

thanks for any help

...did your filter fit into the plastic cage perfectly as my filter seems a little to big??

Even in daylight I had to use a torch to see what was going on - and as I said as well as getting the lug on the same side as the notch, it needed really pushing in for the last few mm until they engaged. Otherwise it slid in relatively easily though you do need to align it just so - and the floor gets in the way!

Im still fitting pollen filters from 2008/2009 now, just checked my stock. They can be sat at the manufactuer for ages let alone how long the dealer has them in stock. Also remember if it was the original filter then it would have been in the heater box when that was made however long before the car was built.