Upon the advice of a member here, I was advised to replace the air filter on my 06 330d before the

scheduled change at 60,000 miles (or so) as it would be quite dirty and would be affecting performance by
now, at 51,000 miles.
It is not a straight-forward job to replace the filter as it is on some cars, so I thought I'd do a "How To"
giving a step by step pictoral guide to doing the job.
So, here goes......
Time required = 1.25hrs
Tools required..
E14 & E18 Female torx bits
8mm socket & driver
5mm hex (allen) key

Remove 4 x fixings (indicated with yellow arrows) and remove engine top cover. Slide fuel pipe assembly
out of it's retaining clips (indicated with red arrow) Cover is secured into position with a ball fixing near to
the oil filler cap, this will require a sharp upward tug to disengage it. You will need a 5mm ball-ended hex
key to slacken the four bolts.

Fuel pipe assembly detail

Remove microfilter after undoing 8mm headed screws. Check the filter, replace if neccessary.

Remove RH plenum cover

Remove LH plenum cover

Remove 2 x bolts that holds windscreen plenum down. Uncouple (but don't disconnect) sensors on
plenum.

Slide side piece tabs from slots

When both bolts are out and you have removed the bonnet and ambient air temperature sensors from the
panel (Don't disconnect them, just remove the wiing and the sensor from the part, saves any potential
fault codes etc etc

Now onto removing the strut brace - this makes access so much easier. Remove the blanking plug with a
wide blade screwdriver. Slacken & remove the large E18 bolt. It is very tight.

Then remove the two E14 bolts from the strut tops. Note the struts are marked L & R on the part number
so you won't get them mixed up.....

Remove engine rear top cover - 2 x 5mm hex bolts.

Slide the rear cover section over to the nearside as far as you can go to gain clearance to the filter box.
You've got to be quite forceful here.

Now you can turn your attention to the airbox itself. Remove the 3 screws that hold the side section on disengaging the intake pipe as you do so.

Cover removed....now to remove the main airbox casing to gain full access to the filter. 5 or 6 hex bolts to
undo. The rearmost two are a bit fiddly.

Casing fully removed (again, fiddly!) and filter exposed. It is now a simple case of carefully releasing the
filter from it's rearmost 'mounting' and slipping it off the flange of the MAF sensor assembly.
Fit the new filter into the casing after vacuuming out all the accumulated debris contained within the lower
section of the filter box. Make sure you fit the filter the right way up - look at the retaining lug on the end
of the filter.

Reassembly is pretty much the reverse of the removal process.

Here's the air filter - FILTHY!

and the filter part exposed....

To whoever designed the 330d airbox/filter setup, I'd like to kick your ass.