Hi. I know this seems a stupid question, but on the basis that if it has to be asked, it can’t be that stupoid, can anyone pelase tell me if the big soft foam side of a pipercross panel air filter faces upwards or downwards when fitted? I’ve put it in with the foam upwards, but it seemed a bit of a squash and it was hard to screw down the cover. Thanks.
EDIT… sorry, on my '94 Mk1.
EDIT 2 Actually, after a rethinnk, I’ve flipped it over, so the foam is towards the air side, ie facing down, with the mesg side facing up. It fits better now. Fine in fact. But I remain doubtful as to whether I’ve done this right or not.
Just fitted one to my car and indeed it was the soft foam side down and the mesh side (with the logo on it) facing up.
err, ok. I hesitate because the logo on mine is on the foam padded side! Perhaps we have different filters as mine is a 1.8. Mine’s a PP72. Anyway, I’ve just taken the car for a spin, and I don’t know if it’s just because my old paper filter was dirty and needed replacing anyway, but what a difference!
I emailed Pipercross themselves about this and they replied: “The foam side is the dirty side… the mesh side is the clean side”… I take the dirty side to be the side facing the air intake, and the clean side to be facing the engine, in which case I have it right with the mesh side upwards.
Just fitted a Pipercross air filter to my Mk3. No instructions and tech support has gone so this post was useful reassurance. In my case it’s foam side towards the front of the car.
It was interesting to find that the old paper filter was fitted back to front which cannot be good.
The Air Filter on mine was fitted back to front as well. It had just been serviced by a Mazda main dealer!
How do you mean back to front? There is a tab on the top left corner so it’ll only fit one way round.
The Mazda paper filter has an arrow on the top. Alongside the arrow it says TOP and FRONT. The arrow on mine “as already installed” was pointing backwards,
I noticed the tab when I took the filter out but couldn’t see how it matched the housing. When you say top left which way are you facing?
Top left when looking at the filter housing from the front of the car.
Mine was the same as Cliveju. There is a tab but the filter housing can still be forced on with the filter fitted the wrong way round.
tbh… I wouldn’t let the Mazda main dealer in question anywhere near my car… One day when I have a couple of hours I will post the story of how they fitted a new soft top… and what trading standards had to say about it!
Ok. I hadn’t spotted the tab. This means the paper filter was fitted correctly with the arrow labelled ‘front’ pointing at the engine.
I thought this was a foolproof diy task but I was wrong!
