I have 2  2005 subaru LLbean outbacks and just got around to changing the cabin air filters.  PITA.  Question; neither subs had a filter in the holder and since I bought one of them new it has not been changed and mistakenly left out.

 

Is it common for subaru's to come without the cabin air filter?

Is this common to the 2005 outback series?

Do subaru's come without the cabin air filter installed and if so why?

 

Just curious.

 

 

monk in NC

I went through this exercise with my 05 OB. There was an engineering flaw in the original 05's that prevented the installation/retrieval of the cabin filter, so they just left it out!

I will look later if I still have the invoice for the parts. At the time SOA paid a portion of the bill for their tech to do the job.

As I recall, there is a retrofit apparatus that allows the installation of the filter. It was a real pita to do the job and I haven't changed the filter since...