GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Anyone else run across the fact that the door/latch...whatever you want to call it for the cabin filter is FLIMSY! When I went to put in a K&N drop in filter for my wife's Vibe, I figured if cabin filter might need a looking at since the stock air filter was full of everything.Removed the glove box, popped the two latches and opened up the area to the filter. I slid the cabin filter out and I was right....so I just blew it out for now. Slid it back into place and went to close the cabin filter door....and it just broke off. (interject a few choice words right here)I got to looking at it....pretty poor, flimsy design. I didn't have the time to really mess with it, so I just used a couple pieces of duct tape to hold the lid in place until I can get a chance to dive in.Anyone else run into this problem? Fixes?SteveP.S. Maybe it was just because it was my first time putting the glove box back into place...but that is kind of a pain in the (removed) to put back on too.

well..worst comes to worst, you can make a more stiffer one...maybe make one out of a 2 mm steel or something lol...but as you said..it's plastic..it's the cheap way of making things..thats why it broke

Same thing happened to me; the one remaining clip seems to be holding the filter in place fine. Worse comes to worse, I'll use some 100mph tape to keep it in place if the other clip breaks.

You're in MN. Was it a million degrees below zero when it broke?

Considering the number of times you will replace the filter during the life of the car (very few), tape seems like a very economical fix. You could make a nice little latches by folding the tape over on itself so you can pull it off easier next time. Another cheap solution may be to use stick on Velcro.

I just went to remove my air filter and both the clips broke. DANG! Has anyone complained to Pontiac about this? I was being very easy pulling them up and they both broke.

I'm surprised I never broke those suckers on mine, I had a few different filters in or out, would pop open the opening and take out the filter to spray lysol/etc. Those rascals got a lot of use!I don't really have any latches on the new car, I thought that was interesting. It just has two plastic clips on either side of the filter door. Gently squeeze the clips and pull off, then pull the door straight back and remove it. There's not much tension there to break stuff like I found with the Vibe. But the downside, one can lose the clips and the door itself or maybe break one of the clips if they apply way too much pressure. lol!

I have only cleaned mine once (last year I think) since I bought the car in 2002...didn't have any problems with the door and I can't even remember where or what it looked like either lol....I've taken the glove box off and put it back on atleast 400 million times for my different sound systems and all other wires and stuff I've run through there. There're a few techniques to it so it isn't all that difficult

Yeah I ran into the same problem this summer with my 03 vibe. I hardly touched them and they came off like nuthin. Seems to me to be a very poor design. Is this also a problem in the newer vibes or did they change the design at all