[Wolfus Aurelius]

In preparation for the 30K engine air filter change, I inspected various vids on YouTube. They were all for the 320i, but the car owners assured us that the procedure was the same for the 328i. Well, it is and it ain't, boyz and girlz.

1) On my 2015 328i, there is no cable that needs to be unclipped from the rear edge of the throttle body/air box cover.

2) Instead of 5 metal clips to be unsprung, there are only 4.

3) The far right and front anchors unsnap easily. But the one to the far left does not; there appears to be a bolt holding the cover on, and the bolt has to be undone, somehow, from underneath. My gloved finger told me that it is not a screw, and might require a tool I don't have. However, even without unfastening the cover, it can be lifted enough to get to the filter and ease it out of the air box.

4) When you slide the new filter in, try to make sure the filter is as level as possible. If you slide it in at an angle, the orange lip of the filter will be inside the air box at the back, and you will never get the filter all the way in.

5) Three of the four metal clips were easy to click back into place, though you do have to squeeze the cover and the bottom of the air box close together. The fourth, the upper left one, gave me a hard time, and I had to really squash the components together to make it snap into place.

Since you aren't disconnecting any electrical or other components, there should be no trouble when you start the engine, and so it proved. I wiped sweat off my face (the air here feels like a hot dryer filled with wet towels even at 7 am) and staggered back indoors, glowing, however, with the sense of accomplishment. BMW would have charged, what, $120 for that 5-minute job? The filter from FCPEuro cost me $24. Who says you gotta shell out big bucks all the time for your BMW?