Golf MK4 Pollen Filter Cover Design Fault - 1J1 819 537 C B41

This part was all broken in my vehicle due to years of bending when inserting and removing. I thought maybe it was inserted/removed wrong way and that was the reason. However after trying how to insert it literally 20+ different ways I have given up.

It appears VW made a mistake in the design of this item. It is simply impossible to fit into the car without bending some plastic parts which become fragile over the years.

Problem:

In the pictures below, you can see that the bottom of the filter is touching to the frame and the extension on the left won't go under the plastic part which guides the wire.

As you can see below, the part of the filter does not go under the plastic piece on the body. You need to bend the filter cover considerably to be able to fit it in.

This a doublefold problem. First the plastic gets broken due to bending and the body paint is scratched where the lower part touches because you need to slide the pollen filter with force.

How To Fix:

There are 2 ways to solve this, you can cut the plastic piece which gets stuck there or you can lower it by cutting the parts slightly to lower the filter cover. I opted to lower the plastic by cutting from under.

Below is a picture from the side of the pollen filter. I draw an outline of the part which is removed. (may not be exact)

Below is the cut from the front. It almost looks like VW tried to make the same cut but on the wrong place and it became useless. You can see this just right of where I removed the bottom of the plastic. There is a ready groove which is almost the same as the one I needed.

I started removing parts slowly from the side of the filter cover first. Then I removed from the front of it a little bit and went on. After taking of a piece, I put the filter back in position and checked which part is the most tight part and took a piece from there.

I used a normal household scissors for this purpose. Therefore it became quite jagged. So, when I was ready, I took the die/rotary grinder and sanded it smooth. Then went once more by hand to make it really smooth.

After making these changes, the filter cover is now able to enter to housing perfectly without any problems. It should now be able to last forever since no need to bend it ever anymore.

Installation:

After the fix, installation is a breeze...

As you can see, the flap goes readily under the plastic part without any bending.

and you also do not have to bend the filter upwards to get it past the body.