How do you take out the air filter

You are probably going to want to check a repair manual. Does your manual say anything about the air filter?

What Model and Year?

The man doesn't want to know about car manuals - he wants to know how it is possible to undo the filter housing and remove the filter and refit a new one when there is not enough space to fit his hand. To make the space bigger perhaps removing the engine is the answer here. Seriously, it can be done but it involves semi mutilating the exiting filter, and using a lot of force drive the new one in and perhaps some use of a bit of a fat bladed tool to seat the filter rim into the housing. May take several hours.

No I agree with lightgear, if he picks up a manual it will tell him the fastest way, Air filters are a common item to replace, you do not need to shift the engine. The manual will tell him what he needs to remove and the whole process should only take about 15min to 1/2 hour. Auto manufactures are not going to pay a mechanic "several hours" to change a air filter, nor would they design a car that involves "shifting a engine" to replace a paper filter. If this person doesnt have a manual, they should contact the dealer/mechanic and ask them. When I was working at the dealer, I would often show customers where and what a part is (free of charge) so this person might want to go to the dealer and ask there what the easiest way to change the air filter.

Oh well, I speak from bitter experience. Possibly there would be zero problems if this car was manufactured in Japan or any other part of the world apart from Germany or France ( I know they make lovely interesting cars but. ..) The owners manual is very silent on removing the aircleaner element. Instead of removing the engine, try (a)removing turbo charger OR (b)undo engine mounts and roll engine to the left OR (c)undo engine oil cooler and unbolt fuel distributor. On the non turbo model there is a lot more room as there is no Turbo squeezed hard up against the air cleaner box, and it doesn't have an oil cooler, so the fuel distributor can be unbolted and moved making for heaps of room. It is almost impossible to access the air cleaner, but they said Mt Everest could never be climbed.. . . it is just possible without resorting to extremes. I think I pulled my old element out from the top side if that helps - it JUST squeezed through the gap available. Good Luck.

remove the headlight and slide it out through there... it's a real pain in the ass to be honest. so buy a good one you wont wanna replace this one very ofter.

buy a chev

The only vehicle in this county ( Australia) with a Chevrolet badge on it is something extremely gross called a Suburban. . . won't be going there thanks.

the best way is to take off everything around the intake just move it enough so you can get the airbox moved then you can reach for the filter also the other way is take out the headlight and slide it out that way its hard but it wouldn't be an audi if it wasn't hard.

I would just remove all that nonsense and attach a cone shaped air filter on the end of the MAF if you have one. Makes the turbo sound nice and increases the air flow rate. much easier to clean and change as well.

I have a suspicion you have never owned an Audi? Perhaps if you had, you paid your mechanic to do this for you? There is NO easy way to change the air filter on these cars, they are all a pain.

WOW, exactly why I don't take my car to the dealer.....cause guys like you work there! If you'd ever actualy worked on this car you'd know the manual(full $200 bently) says nothing about the filter, and there is no room unless you take out/move major items(Turbo, engine, etc.) This is why you should never take a older audi to a dealer....They charged me 4x the price for repairing a(one) brake line w/ crappy OEM rubber over what my local guy would have charged for all 4 with far superior braided lines. OH, and one time another "dealer," quoted me $2500+ for a new head gasket after a thorough inspection, hours later I had a local shop fix my busted coolant line for $50 thank you very much! Let me know which Audi shop only charges 1/4 hours to change the filter and I'm there in a heartbeat, only I get to watch them do it(yes I'll take a day off from work to watch that.)

you can go here have a look... http://www.chinasinoy.com/service/how-to-change-cabin-air-filter-95.html

This link is for a "cabin air filter in a 2002-2005 Toyota," not a 1990 Audi 200 engine air filter. Totally different in case you didn't know......

Audi filters are a PITA! Used to do all my own maintenance-change oil, filter, plugs, etc. UNTIL I bought an Audi. I changed the filter once and almost lost my religion. That's when I stopped doing my own maintence. It was worth it to find a good independent mechanic and pay him to do it.

I completed this about a year ago now. I had to take out the right front light and a air vent pipe, and it barely came out & in again with some difficult tight spacing next to the turbo air pipe feeding the engine. It is not described in my $200 complete 3 book Bently manual. But it is fairly straight forward and took me about 2 hours to do. I think the original 1990 filter was still in there, so glad i got a new one and glad i didn't pay $200+ to have a mechanic do it. Next question is how often should i be replacing this???

Headlight out, open clips, lift cover, slide out filter and put new one in- piece of pie(after spendig couple hours trying to get it out from the top)