Eventually, most XTS owners will fall out of warranty and need their cabin air filter replaced. This is a pretty easy, straightforward job. Simply open the glove box, remove the cabin air filter cover and replace the filter.
However comma: If your XTS is equipped with the optional CD player, replacement is anything but straightforward and will cost upwards of $100 at a dealership. The CD player is mounted to a shelf with four fasteners, three of which are inaccessible unless the shelf assembly is removed.
But wait, there's more! You have to remove the glove box, and to do that, all of the surrounding trim has to come out.
The 2013 Owner's manual cabin air filter removal procedure is wrong; there is no single fastener to remove to extract the CD player from the shelf and access the cabin air filter cover behind it. I'm sure that was the design intent, but someone really dropped the ball in its implementation. No one should have to jump through so many hoops just to replace a routine maintenance item. This documentation error was corrected in subsequent year owner's manuals within the periodic maintenance replacement section stating, "See your dealer regarding replacement of the filter."
Brilliant. . . Apparently the lead XTS glove box Design Engineer caught his wife having an affair with a dealership Service Technician and decided to make all of them pay for it.
To remove the shelf, the glove box (aka, the Instrument Panel Storage Compartment) has to be removed from the Instrument Panel or IP in multiple steps. This isn’t terribly difficult, but requires investing in a set of trim removal tools to avoid damaging the interior trim that needs to be removed (or if you perform step 12 repeatedly out of sequence, getting hammered in the process.)
I’ve used this set many times over the years and they work well:
http://www.eastwood.com/5-pc-trim-tool-set.html?reltype=2&parent_id=27189
The money spent on these tools will more than pay for themselves if you end up damaging a trim piece with a screwdriver. Besides, you’re saving money doing this job yourself, so these tools will also pay for themselves (three times over!) the first time you use them for this job.
Service Manual procedures can be confusing to follow as they tend to you bounce around the manual completing preliminary procedures. I’ll save you the trouble and provide the sequential order of removal procedures:
1) Remove the IP Storage Compartment Door Latch
2) Remove the IP Insulator Panel
3) Remove the right side IP Side Trim Panel
4) Remove the right side IP Trim Panel
5) Remove the right side Lower IP Trim Panel.
6) Remove the Storage Compartment
7) Remove the IP Storage Compartment Shelf
8) Remove the Video Player Control
9) Remove the Cabin Air Filter Cover
10) Replace the Air Filter
11) Reverse steps 8-1
12) Marvel at your DIY skills by celebrating with a few well-deserved beers.
Here’s a link to the downloadable Cabin Air Filter Replacement procedure that has the details to perform Steps 1-10:
http://www.justanswer.com/cadillac/7ygcd-tried-replace-cabin-air-filter-2013-xts-removing.html
The replacement Cabin Air Filter is an ACDELCO CF1184C and costs just over $6 @ Rockauto:
http://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/...+&+air+conditioning,cabin+air+filter,6832
Napa's Gold Filter, FIL 4211 retails for about $21.00.
And coming in @ 3rd place (price-wise) is the nearly $33 GM filter, P/N 22743911:
http://www.gmpartscenter.net/oe-gm/22743911 (discounted here)
CC