Blog Post: Cadillac ATS-V air filter replacement

[Bruce Nunnally]

Since my 2016 Cadillac ATS-V is aging out of the Dealer Maintenance period I decided to refresh my OEM air filters.

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LF4 Air filter box

The LF4 in the ATS-V has dual air filters feeding the twin turbos. The ‘left’ or driver’s side turbo is immediately in from the filter box. The right or passenger side turbo is across on the right side of the engine.

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AC Delco A3202C x 2 needed

I ordered new filters from Rockauto; they run $28 each as I recall. I ordered a new oil filter at the same time to share in the shipping cost.

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AC/Delco Filter A3202C Filter

The filters themselves are cannister type pleated paper filters, and were made by Mahle for AC/Delco. There is one filter for each turbo inlet tract.

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6 screws and lift up the top, and Dirty Filters ready to come out. Push on the sides of the ‘rod’ to retract the tabs on the filter ‘rod’ to release each filter.

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Dirty Filters after removal. Lots of leaves and debris demonstrate the intake has a pretty open access to the filter (!)

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Clean new filters in place.

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This is the view looking forward from the air box to the front of the engine — the opening that the filters breath through. Air can flow through the front grill more or less directly to the air box.

It took only a few minutes to change the filters, then put the 6 screws back snugly in place. My impression is the engineers did everything they could think of to mitigate the need or benefit of an aftermarket intake.

I note that K&N says their intake adds 34 hp, which suggests the stock setup is not ideal, or there are other factors in play. See K&N’s dyno here:

https://www.knfilters.com/dynocharts/63-3093_dyno.pdf

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