The Haynes manual says I have to remove the wiper arms first.

Thsi is a joke, right? This is a GM product, not Mercedes.

 

Just the one on the passenger side. It hides under that plastic cover beneath it. Remove the plastic end cap from the wiper arm that hides the nut. Remove nut, wiper arm, shroud and there that Biyatch is. Total pain, probably why mine was completely clogged.

 

It was about a three minute process on my Aurora, which was designed the same year as the 6th gen Monte. Did someone think that Olds failed because maintenance was too easy on the cars?

 

I don't believe you would need to touch the wiper arm. I've always just peeled back the rubber seal, popped the couple of plastic rivets, and pulled the passenger side cowl off. I haven't removed a wiper on any of my cars to do the cabin air filter.

I make sure to change mine everyone other spring.

 

I used your method yesterday, except I didn't actually pop the rivets, just held the top part of the cowl up with a pry bar while yanking out the bottom part. Other than the couple of layers of skin I lost, it went just fine, so thanks.

 

I have a lot of trouble believing the cabin air filter replacement on a 6th gen is easy and on a 7th gen it became a pain. So, I checked the actual GM shop book (the Haynes book is most likely too broad and missing something in translation, there is a reason those books are about 1-2 inches thick and the GM shop book is a set that is multiple inches thick).

Unless I something on the actual car is drastically different from the shop book, this looks like an easy 5 minute job. Attached is the actual GM shop data. No need to remove the wiper arm. The cowl cover is a split cowl and with the wiper arms in the up position, they are out of your way.

I hope this helps.

 

There's no way it's "easy" on a 6th gen, either. Removal isn't so bad, because you can use the pull strap, but replacement alone is more than five minutes, unless you have tiny hands. In any case, removing the wiper arms did turn out to be unnecessary.

 

It's definitely not a 5-minute job, I'd say it takes me a good 15 start-to-finish on the 07 Impala.

I do recommend popping the plastic rivets next time. It's just a flat-head required, and there is a lot of room to work with when you pop the passenger cowl off. If you haven't removed it before, it might be a little tough at the windshield to pop off, but that's just from all of the crud that gathered through the years.