I just did mine. It was pretty bad even after 15,000 miles

 

I thought I'd share my latest video, and a friendly reminder that spring is the time to change the cabin air filter! I did mine today. I don't know how long that old one was in there, but it was gross.

 

I just changed mine for the first time at 30k miles. I'm kind of surprised the dealer hasn't recommended replacing it sooner, but the dealer in town here is pretty terrible.

I looked into this since it was getting hot here lately and my A/C on recirculate was smelling musty. After replacement I'm still smelling it, but hope that it disappears with time.

Anyone have any tips or tricks to get the smell to disappear other than replacing the filter?

 

Spray AC duct cleaner in, that usually takes care of the stink. Gook gets in the fins, and that is what you are smelling, the hard part is getting the spray to actually get into the fins.


I was going to get a filter, went to RockAuto, and shipping was just as much as the filter, and this was with a full brake kit for a Focus. I figured the filter would be included, Nope, separate freight charge, so didn't get it.

 

Where exactly should we spray this cleaner?

 

Not sure on the F150, but previous cars I sprayed through the cowl opening. The other way is to remove the filter and spray through that opening. This is the stuff I have used,

 

So what do you think? Did he open it back up to replace the sensor cable?

 

I just changed the cabin filter in my Platinum for the 4th time. It took 15 minutes, using the trim tools below from Harbor Freight, to remove the wood trim piece:

 

He didn't mention the air direction arrow on the filter either. It should point down!

 

FYI,

I replaced the cabin air filter yesterday. It was easy and took 10 minutes. Unfortunately, I did not disconnect the glove box damper correctly, and it came apart. When all was reassembled the damper did not work. The glove box would just fall open instead of drifting open slowly.

A lot of google research brought me to one single, oblique reference. I'll provide more detail for the next guy.

1. Make sure to disconnect the damper from the glove box itself before removing the box. It's easy - look carefully and you'll see that the end, which you can see on the right side of the box, has a tab that pushes into a slot in the box. Just push it to the wide end of the slot and it'll pop off. Reverse to reinstall.

2. If you fail to do that, you might pull it loose from the other end. That end has a housing that connects inside, above the box. In that housing is a gear (large on one side, smaller on the other). That might fall out, so put it back with the larger gear to the right. The shaft extending from the box just pushes into a slot on the housing. It engages with the smaller gear.

3. There aren't very many moving parts. If the box drops too quickly, disconnect the damper at the bottom (the part you can see connected to the box itself). Lower the box by pushing each side to free the two rubber-covered tabs that prevent it from falling all the way open. Just pull to remove the shaft from the housing. There's a spring-type catch at the end, but I had no success with that. I just pulled. Reach inside and turn the housing 180 degrees, making sure the gear stays in place. Push the shaft back in, then push the box in place and reconnect the shaft to the box. This part took me less than 3 minutes.

Worst case scenario -- it's not a super expensive part so you toss it and buy a new one.

It's a one-way damper, so you have to align the gear housing in the correct direction or it only dampens when closing, not when opening.

Sorry, no photos and I'm not competent to make a YouTube video. Let's hope my college writing classes helped me present this in a meaningful way.

See my sig line -- I have a 2016 XLT.