I went to inspect the air filter today and noticed that the dealer didn't put the housing back on right. It was offset to the left and the tabs on the right weren't in the slots.

And I feel pretty dumb, but I can't it back on correctly. If I take the filter element out it's easy, but the rubber lip on the top of the filter element makes it seemingly impossible. Is there a trick?

 

Shouldn't be that challenging. Motorcraft filter or aftermarket? I've seen some that have a bigger lip and are thus harder to shut.

 

 

It's a Motorcraft filter. I managed to get it done, but nothing like the video. Loosened the hose clamp on the intake tube so I could tilt it a bit and had to use all my weight to get it to go in. One of the clips took quite a bit of effort too. I've had 20 vehicles and don't remember one this difficult. Maybe this batch of filters has a bigger lip.

Thanks.

 

Yes you remove the clamp it gives you more leverage and once all the tabs are in just pressure to get the clips snapped in.

 

These are at least a little better than the round conglomerations on the 97-03 F150/Expedition... those were horrendous.

 

 

I'd have a prayer meeting with that service department. Make sure they review that problem with the tech.

Hopefully you didn't drive it long like that.




Pecked out on my iPhone.

 

Our Taurus SHO air filter housing is like this. I dread having to replace the filter as it takes me about 5 minutes of fiddling with it to get the tabs in the slots and the clips snapped into position. The rest of my Ford fleet it takes less than a minute to fasten the top to the air filter box. Even the Fiesta takes me more time to get the Torx screwdriver out of the tool box than it does to replace the filter.