10/09/2022
Cost: $20.65 + tax & $9.97 shipping from here (ended up being a tiny but less expensive than buying from Ford which is, at this writing, out of stock anyways)
Time: Under ideal conditions, about 5 minutes.
Materials: Motorcraft Cabin Air Filter (FP99)
Installation
The glove box
On the side of the glove box when opened, is a plastic stop arm. You need to pull it off…This was, by far, the most difficult part of this installation because the car is new, and all of the plastic is very stiff. The normal method would be to just hook your finger in there and pull. In this case, I needed pliers but also a microfiber cloth to give it more contact (bonus, that reduces damage to the piece).
So, if you’re having trouble, brace the glove compartment with your knees, wrap the little top of the split head with the microfiber (or whatever), squeeze with the pliers, and slide the arm off. Geez. Here’s a closer look at the offending mechanism. Now that it’s been done once, it is much easier to do for the future.
On either side of the glove compartment are nice, useful tabs. Just depress on both sides and pull the glove compartment out.
The rectangular box is what we’re looking for. To the left and the right are 2 tabs that hold the lid in place over the housing opening. Push them apart to free the tabs being held there. Normally, you would just pull the two tabs on top, and it would come out, but the plastic is extremely stiff having never been used, so be careful not to break the pieces (I did that in my old car D:) and pull the cover down.
Ta da!
Here is a side by side of the new and old. Mimic the direction of the airflow on the original filter. Ford has the labeled on the plastic for you, also.
From here on out, just go backwards to replace everything: close the filter lid, hook the hinges into their slots, push the glove compartment up until the tabs lock in place, and then replace the stop arm.
The one important thing to remember is to make sure that the 3 hinges are properly seated. If they’re not, then the compartment won’t close smoothly. One of mine weren’t clicked in right and closing the compartment was difficult and rough.
You are DONE and breathing much cleaner air.