Replacing/changing cabin air filter for a 2023/2024 Ford Mustang Mach-E
Why
Because it’s easy enough to do by yourself and to save money. Cost adds up!
Materials and Cost
ITEM
PRICE
Purolator Boss PBC31449
$26.43 (Amazon)
Or if you’d like to stick with OEM:
Motorcraft Cabin Air Filter (Part #: FP100A)*
$30.56 (Ford) or $20.97 (PartsGeek)
*According to Ford, Part FP100A is interchangeable with FP100 and FP99
Time and Effort
Time: 5-10 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Process
Tip: It’s best to be parked where you can comfortably open your passenger side door wide
Empty Glove Compartment
Take the stuff out of the glove compartment
Lower the Compartment
Remove Stop Arm
With the glove compartment open, look to the right side and locate the stop arm. Use a finger to pull it until it pops off
POP!
Press the Tabs
Then press the tabs on either side of the glove compartment to unhook the box
Tabs on either sideClose-up
It will swing downwards. Just leave it there. It doesn’t need to come out.
Note: If you didn’t unload the contents, everything gets dumped on the floor…
Open the Filter Cover
On either side of the uppermost, solid plastic, rectangular door are 2 tabs that keep it in place. Push aside (outwards) the plastic tabs until both sides free from the little tab. Be careful not to break anything!!
Hint: you may need to push aside any impeding wiring bundles.
The right was easy, but the left required two hands: one to push, and one to pull the filter door down
Here’s a close up of the left-side tab from my 2023 Mach-E. The wiring bundle butts up against the tab, making it difficult to remove. The 2024 was much easier without the wiring in the way as much
Push up or aside any wayward wiring bundles and reach your fingers (or a plastic pry tool) up and around the two sky-facing tabs. Pull carefully down to open the door
Warning: Be careful of the metal frame! It’s sharp!
Remove Old Filter
There it is! Just reach in, pull out the old air filter, and note the direction of the airflow arrow
Ta Da!
Place New Filter
Compared to the Motorcraft filter, the Purolator is much stiffer. Just position and slide it in
All Steps in Reverse
Close the filter door and press until you hear/feel the click on both sides
Pull the glove compartment back up into position until the side tabs click into place
Replace the stop arm on the side of the compartment by just giving it a nice push
PositionPUSH!Boom!
Put your stuff back in
All done!
YOU DID IT! Super easy, AND you saved yourself some money!
Materials: Fender Flares, Instruction Sheet, 16 retainer clips, Automotive Trim Removal Tools/Retainer Clip Removal Tool (or a screwdriver, but much easier with the tools), rubbing alcohol, paper towel, polyurethane sealant, scissors/knife, tape, stool (optional)
Shipping
Pretty tall box, lightOEMThey each come inside a sleeveStamped with the item part
Installation
Instruction sheet and fender flare
Wipe the install location with alcohol, then remove the 5 retainer clips (3 on the door side and 2 on the front end making sure there are 3 in between).
NOTE: The lowest clip on the door-side is a short clip as compared to the longer clips all the others have. This makes re-installation impossible, so while you’re not supposed to remove the 3 towards the front of the Maverick, I swapped the middle clip with the short one which fits perfectly.
Remove these 3Remove the blues, Keep the reds
To dry fit and mark the alignment points, you place, and resecure 3 of the retainer clips (don’t have to push them in all the way).
Dry fitDon’t have to push the clip all the way in, you’ll take it out in a second
Instructions called for a grease pen to mark the alignment, but I used painter’s tape as a guide. Less cleanup.
Remove the clips and the fender flare, then per the instructions, cut the 3M tape in the middle and tape them off. Honestly, before I realized I could use a plastic pry tool to help, this was the longest, most frustrating part of the installation. It’s impossible to get the edges peeled up without nails! The pry tool made it a cinch.
NOTE: As I’ll post a picture a little further down, just peel most of 3M liner at the bottom part of the flare (closest to the wheel). Otherwise, it’s really hard to pull it off later.
Pry tool is very helpful herePeel and secure more of the bottom piece than I did here.
Polyurethane sealant. I used Automotive Amazing Goop because I happened to have it on hand. The little nozzle I bought for it is super-duper helpful. Use your sealant in the built-in channel
Here we go! Same as before, place the flare on, line it up, secure it with the 3 clips. Now with pressure as you go, pull the red 3M liner off.
Pull and press
As mentioned above, the lowest 3M liner got stuck underneath and was difficult to remove, so just pull most it off before placing the flare. Makes it much easier.
Stuck. Had a bit of a time trying to get it out after everything else is secure
Yay! Here are the 2 front sides! After doing the first, the 2nd is very easy.
Midway point!
AAAAND here is where I hit a snag. As it turns out, the rear retainer clips are ALL the small/short clips. And there are 7 on either side that need to be used. I tried, but they are way too short to be able to hold the rear flares in place. Thanks, Ford, for that heads up! So, I have ordered what I think is the equivalent of the OE clips and then a set of generic clips just in case.
The installed flares look good, though. 🙂
CONTINUED!
The retainer clips from Amazon arrived and, wow! I can’t even tell them apart!
Old vs new
Alrighty, then, let’s get installing! Removed the 7 stubby clips from the rear. Here’s an image for size comparison. I said earlier that the most time-consuming part of this install was peeling the 3M liner…it is not. The most time-consuming part is trying to remove these stubby clips. They spin all around the place and it’s more difficult than the longer clips to get a good hold. You get into the groove after a time, though.
comparison
During the dry-fit, new, longer retainer clips work perfectly!
Peel, then secure!
Installed! Looks like I’m going to need to go back and apply trim restore again…the fender flares are clearly newer
Repeat on the other side! Now…I will add a warning here, because after doing 3 of them I was getting a bit cocky. For the very last flare, I decided NOT to do a dry-fit/alignment tape. Don’t do that. It ended up fitting just off-kelter to where the retaining clips wouldn’t even go all the way in, but the adhesive had already stuck and there was no going back.
It’s done! Here’s a before and after install picture of the last flare.
Completo!! It’s amazing how much different the Maverick looks with the fender flares on! I honestly can’t really remember what it looked like before!
Notes
They look really good. Really.
Installation was an overall breeze after I procured the proper parts. As you can see in my pictures, I do not have a driveway, but never had to move my car out of the parking space to install these.
After a week of driving, the flares give noticeably more drag and therefore reduce the gas efficiency. That part I’m not as big a fan of, especially since mine is a hybrid. Then I started wondering if the cab spoiler would help the aerodynamics at all or is simply another cosmetic thing? The internet is not yielding any real information about that. Hmmm…next addition? 😀
