Daily Driver Garage: Air Filter Change

How to Change Air Filter in a 2002 Ford Focus

A friend recently needed a couple simple things done to her 2002 Ford Focus. I’m a classic car girl, and so far have almost exclusively only worked on old cars – but I couldn’t turn away an opportunity for learning, so I told my friend I’d look into fixing her problems. What she needed was an air filter change, brake flush, and to replace the sway bar linkage.

Having never looked under the hood of a Ford Focus before, I popped the latch and looked for the air filter. I saw a couple places where I thought it might be lurking beneth, but I wasn’t sure. So to try and make sure I went looking for some answers in her Ford Owner’s Manual. I was surprised to find they didn’t have this basic information! So then I turned to the internet. Again, I was surprised that there were plenty of threads on Ford Forums of people looking for the air filter – with one fellow stating that even the dealership tried to tell him there wasn’t one.

Now…I think some of these people may have been confused between an engine air filter and a cabin air filter…but I followed one guys suggestion that it rest beneath the windshield wipers. Not being able to get the plastic piece off enough to fully access this area, I could see enough inside that although there may be a spot for an air filter, it definitely wasn’t somewhere that led to the engine – maybe it was the cabin air filter. So, I decided to stop looking for answers and instead, looked under the hood again and tried to use my common sense. Sure enough, common sense worked! A few twists of the screwdriver and four screws later, I landed upon the air filter.

Taking it with me to the parts store (reference books are nearly always right, but I just wanted to be sure!) I puchased a replacement filter and exchanged the old for the new. Putting everything back together in the opposite way which I took it apart, the job was done. This job should only take about 2 minutes. The cost of the filter from the auto parts store was $7.99. So the money saved doing this yourself versus at a quick change oil service, or worse yet the dealer, is about $10-15 of savings.

A little bit of learning goes a long way – next time your air filter needs replaced, do it yourself! Not only will you save a few hard-earned bucks, but you can feel like a bad-ass for getting your hands a little dirty!

Grease Girl Talks: Air Filters 101

Now – I know that this is totally basic – but I wanted to take the opportunity to show you the air filter that came off my car today. Generally when I think of basic, routine car maintenance, I think “oil, tire pressure, transmission fluid, and is anything leaking.”
As I was at the shop today (P.S. I got the headliner completely finished and the new tranny in!…check back soon for those articles) I popped the hood to show off my engine (which is horribly dirty still from when the radiator blew…it was pointed out to me that a guy wouldn’t stand for the dirty-looking engine.)
Sitting there shootin’ the breeze, someone noticed my air filter, so we unscrewed the top and took it out. Evidently, the way to check if you need a new air filter is by holding it up to the light and seeing if any of the light shines through. Not counting the spots where there were holes in mine, there was absolutely no sunlight shining through this sucker. Handy to be offered not one, but two air filters (I love my shop guys!)…we exchanged the dirty one for a clean one. Changing this thing out is as simple as unscrewing a bolt.

Since I don’t know how often these things need changed, I looked it up and found a helpful article online. It says to change it every 20,000 to 30,000 miles (or when dirty). Although I’ve logged thousands of miles during Stude’s first year on the road – her mileage is much closer to 10,000 than 20,000. Something tells me that between the extra exhaust my engine spouts out combined with what I’m guessing is probably increased air intake due to increased engine size – my car’s air filter will need to be changed more often than the average car. Thank goodness my car’s not average!
Tommy likened a dirty air filter to someone putting a cloth up to your mouth and telling you to breath. It would be hard. And the extra work makes for less-efficient fuel mileage – which I had been experiencing…AH-HAH…hopefully now I can get that extra 3-4 mpg back!
So there it is ladies and gents…the low-down on air filters!
Happy Trails!

-Grease Girl