So, I just changed my engine air filter (2015 Thor Axis on Ford E350 chassis) for the first time. After 136k miles. Yep.
I'm not an engine person, and have been taking my rig into the "nation's largest Ford Motorhome and RV Repair & Service Facility" every year, handily located near my winter base, relying on their expertise as to what needed to be done. After reading a few threads about changing the filter, I began to understand why they were keeping their mouths shut.
To be clear, I noticed no change/decrease in performance in the engine, no odd noises, no dragging on acceleration, at all. Could be because the thing has been clogged for so many years - maybe I'll now find I really can get those *14-15 mpg* the sales guy quoted me (no, I didn't believe it, and no, I've never achieved it).
Anyway, after reading the threads I found on here (thank you, wonderful Thor owners that share your knowledge!), and watching a bunch of YouTube videos of regular E350 Econoline van owners/Class C RV owners doing the swap, I realised pretty quickly that the most PITA part was going to be putting the two parts of the filter housing back together. Oh, I had no idea!
I think I'm slightly smaller than the average person working in the tight confines of the engine bay, so I opted to skip removing the right-hand bracket (4 bolts and a hose clamp), and went straight to undoing the compression clamp (the method used by everyone with free, unfettered access to their filters). It took a little wiggling and jiggling, being careful of the wires (wrapped through the filter housing) and the various hoses draped everywhere, but I got the filter out in a minute or so. I had my battery access panel through the dash open, so I used that to remove the old and insert the new filters. All told, I was at about 6 to 8 minutes from when I started to the point of trying to get the housing back together. Then...5 or 6 hours, until dark, attempting various methods to reclamp the darn thing. Gave up with the appearance of the mosquitoes.
I watched a 6-year old YouTube video of a lady attempting the same swap, and she tried just about every brand of filter out there, convinced that was the issue. I'm sitting here, tut-tutting that it isn't the brand that matters, it's just a tricky job, when her third or fourth attempt went as smoothly as you could have hoped for. Her answer: FRAM 8039. Popped right in, two housing parts fit perfectly, clamp closed with minimal (but not non-existent) force. She spent the next few minutes in disbelief, then confirmed that it truly was closed properly with some very up-close camera work. So...off to Walmart. FRAM 8039 Ultra (since that's what they had) acquired. Job finished in about 10 seconds. Next 2 minutes spent disassembling, reassembling, and staring in disbelief.
Can't guarantee this will work for everyone - especially those with the newer models where the front end opens upwards instead of downwards (how the heck do you work on *anything* with that setup?!), but if I can save even one person the headache I went through, it'll be worth it. I now feel pretty confident that I can change the air filter as often as I should, and (hopefully) not end up stranded in a Walmart car park for the next three days, trying to find someone (anyone!) willing to attempt the job.
A 2 minute YouTube video if anyone is in my predicament:
https://youtu.be/yXxywIGkcbU
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