[twincarbs]

I expect you will get some stick for splitting the two halves of the plastic grille, but I'm not convinced this is such a bad method. The way you've sealed the housing looks good to me.

 

[twincarbs]

I know the Haynes manual isn't always right but it's interesting to note that they give two methods for accessing the pollen filter. The first is the "Ford approved" method, necessitating the removal of the windscreen wipers and taking the plastic grille off in one piece. Their alternative method is the one used in this discussion.

I changed my pollen filter recently using the approved method. The biggest PITA with this is removing the wipers if they haven't been removed before (or for a long time). I had to resort to using a ball joint splitter in the end as it's all I had to hand, but the tightening bolt was very close to the windscreen and I could easily have cracked it. There is no way on this earth they would have come off by pulling/wiggling by hand.

As I said in another post about this, you have to ask yourself why the plastic grille is in two pieces if you aren't supposed to split it. It's not like it's that long and couldn't be made in one piece. Also, I doubt many garages would do this job the approved way, and most people would be none the wiser.