Created on: 2019-07-24
Watch this video to learn how to replace a CV axle boot on your 08-12 Ford Escape. 1A Auto shows you how to do it by yourself!
Socket Extensions
Torque Wrench
Hammer
15mm Socket
Jack Stands
18mm Socket
7mm Allen Wrench
Pick
21mm Socket
Flat Blade Screwdriver
Scissors
Snap Ring Pliers
1-1/4 Inch Socket
8mm Socket
Center Punch
10mm Socket
Floor Jack
CV Boot Banding Tool
1/2 Inch Breaker Bar
What's up guys. I'm Andy from 1A Auto. In this video, I'm going to show you how to replace the front CV axle boots on a 2012 Ford Escape. If you need these pars or other parts for your vehicle, click the link in the description and head over to 1aauto.com.
One thing you're going to want to do anytime you do any kind of front end repair or suspension repair, you're going to want to go to a local shop and have your alignment performed, otherwise you're going to have premature tire wear.
So I've raised and supported the vehicle and I took the tire off and now we're going to take this nut off. I'm going to use a pry bar and one and one-quarter socket and a breaker bar. I'm going to use the pry bar to prevent the hub from spinning. Just going to set this up just like that. So I'll spin this around and then the ground is going to support that from spinning. Just loosen this up. Now that nut is loose, now I can raise the vehicle up to chest level.
Just going to use some pliers, I'm going to take this clip off that holds the brake line on. Just grab it, slide this out just like that. Then we can take the brake hose, slide it out of our way. I'm going to take 10 millimeter socket extension and a ratchet, take this bolt out right here, this hold the bracket for the ABS wiring harness. It's pretty rusty. If you have to, put a little rust penetrant on there. Pull that out, slide that out of the way.
Just so I don't break it, I'm going to take the bolt out right here that holds the ABS sensor in. I might be able to do it without taking this out but I don't want to break the wire. Just take that out. Pull this out of here, slide that out of the way. All right, before I take this nut off, I'm going to use a little bit of rust penetrant, just make it easier taking it off. Let that soak for a little bit. All right, with a 15 millimeter wrench, I'm going to slide that over the nut and then I can hold the stud with a five millimeter Allen socket and a ratchet. Just put the ratchet on tighten and I'm going to loosen this. Loosen that up, get the nut off like this. On the backside here, I can just take a 17 millimeter wrench, hold the stud from spinning while I loosen up the nut. All right, pull that nut off and slide that out.
We want to take these bolts out. I'm going to take the... loosen up the nuts right here. Before I do that, I'm going to spray them down with some rust penetrant. I'm going to take a 18 millimeter wrench, 18 millimeter socket and a breaker bar. I'm going to loosen up the nut, both of these nuts. Loosen up the lower one. Before I take these nuts off, I'm just going to take a hammer and I'm just going to tap them, tap the bolts out. The reason I left the nuts on is so that I don't mushroom the end of the bolts, otherwise you won't be able to reuse them. So then I'm going to take a punch and a hammer. Just hammer it out like this and this is going to move a little bit, watch your fingers. And then I'll hammer this lower one out as well. Make sure you check the brake hose to make sure there's not too much tension on the brake hose. That's good, take those out, set them aside.
All right, so these strut holes are not slotted so you don't really have to worry about marking this. If these were slotted, you'd want to take a marker and just go around where the bolt holes are or where the knuckle goes into the strut. So that when you put it back together, the alignment isn't very far off, it'll be less far off. Before I take this nut off completely, I'm just going to have a couple threads on there because I want to pop the axle from the inside first. And the reason why I want to leave it on this side before completely take that off, is so that when I pop that off, the axle doesn't fall and hit the floor.
So I'm going to release this side of the CV shaft or axle from here. So what I'm going to do is take a punch and hammer and let's give it a hit with a hammer. All right, so that released right there. Let's keep tapping it a little more. So before I take that out, and now I can take the nut off on this side. Take this nut off and then pay attention to your brake hose, you don't want to pull on the brake hose to much. Slide this axle in a little bit. Just going to tap it with a punch.
All right, because we have to much tension on this brake hose, we're actually going to take the brake caliper off. So I'm going to take these little plugs out. Take those out. I'm just going to take this spring off. I'm going to use some large pliers and a screwdriver. Squeeze right here, watch your eyes, be careful. Wear safety glasses. Slide that out. I'm going take my seven millimeter Allen socket and a ratchet and I'll take these bolts out. Okay, with those calipers slide bolts loose, we can slide this off. It would actually be easier to take this off when we still have the bolts in for the strut. Slide the caliper off, take that brake pad off. And now we're just going to use this hook. We actually sell these hooks, caliper hanger hooks, from 1aauto.com. Slide that on there that way you don't have to worry about your brake hose.
And the rotor will just hang there. You can also take a lug nut so it's hanging a little nicer, put a lug nut on. It's not going to flop around. Should be able to get this axle out. Slide that out like that and pop that out just like that.
All right, so we're going to replace this tripod boot on this side of the axle. This outboard CV boot is not replaceable, so it is fixed, this does not come apart. So let's replace this. I'm just going to use a straight blade screwdriver, I'm going to take these clamps off right here. They're not reusable. Just get under here, just going to spread it apart. You can always cut these off too if you want. The boot kit actually comes with these. All right, let's get that off. Just be careful. And then we'll do the same with this. There we go. Take that clamp off. We can take the boot, get underneath the boot here. There is that other rubber piece right there, that slides out. And there's a lot of liquid. This is a very messy job so you might want a drain bucket or an absorbent pad.
Now these things are going to come off, or not. No, that's kind of nice. On some vehicles, these actually come off. So it's nice that these are fixed. So we're good with that. What we need to do is, there is a snap ring right here, you're going to need some snap ring pliers, we got to get the snap ring off. One thing I forgot to mention, it's a good idea to just take a marker and just mark, index the location of this to the driveshaft itself so we can put it back together the same way it came apart. It's not extremely crucial but it's a good idea just to have it so it's the same.
So we're going to need some snap ring pliers right here to remove the snap ring. See if you can get it spread, try to get a screwdriver behind it, press it out. Just be careful, it's a good idea to wear safety glasses while you're doing this because these do go flying. And there it is, pull that out. Just going to slide this boot back down so I have some room. Right there. And I'm going to take a screwdriver and a hammer, just give it tap, try to get this joint off. Just be careful not to damage anything. I'm sure you could use a puller, put some kind of a puller on here. This probably isn't the best method of doing this, it is working. And same with index and this, it'd be a good idea to keep this in the same position when you put it back together.
I'll just take the boot off. Slide it off. There's the old part, here's the new part from 1aauto.com. It's a similar boot but this is more of a universal style. We can actually trim back on this part of the boot to make it fit more like that size. It comes with new clamps and it comes with grease. Get yours at 1aauto.com and you'll be ready to rock-n-roll.
So we want to trim this down to match the old boot. So just take some scissors, cut this outer portion off. You could probably put this on the end of that tripod joint and trim this after but we'll trim it first. So with that trimmed, that size looks good. First thing we want to do is slide this on the axle right there. All right, this clamp comes a little bit tighter, you can loosen this up. We'll just slide this over here, get this in the right location. Tighten up this clamp. All right, I am going to take some pliers just to tighten this down like that. And there is a special tool we're going to need to tighten this up.
So this is a special tool you're going to need to tighten up this clamp. You're going to slide this on like this, slide this just like that. Take a socket and ratchet and you're just going to wind this up. It's going to tighten up. When it's tight enough, then you fold this over. Let's get it a little bit tighter. And it's pretty good. We just fold this over like that. Pull the tool off and we basically have to hammer this down. And you want to fold those down as well. Be easier if you had a smaller hammer. Just fold those down and fold it down over here, just like that. And then you cut off the excess. So see if we can cut this off with these. Just cut the excess off right here. You're going to need some heavy duty cutters to cut this. These might not be the right... And these are not going to do the job. All right, I'll give this a try. All right, so cut that off, just give it a little tap. And it looks pretty good.
Okay, so we can add the grease. So what I like to do is take this packet, just cut the corner off. Use some scissors, cut the corner off. And then over here and just spread the grease all around right in there. And also, you're going take some in here, spread the grease in here. If the grease looks horrible in there, you can clean it out. This doesn't look to bad so that should be all right. Just add a little grease to it. Now we're going to take the joint, line the joint up. And because this joint came off kind of hard, I am going to have to tap it on. Just use a socket and it's big enough to not disrupt the joint itself. Looks pretty good, I'll give a couple more taps. All right, that's okay.
Now we want to install the snap ring. Sometimes you can just get it on by hand, you don't need a tool. Or you can use the snap in pliers. All right, we got that on. There's really no easy way to get those on, you're going to fight with them. There is better snap ring pliers that you can use that have more of a flat spot on both sides, that would make it a lot easier. But that's on, make sure it's all the way around the grove. We're good. Now put this joint on the same way we took it off. Make sure that lines up there. And that's good. Take the new clamp, loosen this up, get that into position right there. Then take this tool, grab the ratchet, start to tighten this up. Put the fold in, pull the tool out. Take the hammer, give it a tap. Make sure that looks tight all the way around, which it looks good. Take the hammer and fold down the edges, the locks. And then I can trim this just like the other one. And now it's ready to go back in the vehicle.
All right, just to make this a little bit easier, I'm just going to put a little grease on this, on the other side too. Now if you were on the transmission side, you wouldn't want to put it on this, put it on the outside. But this just goes into a connecting shaft that connects to the transmission. And then I'm going to put a little on the outside splines here too, that'll make it a little easier to go into the hub. I'll just slide this into the right location. I just slide it onto that connecting shaft and then you want to make sure it locks in place. And it's good and locked in. I'm going to take this nut off the end and then just slide this into the knuckle. Get those splines lined up. So as they're lined up, you see some of the shaft coming through. Take the nut and get that started.
So the way I took it apart, I took the strut bolts out first before I took the caliper off which, like I said earlier, it would be easier to take the caliper off before we take the strut bolts out. So I'm going to, installing it, I'm going to put these strut bolts back in first. Make sure you get this ABS wiring harness over the knuckle there. Get this lined up. We'll slide this up and slide the strut bolts in. We may have to rock this back and forth a little bit to get those bolts in. So I'll take the nuts, install the nuts. I'm going tighten these down. I'll just use my 18 millimeter wrench and a 19 millimeter socket and a ratchet. I'm going to use a torque wrench and I'm going to torque these to 85 foot pounds.
Now I'm going to install the brake pads. Slide that on in the caliper, take the caliper off the hanger. Install the caliper just like that. And I'll tighten up these caliper bolts with a seven millimeter Allen and a ratchet. Now I'm going to use a torque wrench with that same seven millimeter Allen and torque those caliper slide bolts to 18 foot pounds. Reinstall the caps, slide those back in. Now we want to put this anti-rattle clip back on. Sometimes these are kind of tricky to install. Just slide this on like this and get it close. Get that like that. It's a good idea to wear safety glasses when you're going this. Just take a screwdriver and just trying to pry this into position. Just push it in, lock those in like that.
So we want to reinstall this bracket for the ABS wiring harness. Get that lined up, take this bolt, get that started. Now I'll use a 10 millimeter socket and extension just to get this tightened by hand and then I'll snug it up. We'll just use a ratchet and snug it up, not to tight. And we'll take the brake hose, get this lined up. There is some little key ways in the hose so it only goes on a certain way. Looks like it goes on like that. Just make sure it's not twisted at all up top or down below. Take the clip, slide the clip in. Might have to take a small hammer and just give it a tap. Tap the clip in. Now slide this into position up top. You might have to move the stud down a little bit. Just grab it, slide it down just like that. And you can line that up. Take a 15 millimeter nut. I'm going to use my 15 millimeter ratchet wrench and a short Allen 4 millimeter Allen wrench. Now I'll snug that up, take that off.
Now I'm going to take a 15 millimeter socket on a torque wrench and tighten this nut down to 46 foot pounds. Now I'm going to take a pry bar, just get in between these studs right here, have that set against the floor. And I'll take a one and one-quarter socket and a torque wrench and I'm going to torque this axle nut to 221 foot pounds. Be careful in doing this, it's a lot of torque. There we go. All right, now I can take this lug nut off and then put the wheel back on, torque it and we're good to go.
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