How to Replace Oil Pan Gasket 2008-12 Ford Escape

What's up, guys? I'm Andy from 1A Auto. In this video I'm going to show you how to remove and reinstall the oil pan and gasket on this 2012 Ford Escape. If you need parts for your vehicle, click the link in the description and head over to 1AAuto.com.

I'm going to disconnect this O2 sensor right here. Push down on the connector and slide it out. I'm just going to take a pick, try to get on the other end of the connector, try to slide the lock off first. There we go. So normally there's a little button. Push the little button and that lifts the lock. What I did was just get under there with the pick and slide the lock up. There's a little tech tip for you.

Next I have to remove the nuts from the lower exhaust. There's two right here, two over here, and then these two on the back side here. And they're all very rusted. So I'm actually going to heat them up and remove them. These ones are bad enough that I might have to cut those off.

So that came out. And now I'm going to do the same with the other five nuts. Obviously, I can't reuse this. I'm going to have to get some new nuts when I put it back together. So I want to make sure I have a drain pan underneath here and I will take a 15 millimeter wrench, take the drain plug out. I'm going to crack it free first and get the drain bucket underneath and drain the oil out.

Once the oil is drained out, just make sure, check your drain plug. Make sure the threads look good and also the seal. This happens to be a rubber seal and it still looks like it has ... it's not ripped or torn or anything and it's still raised up a little bit. So this seal's okay, we don't have to replace it. If it was a metal seal, you'd want to replace it. Reinstall that. And then take the 15 millimeter wrench. Once it's snug, then I'll just give a little more, that's good. You don't want to over tighten the oil pan.

So I got all the bolts loose. I ended up just using a bungee cord, just to hold the exhaust up so it didn't fall as I got those bolts out. Just slide that out of the way. We can slide this exhaust down. Slide this out and forward, pull it down. All right, I'm just going to remove this rubber cover right here. Just use a trim tool, slide underneath, and pull that out of the way. I'm going to take these two bolts out on the side. I'm going to use that 13 millimeter socket and ratchet.

Then I want to remove these 15 bolts that go around the bottom of the oil pan. I'm going to use a 13 millimeter socket extension and ratchet. I got all the bolts out. I left one in. Just threaded a couple threads on the front and one on the back just so it doesn't fall. So I'm going to use a pry bar, trying to look for a pry spot. There's not really any great pry spots. Okay, right here, I'm just going to try to pry down a little bit. There is some RTV on the front of this, that it's like glued on. Just try to pry it down a little bit and then, right here, there we go. So just gently do that. If it seems like it's sticking in there still, then make sure you don't have another bolt in there that you don't know about. All right, so that's like that. Then I'll take this back bolt out.

All right, I can slide it down. Be careful of the oil pick up and there it is. All right, now we have the oil pan here. Just take a rag and try to wipe some of the dirt away, and get some of that out of there and grab the gasket. I can use a pick and grab the gasket and just pull the old gasket out. And there's a good amount of oil in here. So I'm actually going to drain this into a drain bucket. And then after that, we're going to bring it over to the parts washer and wash it out.

All right, so we're going to clean this pan out. You can see a little bit of sludge build up on the bottom, not horrible, a little bit. So we're just going to use some parts cleaner. You can always use some brake parts cleaner and do it that way and just make sure you clean off as much as possible. Get some of the sludge out. You want to make sure you clean all the surfaces where the gaskets are going to sit. So just clean these out really good. And the edge of the oil pan as well. If there's any dirt and stuff, try to get that off as much as possible. As far as the dirt on the bottom, you know use your own judgment, how much you want to work on that. It's not going to affect anything if you leave it. But while you're here, you might as well clean it off.

I'm going to take some brake parts cleaner and a rag. I'm just going to wipe down this surface area where the oil pan mounts to the engine. Just wipe some of that oil away. Want that nice and clean. I'm just going to wipe the bottom of the screen right there and any excessive oil, because when we go to put the oil pan back up, we don't really want any of this oil to drip onto our gasket. Should be pretty good.

I'm going to use this gasket scraper--we have this from 1AAuto.com. We sell it in a kit with some picks. I'm going to remove this. There's some RTV right here. Just scrape that off. We're going to want to reapply some RTV in that area before we install the pan, right here as well. You can use a razor blade as well--just be careful.

Now our oil pan is nice and clean. We're going to take the new gasket, want to line this up right here. Let's see. So if you find these little squares, these line up right here. That's a good place to start and then just go around the rest of it and push it on. And that's upside down. It's going to go this way. Make sure you don't put it in upside down. All right, that looks pretty good.

All right, so you want to double check the engine, make sure there's no more oil drip down after you've cleaned it and it looks pretty good. So we're good. So we're going to install some RTV in this area, but we can actually install it on the pan area. If we go down right here, that area is right here. So we'll just take a little bit of RTV, not too much. Just a little in that area and a little over here. That'll seal that up good.

Then we can get ready to install the pan. Line this up, push it up there, take some of the bolts. Get one started on the front, one on the back. I'm just going to snug this up by hand and the same on this backside one. And I can get all the other bolts started. So we're going to put all these bolts up loosely just by hand. Just get them all up there. With all those bolts still loose, we're going to put these bolts in that go through the bottom part of the pan into the transmission. Same with this side. I'm going to torque these two bolts first to 30 foot pounds using this torque wrench. We actually sell this torque wrench at 1AAuto.com.

All right, so now I'm going to torque this in sequence. The sequence in this vehicle is a little bit different from what I've seen before. Normally you torque from the middle and work your way out. This sequence you actually torque in order. So I'm starting here and just going around the oil pan and back to the front. I'm going to torque these to 18 foot-pounds.

All right, with all those tightened down, I can take this shield and stick this back in the location. I'm going to remove the oil filter. I'm going to use this strap wrench just to loosen it up. Sometimes it's hard to get it in there right. There we go. Once it's loose, you can do it by hand. Make sure you still have the drain bucket underneath. I always check the filter when I take it off--just make sure the gasket is on the filter. If not, check up here. If there's any dirt, you can use a rag to wipe the dirt away.

I'm going to take a little bit of fresh oil. Put it on the new filter, just on the seal. This way it's going to seal a little bit better and it'll be easier to take off next time you go to take the filter off. I'll install the filter. Get that started. Once it's snug, you want to go another quarter turn and that's good. Just take a little brake parts cleaner. Clean that front of the engine where the oil came down from the filter. Let that dry, you'll be good.

So I got to take this seal off right here. I'm just going to use a scraper. Get behind the seal. You could use a straight blade screwdriver. Slide that seal out. Make sure this surface area looks good. Use a scraper and just scrape any excess material. You could always use some sandpaper or a wire brush. Make sure it's smooth pretty good. Now I am--this stud actually broke. So I am going to heat up this part of the flange on the exhaust and push that through. And I'm just going to use a bolt and a nut to repair that.

Take a chisel and pop it the rest of the way through. Here's the old stud. I'm going to use a new bolt and a nut. Find one that's about the same size. If you can't get that stud, sometimes you can get these studs. But we don't have time for that. So we're going to use a bolt and a nut. This will work fine. So just going to take the bolt, start the bolt from up top and go through just like that. We'll lift the exhaust up. There's a little bit of corrosion right here. Just going to take a wire brush--just clean it up a little bit. Just make sure the sealing surface looks good and a little bit up top.

Just make sure on this side it's clean as well. This doesn't really look too bad. Take the wire brush, just clean it up a little more. Just going to slide this gasket right here. Some of the gaskets can actually be held on with the bolts. This one does not. So I'm just going to have to hold it there as I slide the exhaust pipe in. Just slide it up. Slide this through here. Slide the gasket on. Line that pipe up. So that looks good. Make sure the gasket's in there and then just make sure this is lined up with the front, just like that.

I'm going to start with the nuts on here. Get that one started. Get the back one started. I got new nuts for these. Get these nuts started. And these back ones have the springs on. Just going to reuse these ones. These ones are still okay.

All right, I just want to tighten these up a little bit. I don't want to snug them down yet, but just bring these front nuts up first. These happen to be a 12 millimeter. If you replace yours they might be a different size.

So I just want to make sure that this is close before I tighten the other ones. And you want this plate to be somewhat even. I'll tighten this up after. Now we're going to come over here, take these two up. Tighten that one up and then tighten the other one up. Make sure those are good and snug. And if you used a bolt and a nut like this, you might have to put a wrench on the top, it's spinning. Ours is nice and solid, so I don't have to. Now I can come back to the front and tighten these up. That's good and that's good.

Now I'm going to tighten these down. I'm just going to use a 13 millimeter socket and ratchet. Try to do it evenly--go back and forth. And it's all the way down, just snug it up a little. Make sure you don't break anything. It's good. Plug in the O2 sensor. Lock it in place.

All right--the oil fill cap is right here. It actually says what kind of oil to use. You can double check your owner's manual for the amount and just to make sure it's the right kind. Take that off. We're going to use a funnel. Take the oil and just pour it in. Now I'm going to put the oil fill cap back on.

Now I'm going to start the vehicle for about 15 seconds, so that the oil goes throughout the engine. Now we want to check the dipstick. It's right over here. Pull it out. We're going to wipe it with a rag first. Reinsert the dipstick. Wait two seconds and pull it out again. And we want the oil to be between these hash marks. And it looks like the oil level's right there and that's perfect. So we're good to go. If you're on the lower end, you'd want to add a little bit of oil. Reinsert the dipstick.

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