How to Replace Front CV Axle 2001-12 Ford Escape
Created on: 2019-04-17
How to repair, install, fix, change or replace broken, worn, or vibrating CV axles on 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11, 12 Ford Escape
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Perform an alignment after completing this repair
step 1 :Removing the Front Wheel
- Loosen the 18mm lug nuts with the vehicle on the ground
- Raise the vehicle with a floor jack
- Secure the vehicle on jack stands
- Remove the lug nuts
- Pull off the wheel
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step 2 :Removing the Axle Nut
- Hold the rotor with a pry bar
- Loosen the center axle nut with 1 and 1/4 inch socket and breaker bar
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step 3 :Removing the CV Axle
- Remove the clip holding the brake line with pliers
- Slide the brake hose out of the bracket
- Remove the 10mm bolt from the ABS wiring harness bracket
- Remove the 10mm bolt from the ABS sensor
- Remove the upper nut from the sway bar link with a 15mm wrench and 5mm Allen bit and ratchet
- Remove the lower strut bolts with an 18mm wrench and 18mm socket and breaker bar
- If the holes on the strut are slotted, mark their position with a marker
- Twist the axle nut off a few threads
- Release the axle from the housing with a punch and a hammer
- Tap the axle out of the knuckle with a punch and hammer
- If the brake line has too much tension, go to step 4
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step 4 :Removing the Brake Caliper and CV Axle
- Remove the rubber boots from the caliper
- Squeeze the metal anti-rattle spring ends with pliers and remove the metal spring by prying from the center with a flat blade screwdriver
- Remove the caliper bolts with a 7mm Allen socket and ratchet
- Set the caliper to the side
- Tighten a lug nut to the rotor by hand to secure it
- Remove the CV Axle
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step 5 :Installing the Brake Caliper and CV Axle
- Insert the CV axle into the housing by hand so that it locks in place
- Insert the CV axle into the knuckle by hand
- Insert the lower strut bolts into the strut with an 18mm wrench and 18mm socket and ratchet
- Torque the lower strut bolts to 85 foot-pounds
- If the brake caliper was not removed, skip to step 6
- Insert the brake pads into the caliper bracket
- Place the brake caliper on
- Tighten the caliper bolts with a 7mm Allen socket and ratchet
- Torque the caliper bolts to 18 foot-pounds
- Place the rubber boots on
- Clip in the anti-rattle clip with a flat blade screwdriver
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step 6 :Installing the CV Axle
- Tighten the 10mm bolt to the ABS sensor
- Tighten the 10mm bolt to the ABS sensor bracket
- Clip the brake line into the bracket and tap the clip in with a hammer
- Insert the tie rod into the strut
- Tighten the upper tie rod bolt with a 4mm Allen wrench and a 15mm wrench
- Torque the upper tie rod nut to 46 foot-pounds
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step 7 :Tightening the Axle Nut
- Hold the rotor with a pry bar
- Tighten the center axle nut with a 1 and 1/4 inch socket and torque wrench to 221 foot-pounds
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step 8 :Reattaching the Wheel
- Remove the lug nut from the rotor
- Slide the wheel into place
- Start the 18mm lug nuts by hand
- Tighten the lug nuts preliminarily
- Lower the vehicle to the ground
- Tighten the lug nuts to 100 foot-pounds in a crossing or star pattern
Tools needed
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15mm Wrench
Socket Extensions
Torque Wrench
Hammer
Rust Penetrant
Pry Bar
18mm Wrench
18mm Socket
4mm Hex Wrench
7mm Allen Wrench
5mm Hex Wrench
Flat Blade Screwdriver
Brake Caliper Hanger
Center Punch
Anti-Seize Grease
10mm Socket
Ratchet
Needle nose pliers
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 replace the front CV axle on this 2012 Ford Escape. A lot of times these CV boots will rip, you're going to get outside elements into the joints and that's not good. You don't just want the replace the boot, a lot of times it's better to replace the whole axle. If you need this part or other parts for you vehicle, click the link in the description and head over to 1aauto.com.
One thing you're going to you 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 take this nut off. I'm going to use a pry bar and a 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 spin this around and then the ground is going to support that from spinning. Let's loosen this up. Now that nut is loose, 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 and slide this out, just like that and we can take this brake hose, slide it out of our way. We're going to take a 10 millimeter socket extension and a ratchet, take this bolt out right here. This holds the brake for the ABS wiring harness. It's pretty rusty. If you have to, put a little rust penetrant on there. Move 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 brake the wire. Take that out. Move this out of here. Slide that out of the way.
Before I take this nut off, I'm going to use a little bit of rust penetrant, because just make it easier taking it off. Let that soak for a little bit. 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 and tighten, I'm going to loosen this. Loosen that up. Get the nut off like this. On the back side here, I can just take a 17 millimeter wrench. Hold the stud from spinning while I loosen up the nut. Pull that nut off and slide that out.
We want to take these bolts out. I'm going to 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 an 18 millimeter wrench, 18 millimeter socket and a breaker bar. I'm going to loosen up the nut, both of these nuts and 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 the bolt 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 hammer. Just hammer it out like this. And this is going to move a little bit and watch your fingers. And then I'll hammer this lower one out as well. Make sure you check the brake hose. 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 I completely take that off, is so that when I pop that off, the axle doesn't fall and hit the floor.
So I want to release this side of the CV shaft or axle from here. So what I'm going to do is take a punch and a hammer, and I'll just give it a hit with a hammer. All right, so that released right there. Just keep tapping a little more. So before I take that out, now I can take the nut off on this side. Take this nut off there and 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 too much tension on this brake hose, I'm actually 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, and slide that out.
And I'm going to take my seven millimeter Allen socket and a ratchet and I'll take these bolts out. Okay, with those calipers slide bolts loose, you can slide this off. It would actually be easier to take this off when you still have the bolts in for the strut. Slide the caliper off. Take that brake pad off. Now were just going to use this hook. We actually sell these 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, and 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.
Here's the old CV axle shaft. here's the new one from 1aauto.com. As you can see, the shape and the size is the same size. The ends are machined the same way. Shaft comes with the boots and comes with a reluctor wheel for the ABS. Comes with a new nut. Splines on the end are the same. Get yours at 1aauto.com and you'll be ready to rock and roll.
All right, just to make this a little bit easier, I'm just going to put a little grease on this, and that 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. I'm going to put a little on the outside splines here too. It'll make it a little easier to go into the hub. I'll just slide this into the right location. Just slide it onto that connecting shaft and then you want to make sure it locks in place. It's good and locked in. I can take this nut off the end, and just slide this into the knuckle. Get those splines lined up. As soon as they're lined up, you'll see some of the shaft coming through. Take 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 those strut bolts out. So I'm going to install it, I'm going to put the 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. You may to rock this back and forth a little bit to get those bolts in. So I'll take the nuts. Install the nuts. Now I'm going to tighten these down. I'll just use my 18 millimeter wrench and an 18 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. We install the caliper just like that. Now 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 ant-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 doing this. Just take any 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. Going to use a 10 millimeter socket and extension just to get this tightened by hand, and then I'll snug it up. I'll just use a ratchet and just snug it up not to tight. And I'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. Look like it goes on like that. Just make sure it's not twisted at all at 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 in position up top. 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 the 15 millimeter nut. I'm going to use my 15 millimeter ratchet wrench and a short Allen 4 millimeter Allen wrench.
Now 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. Kind of set that against the floor, and I'll take a one and one quarter socket and a torque wrench. I'm going to torque this axle nut to 221 foot-pounds. Be careful when 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.
Thanks for watching. If you want the parts to do it yourself, check out 1aauto.com, the place for DIY auto repair.
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