How to Replace Front Exhaust Seals 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 replace the front exhaust seals 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. Just push down on the connector and slide it out. Just going to take a pick, and try to get on the other end of the connector. Trying to slide the lock off first. There we go.

So, normally there's a little button. You 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. Just 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 backside 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.

All right, 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. I can slide this exhaust down. Slide this out and forward and pull it down. So, I have 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 off. 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. Looks pretty good.

Now 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. Just take a chisel and pop it the rest of the way through. Here we go. 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, go through just like that. When we put the exhaust up there's a little bit of corrosion right here. I'm just going to take a wire brush just to clean it up a little bit. Just make sure the sealing surface looks good. And a little bit off the top. Just make sure on this side it's clean as well. This really doesn't look too bad. Take the wire brush, just clean it up a little more. All right, I'm going to take this seal off right here. It's a donut seal. Make sure the new one looks like it's about the same size, which it looks good. So you could probably do this with the pipe in the car, but we're taking the pipe down to do the other seal as well.

Just take a screwdriver and a hammer and get behind the seal. You can use a chisel or a punch. And then just slide it off. This one's breaking apart as a take it off. There we go. All right, I got that off. I'm just going to clean it up a little bit with a die grinder, et some more of that exhaust seal off. You can always use a wire brush.

All right, that's all cleaned up. Now we'll just take the new donut seal and slide it on. It looks good. Make sure it fits all right. Then I'm going to clean this surface area. I am going to use a die grinder. You can use a wire brush, just clean it up. Just make sure there's no big metal deposits from the old seal.

This front one does not have a seal on it. It just goes metal onto the converter, so I'm just going to clean this up a little bit with the wire brush. Not too much, just make sure it looks pretty clean. It looks pretty good. I'm just going to slide this gasket right here. Some of the gaskets can actually be held on with the bolts and this one does not. So I'm just going to have to hold it there as I slide the exhaust pipe in. It's lined up. Slide this through here, and just slide the gasket on. Line that pipe up.

All right, so that looks good. Make sure the gasket's in there and then just make sure this is lined up up front just like that. I'm going to start with the nuts on here. Get that one started, let's get the back one started. I got new nuts for these. Get these buts 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 replaced yours they might be a different size. 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, so. Okay, so I'll tighten this up after.

Now we're going to come over here, tighten 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 if 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. You go back and forth. And it's down--just snug it up a little. Make sure you don't break anything. Looks good.

Going to plug in the 02 sensor and lock it in place.

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