How to replace the lower control arm assembly on a 2010-2014 Ford Taurus. Other years may be similar. Sway Bar End Link Replacement video: • 2010-2014 Taurus Sway ...
Absolutely a great video. Really shows some of the struggles there are with working on cars. No sugar coating or anything. It does suck sometimes. You sir just gained a sub.
You’re the man!! When I saw you had a video on this, I was like “YES” lol. The balljoint on mine really put up a good fight, had to buy 2 different pairs of vise grips to get it done
Those ball joints, anymore I just remove the whole knuckle and cut them off with an angle grinder. It tends to be faster, surprisingly. If you're curious, I recently posted a video of this job on an Explorer where I removed the knuckle, and it's basically the exact same procedure as the Taurus.
Thank you! This one had around 200k on it. I replaced the water pump on this exact car about a year and 15k miles prior to this. I do have a video on how to do that as well, and another, hopefully better, video coming in the next few weeks. Going to be doing a water pump on an Explorer soon, which is pretty much exactly the same since the Taurus and Explorer of this year range are built on the same platform.
Love your style man...this is real world and real frustration...im a wrench throwing C word slinging animal when crap like this happens (pretty much every project lol) Well done.
I appreciate it! I try to keep my videos realistic. Too many "how to" videos out there make things look significantly easier than they really are, which could get an inexperienced person into trouble. I also make an attempt at some entertainment value as well, since most videos in this category are rather dry and boring.
Thank you! I probably did hurt myself at some point during this job, happens on pretty much every job so I don't even pay attention to it anymore. I typically measure jobs not in work done, but blood lost. Nothing catastrophic though so that's always good.
I like to keep it real in my videos 🤣 Mechanic work isn't always as easy as a lot of how to videos make it look. While filming my 7.3 Power Stroke oil cooler reseal video, I knocked a container of oil on the floor, and the test rig I set up to pressure test it blew apart. I decided to leave those in there 🤣
9:45, if you forget to measure how far hub to fender, just grab a vertical leveler and a jack and make sure the rotors are leveled so they're sitting straight up and angled.
Absolutely. I actually do my best work after a few beers. There is this perfect point I hit where I get really good ideas and a bunch more ambition, and that's not the alcohol talking, I have numerous witnesses. As long as I maintain that perfect little buzz, everything goes good. Drink too slow or too fast, and it all goes to hell.
Are these moog arms or are they made by parts avatar? I’ve just replaced all suspension components on my 2015 taurus SEL, except for front control arms & corresponding bushings. I’m trying to buy control arms that include a grease fitting for the ball joint
Just had my front lower control arms replaced on 07 taurus, and now a few months later the driver side control arm is popping like a drumset when i turn right at slow speeds. My mechanic is saying its a bad part. I get a really bad feeling from the guy, though. I feel like he installed it wrong to punish me for buying my own parts and not paying him triple the retail price for parts.
Are you sure it’s not a CV axle going out?? They like to pop repeatedly when going out…granted mine is a 2015, I have a singular popping sound from from front ball joints needing replaced, but it only occurs when I go from drive to reverse, and it’s a one time pop..if it were popping multiple times. I’d be looking at the CV’s…although if you’ve for sure verified that it’s your control arm…he would have had to do something really dumb..like insufficiently torquing the c-arm bushing hardware. And or, torquing the control arm bushings down when suspension is at full droop/unloaded.
@Crabtronics yeah i had another mechanic look at it while he was doing some other work, he said its the control arm. I thought it might be CV as well so i squirt some grease on the control arm bushing thats clicking and it stopped for a few days. I dont think he did something stupid. I think he did something malicious. He wanted me to pay 750 for control arms for a 2007 taurus, just for the parts. When I bought my own for 150$ I could tell he felt contempt for me. I need to just go to a different mechanic but hes the closest to my home unfortunately.
Nice my ratcheting wrenches will make quick work of taking off that ball joint nut. I have a feeling I’ll be getting the same control arms tho from partsavatar…
Best of luck to you. If you start having issues with that nut like I did in this video, I have a different video of this same job on an Explorer, which is nearly identical, where I went about the process in a different manner.
@@darkhorseautoanddiesel thanks buddy. I did the front suspension on the Taurus X we have a couple years ago. So I basically had the control arm off just didn’t touch the ball joint nut. We’ll see how it goes. Hopefully it works out. Should be easier than the new coil over assembly I did. That was a lot of small things making a simple job 5hrs for 1 side lol. Other side was done in like an hour and a half tho.
I like it. It's pretty powerful. Usually any fastener 1/2" diameter or smaller will get twisted off if it won't break loose. The price was right too, free. I cash in my credit card rewards for Lowes gift cards, so I rarely pay for anything there 🤣 My only real complaint with it is its weight. It's definitely got some mass to it. For short periods of use it's not a big deal, but I wouldn't wanna use it for extended periods of time.
@@darkhorseautoanddiesel, The only reason I haven't grabbed on to throw in a toolbox for road trips is the heft. I have the smaller version and it does well most of the time, but a few times I have needed to throw a good pry bar/cheater bar combo on a bolt. lol
Ugh they said i have to have all 4 of mine replaced. I am not looking forward to it. If only i had a car lift. Also to show someone that they need to be replaced am i able to just lift up a side ans wiggle the tire while its parked?
It should be extremely similar, close enough that you should be able to figure it out. You'll have to check torque specs though as they likely are different.
I would have loved to use a ratchet there. Unfortunately it won't fit. The clearance between the top of the stud and the axle shaft is too small to get one in there.
🤣 it wasn't actually 8 hours, more like 1.5, but the threads were a bit rusty, and the nut got stuck, bad. I had to use a nut splitter and destroy it to get it off.
Mine literally turned into a 6 delay on this one nut...vice grips wouldn't hold it no matter how tight. Had to use a grinder on the bottoms to get enough grip to hold it. About to start the other side, hope I find a better way this time.
If Ford was smart is a joke, very poorly engineered IMO. I had a hell of a time getting this thing off in Wisconsin where rust is a big issue. The nut on the ball joint was a bitch, the 11mm top of the bolt stripped almost immediately…..uuugghh !! Also 18mm long bolt didn’t want to come off either 1/2 Milwaukee cordless impact would not budge it, it was not a fun job and both control arms were absolutely trashed basically the largest rubber bushings were just plain gone after just over 100,000 miles 😮.
I feel your pain. I have this car and the sway bar link bolt on the bottom would not come loose after replacing the shock. So I grabbing a hog nose and cut that bitch flush so I could drive it. And fart was on point. Chefs kiss
I started laughing when the grease zerk broke my daughter was asking what was so funny. I told her you have to work on vehicles to understand
Absolutely a great video. Really shows some of the struggles there are with working on cars. No sugar coating or anything. It does suck sometimes. You sir just gained a sub.
I appreciate the compliments and the sub!
That's probably the hardest I've ever laughed over a DYI mechanic video.😄
🤣 I try to add some entertainment value to all my videos, since this does tend to be a dry, boring category. Seems I'm accomplishing that goal. 🤣
You’re the man!! When I saw you had a video on this, I was like “YES” lol. The balljoint on mine really put up a good fight, had to buy 2 different pairs of vise grips to get it done
Those ball joints, anymore I just remove the whole knuckle and cut them off with an angle grinder. It tends to be faster, surprisingly. If you're curious, I recently posted a video of this job on an Explorer where I removed the knuckle, and it's basically the exact same procedure as the Taurus.
@@darkhorseautoanddiesel Makes sense, I’ll check it out
in impressed by your work. Hoping i don’t have to do this to my taurus before the current water pump goes. Thanks for the vid
Thank you! This one had around 200k on it. I replaced the water pump on this exact car about a year and 15k miles prior to this. I do have a video on how to do that as well, and another, hopefully better, video coming in the next few weeks. Going to be doing a water pump on an Explorer soon, which is pretty much exactly the same since the Taurus and Explorer of this year range are built on the same platform.
little advice, before slipping in the control arm, use some cooking oil spray so it's easider to slide into it
Dish soap works wonders as well. I've used that many times.
He farted at 5:29
Love your style man...this is real world and real frustration...im a wrench throwing C word slinging animal when crap like this happens (pretty much every project lol) Well done.
I appreciate it! I try to keep my videos realistic. Too many "how to" videos out there make things look significantly easier than they really are, which could get an inexperienced person into trouble. I also make an attempt at some entertainment value as well, since most videos in this category are rather dry and boring.
@12:41 Not bad manners….Its Just good beer 🍺
Good job and working on cars any mechanic know s*** happens it's just good that you didn't hurt yourself...
Thank you! I probably did hurt myself at some point during this job, happens on pretty much every job so I don't even pay attention to it anymore. I typically measure jobs not in work done, but blood lost. Nothing catastrophic though so that's always good.
11:10 word of advice, add 10% extra torque to it when you use angle sockets adapter
I'd say that's pretty accurate. Even if 10% added goes over the specified torque, even the spec has a tolerance, and 10% is within that.
you could measure from bottom of rotor to the floor, and then raise it using a jack, to the same height
That's how I'd normally do it if I had the initial measurement.
Great job know that's how it really goes u show the full job 😅😅😅😅
I like to keep it real in my videos 🤣 Mechanic work isn't always as easy as a lot of how to videos make it look. While filming my 7.3 Power Stroke oil cooler reseal video, I knocked a container of oil on the floor, and the test rig I set up to pressure test it blew apart. I decided to leave those in there 🤣
9:45, if you forget to measure how far hub to fender, just grab a vertical leveler and a jack and make sure the rotors are leveled so they're sitting straight up and angled.
Excellent video, thanks
You're welcome, glad I could help!
A cold one always goes with working on cars
Absolutely. I actually do my best work after a few beers. There is this perfect point I hit where I get really good ideas and a bunch more ambition, and that's not the alcohol talking, I have numerous witnesses. As long as I maintain that perfect little buzz, everything goes good. Drink too slow or too fast, and it all goes to hell.
Are these moog arms or are they made by parts avatar? I’ve just replaced all suspension components on my 2015 taurus SEL, except for front control arms & corresponding bushings. I’m trying to buy control arms that include a grease fitting for the ball joint
I've never heard of parts avatar. I got this one from O'Reilly. I think it was Precision brand.
Sounds Great to me!
Just had my front lower control arms replaced on 07 taurus, and now a few months later the driver side control arm is popping like a drumset when i turn right at slow speeds.
My mechanic is saying its a bad part. I get a really bad feeling from the guy, though. I feel like he installed it wrong to punish me for buying my own parts and not paying him triple the retail price for parts.
Yeah best to do those jobs by yourself if you can.
Are you sure it’s not a CV axle going out?? They like to pop repeatedly when going out…granted mine is a 2015, I have a singular popping sound from from front ball joints needing replaced, but it only occurs when I go from drive to reverse, and it’s a one time pop..if it were popping multiple times. I’d be looking at the CV’s…although if you’ve for sure verified that it’s your control arm…he would have had to do something really dumb..like insufficiently torquing the c-arm bushing hardware. And or, torquing the control arm bushings down when suspension is at full droop/unloaded.
@Crabtronics yeah i had another mechanic look at it while he was doing some other work, he said its the control arm. I thought it might be CV as well so i squirt some grease on the control arm bushing thats clicking and it stopped for a few days.
I dont think he did something stupid. I think he did something malicious. He wanted me to pay 750 for control arms for a 2007 taurus, just for the parts. When I bought my own for 150$ I could tell he felt contempt for me.
I need to just go to a different mechanic but hes the closest to my home unfortunately.
Nice my ratcheting wrenches will make quick work of taking off that ball joint nut.
I have a feeling I’ll be getting the same control arms tho from partsavatar…
Best of luck to you. If you start having issues with that nut like I did in this video, I have a different video of this same job on an Explorer, which is nearly identical, where I went about the process in a different manner.
@@darkhorseautoanddiesel thanks buddy. I did the front suspension on the Taurus X we have a couple years ago. So I basically had the control arm off just didn’t touch the ball joint nut. We’ll see how it goes. Hopefully it works out. Should be easier than the new coil over assembly I did. That was a lot of small things making a simple job 5hrs for 1 side lol. Other side was done in like an hour and a half tho.
So, off topic, but how well do you like the Kobalt Impact?
I like it. It's pretty powerful. Usually any fastener 1/2" diameter or smaller will get twisted off if it won't break loose. The price was right too, free. I cash in my credit card rewards for Lowes gift cards, so I rarely pay for anything there 🤣
My only real complaint with it is its weight. It's definitely got some mass to it. For short periods of use it's not a big deal, but I wouldn't wanna use it for extended periods of time.
@@darkhorseautoanddiesel, The only reason I haven't grabbed on to throw in a toolbox for road trips is the heft. I have the smaller version and it does well most of the time, but a few times I have needed to throw a good pry bar/cheater bar combo on a bolt. lol
Ugh they said i have to have all 4 of mine replaced. I am not looking forward to it. If only i had a car lift. Also to show someone that they need to be replaced am i able to just lift up a side ans wiggle the tire while its parked?
Thanks for good video
Me I know the brand of this part
I have Ford Taurus 2015 and I want replace front control arms
Glad it was helpful. I used the Precision brand from O'Reilly.
There’s a box end of the wrench….safer for cracking nuts and tightening.
And I prefer to use that end. However, if it is physically impossible to get the box end of a wrench on it...
Holy shit thank you
Would this work on 2018?
It should be extremely similar, close enough that you should be able to figure it out. You'll have to check torque specs though as they likely are different.
Yes
at 2:20 isn't it easier and faster if you used a ratchet, this will make it a lot faster and won't slip away?
I would have loved to use a ratchet there. Unfortunately it won't fit. The clearance between the top of the stud and the axle shaft is too small to get one in there.
what was the first issue from the nut off the ball joint @ 1:27 to a point you said it turned into an 8 hour project?
🤣 it wasn't actually 8 hours, more like 1.5, but the threads were a bit rusty, and the nut got stuck, bad. I had to use a nut splitter and destroy it to get it off.
Mine literally turned into a 6 delay on this one nut...vice grips wouldn't hold it no matter how tight. Had to use a grinder on the bottoms to get enough grip to hold it. About to start the other side, hope I find a better way this time.
I just use a angled die grinder with a 4" x 1/16" cutoff wheel , get the nut up some and cut the stud. done in 5 minutes
If Ford was smart is a joke, very poorly engineered IMO. I had a hell of a time getting this thing off in Wisconsin where rust is a big issue. The nut on the ball joint was a bitch, the 11mm top of the bolt stripped almost immediately…..uuugghh !! Also 18mm long bolt didn’t want to come off either 1/2 Milwaukee cordless impact would not budge it, it was not a fun job and both control arms were absolutely trashed basically the largest rubber bushings were just plain gone after just over 100,000 miles 😮.
What if i dont have a child to set on the hood XD
Then you are either smart, or just never get laid 😂😂😂
What were your symptoms?
Clunking sounds from the front end when hitting dips and bumps in the road, also the steering was wandering, especially under varied acceleration.
@darkhorseautoanddiesel mine doesn't clunk but I do get a slight jerking to the left or right when upshifting and downshifting in 5-6 gear.
I feel your pain. I have this car and the sway bar link bolt on the bottom would not come loose after replacing the shock. So I grabbing a hog nose and cut that bitch flush so I could drive it. And fart was on point. Chefs kiss