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So I know there's the video for the 2020 escapes for changing the transmission fluid but I wanted to do a video for bronco sports just cuz I found a few little differences.
Just a heads up, I am terrible at making videos and I really don't care that I am.
So for tools you probably want to take off your front driver tire unless you happen to have a lift now. I was able to do mine without putting on ramps or anything but I raised up my air suspension as far as it goes which is I think about equivalent to people with like a 1 or 1/2 in lift.
Now you really don't want to do it on ramps because because the car is supposed to be level and I think that's why I had a little bit of oil come out whenever I took off my leveling plug before I started draining it. I thought that I checked it, but there's a decent chance that it was off by a little bit
Now you need to verify this but mine took motorcraft automatic transmission fluid mercon ULV for ultra low viscosity. It's what most of the Ford transmissions take now. Be it the 8f57, 10r120s or whatever but just double check to make sure.
And again, you can't replace the filter without pulling the whole transmission and splitting the case. So I would recommend doing this every 30,000 miles and I think Ford recommends every 30,000 miles if you are towing or doing anything extreme duty anyways.
Also I put a picture of what my fluid looked like which is at just over 38,000 mi? And it's already got a brown tinge to it. And there was maybe a teeny tiny bit of sparkle. So there's no way this is lifetime fluid. No fluid is lifetime and I would say that this had just gone past the point of starting to be bad. Like I wish I changed it at 30k and I'll definitely be changing it every 30k from now on. But it was still definitely pretty red and clear still also. And I didn't notice any cocaine or metal buildup or anything like that.
Tools:
19mm socket and ratchet
T30 torx
13 mm socket
Flathead screwdriver
Pliers
10 mm hex drive
1 -ft ratchet extension
So the first thing to do is make sure that the car is up to temp and you've been driving around for a while and then I would say once you stop put your hood up to let it cool a little bit for when you get in the engine bay
Next, unless you're on a lift is to put your emergency parking brake on and Chock your rear tires and your front passenger tire
Then you want to take off the front driver side tire And remember to measure before you take it off so you can lower it back down to where it was so the car is level.
Then I would say go ahead and get your skid plate off. And to do this the first thing is to take off the four torx 30 bolts on the front of the plastic bumper that ties to the skid plate. Remember there's only four don't take off the other non-torx bolts on the front bumper you don't need to.
Then loosen the two rear bolts but don't take them all the way off about an eighth of an inch is fine, just a couple of turns That's with the 13 mm socket. Once those are loose end you can use your shoe or some paint cans or something to push up on the skid plate to loosen the bolts to take off the plate and then slide the skid plate out of the way.
Then you want to remove the two plastic screws in my video to undo the snorkel for the air intake.
Then you're going to want to get in the engine bay And first unplug the sensor in the intake tract and pull out the plastic screw and the clip that attaches The wire for that sensor to the lid of the air box. Then use your Flathead to loosen the clamp, holding the intake hose to the air box lid and unclip the air box and then move it out of the way along with the air filter.
Then you're going to gently pull up on the bottom of the air box until it comes out of the three rubber grommets. It takes a little Force but not a lot.
Now You should be able to see the vent tube which has a clamp on it similar to a radiator hose. Take your pliers it may seem like it's tight, but it's pretty easy and squeeze the two ends of the clamp together until they lock in place and then you can just gently pull the clamp off the transmission. There's a little like 1 in tall spout and that's where you're going to fill the transmission with fluid but not yet.
Next take your 10 mm hex drive and your extension and ratchet and you got to kind of slide it around the strut and the CV axle but it's easy to get it in there And just loosen it a couple turns. Don't take it all the way out yet or do just mine leaked a little bit which if it does that means your car is not level enough I assume.
And now you can put your drain pan under your car and take off the drain bolt and wait for the fluid to drain and it's going to take like 10 minutes to really stop dripping.
Now what I like to do before I put the drain bolt back in. It's pour a little fluid down it just to make sure I got the right bolt and also sometimes it can help flush stuff out but I noticed with this one when I poured it in it just came immediately out the bottom and I don't think that really did much.
Then put the drain bolt back in and you can put your funnel on the inlet and start filling it. And as you get past the third bottle I would say slow down, pour some and check the leveling hole but it should take pretty much 5 quarts.
Once it's full and the leveling hole starts leaking, stop wait a few minutes for it to stop leaking. Clean it up And then pour some more just to make sure that it actually got in all the crevices and doesn't want to take a little more fluid and I'll do that like three times assuming you still have more fluid to put in.
And then you can put the leveling bolt back in and put the vent tube back on. And to unclip that clamp just squeeze the ends tight and let go and it'll pop out. It might take a few tries but it'll pop out. You don't have to get in there with a screwdriver or do anything crazy.
At this point, once it's sealed up if you feel comfortable doing so you could start the engine and check for leaks. But honestly it's not that big of a deal. I would just say put everything back together first and then do that. It's too easy to accidentally put it in drive or even just step in the car. Too hard and maybe the Jack moves or who knows what and bad things happen.
When I did mine I got I didn't get to really measure it cuz I spilled some but I would say almost exactly 5 quarts came out of mine.
And if you're like me and you made a mess of oil, what I would say is don't clean it up yet. Put your car back together back it up a couple feet so you're not reaching under your car and then you can easily clean it without your car in the way.
Here's A link to my terrible video. Hopefully this helps.
Just a heads up, I am terrible at making videos and I really don't care that I am.
So for tools you probably want to take off your front driver tire unless you happen to have a lift now. I was able to do mine without putting on ramps or anything but I raised up my air suspension as far as it goes which is I think about equivalent to people with like a 1 or 1/2 in lift.
Now you really don't want to do it on ramps because because the car is supposed to be level and I think that's why I had a little bit of oil come out whenever I took off my leveling plug before I started draining it. I thought that I checked it, but there's a decent chance that it was off by a little bit
Now you need to verify this but mine took motorcraft automatic transmission fluid mercon ULV for ultra low viscosity. It's what most of the Ford transmissions take now. Be it the 8f57, 10r120s or whatever but just double check to make sure.
And again, you can't replace the filter without pulling the whole transmission and splitting the case. So I would recommend doing this every 30,000 miles and I think Ford recommends every 30,000 miles if you are towing or doing anything extreme duty anyways.
Also I put a picture of what my fluid looked like which is at just over 38,000 mi? And it's already got a brown tinge to it. And there was maybe a teeny tiny bit of sparkle. So there's no way this is lifetime fluid. No fluid is lifetime and I would say that this had just gone past the point of starting to be bad. Like I wish I changed it at 30k and I'll definitely be changing it every 30k from now on. But it was still definitely pretty red and clear still also. And I didn't notice any cocaine or metal buildup or anything like that.
Tools:
19mm socket and ratchet
T30 torx
13 mm socket
Flathead screwdriver
Pliers
10 mm hex drive
1 -ft ratchet extension
So the first thing to do is make sure that the car is up to temp and you've been driving around for a while and then I would say once you stop put your hood up to let it cool a little bit for when you get in the engine bay
Next, unless you're on a lift is to put your emergency parking brake on and Chock your rear tires and your front passenger tire
Then you want to take off the front driver side tire And remember to measure before you take it off so you can lower it back down to where it was so the car is level.
Then I would say go ahead and get your skid plate off. And to do this the first thing is to take off the four torx 30 bolts on the front of the plastic bumper that ties to the skid plate. Remember there's only four don't take off the other non-torx bolts on the front bumper you don't need to.
Then loosen the two rear bolts but don't take them all the way off about an eighth of an inch is fine, just a couple of turns That's with the 13 mm socket. Once those are loose end you can use your shoe or some paint cans or something to push up on the skid plate to loosen the bolts to take off the plate and then slide the skid plate out of the way.
Then you want to remove the two plastic screws in my video to undo the snorkel for the air intake.
Then you're going to want to get in the engine bay And first unplug the sensor in the intake tract and pull out the plastic screw and the clip that attaches The wire for that sensor to the lid of the air box. Then use your Flathead to loosen the clamp, holding the intake hose to the air box lid and unclip the air box and then move it out of the way along with the air filter.
Then you're going to gently pull up on the bottom of the air box until it comes out of the three rubber grommets. It takes a little Force but not a lot.
Now You should be able to see the vent tube which has a clamp on it similar to a radiator hose. Take your pliers it may seem like it's tight, but it's pretty easy and squeeze the two ends of the clamp together until they lock in place and then you can just gently pull the clamp off the transmission. There's a little like 1 in tall spout and that's where you're going to fill the transmission with fluid but not yet.
Next take your 10 mm hex drive and your extension and ratchet and you got to kind of slide it around the strut and the CV axle but it's easy to get it in there And just loosen it a couple turns. Don't take it all the way out yet or do just mine leaked a little bit which if it does that means your car is not level enough I assume.
And now you can put your drain pan under your car and take off the drain bolt and wait for the fluid to drain and it's going to take like 10 minutes to really stop dripping.
Now what I like to do before I put the drain bolt back in. It's pour a little fluid down it just to make sure I got the right bolt and also sometimes it can help flush stuff out but I noticed with this one when I poured it in it just came immediately out the bottom and I don't think that really did much.
Then put the drain bolt back in and you can put your funnel on the inlet and start filling it. And as you get past the third bottle I would say slow down, pour some and check the leveling hole but it should take pretty much 5 quarts.
Once it's full and the leveling hole starts leaking, stop wait a few minutes for it to stop leaking. Clean it up And then pour some more just to make sure that it actually got in all the crevices and doesn't want to take a little more fluid and I'll do that like three times assuming you still have more fluid to put in.
And then you can put the leveling bolt back in and put the vent tube back on. And to unclip that clamp just squeeze the ends tight and let go and it'll pop out. It might take a few tries but it'll pop out. You don't have to get in there with a screwdriver or do anything crazy.
At this point, once it's sealed up if you feel comfortable doing so you could start the engine and check for leaks. But honestly it's not that big of a deal. I would just say put everything back together first and then do that. It's too easy to accidentally put it in drive or even just step in the car. Too hard and maybe the Jack moves or who knows what and bad things happen.
When I did mine I got I didn't get to really measure it cuz I spilled some but I would say almost exactly 5 quarts came out of mine.
And if you're like me and you made a mess of oil, what I would say is don't clean it up yet. Put your car back together back it up a couple feet so you're not reaching under your car and then you can easily clean it without your car in the way.
Here's A link to my terrible video. Hopefully this helps.
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