In this video I bring you along as I swap out the exhaust system on this 2015 Ford Escape. I do the intermediate pipe, the resonator and the muffler. Not a bad job but you definitely want to do this one on a lift.
-Enjoy!
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-Enjoy!
If an SMA Video has helped you out please consider giving using "Patreon" to help support us. The videos take real time to create and pull us away from real work that pays our bills. CLICK HERE: https://www.patreon.com/southmainauto
CHECK OUT OUR "SMA SWAG" STORE! Go on Teespring and get your very own SMA merch!
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If you don't like Patreon feel free to use the "PayPal Me" link: https://www.paypal.me/SouthMainAuto
The South Main Auto Amazon Store:
https://www.amazon.com/shop/southmainautorepairavoca
AES Wave Automotive Diagnostic Tools: https://www.aeswave.com/cart.php?m=affiliate_go&affiliateID=2525b91fc8e906e8215984074c9d9e8f&go=https://www.aeswave.com/Miscellaneous-p9347.html
Thank you for all the continuing support!
--Eric & Vanessa O.
Feel like sending some swag to SMA because you love the videos but don't know where to send it?
Just ship it here:
South Main Auto Repair
47 S. Main St
PO Box 471
Avoca, NY 14809
Disclaimer:
Due to factors beyond the control of South Main Auto Repair, it cannot guarantee against unauthorized modifications of this information, or improper use of this information. South Main Auto Repair assumes no liability for property damage or injury incurred as a result of any of the information contained in this video. South Main Auto Repair recommends safe practices when working with power tools, automotive lifts, lifting tools, jack stands, electrical equipment, blunt instruments, chemicals, lubricants, or any other tools or equipment seen or implied in this video. Due to factors beyond the control of South Main Auto Repair, no information contained in this video shall create any express or implied warranty or guarantee of any particular result. Any injury, damage or loss that may result from improper use of these tools, equipment, or the information contained.
Thank you! What do we have here folks? 2015 Ford Escape Oh, she's a little snug through here today. 125 6, 30. and this one needs an exhaust man. So we've got the system from the flex pipe back here.
So from this flange back, I guess is getting replaced. meters rotted out, something dried out down here I didn't look at it so I'm not sure. but I'll take your chopped off and get the new one in. I've got our pile of Parts over there on the ground folks.
Looks like we have the right stuff now. This system from the factory is all welded. It's all one piece. To get it out, you'd have to drop the rear cradle.
which we're not going to do. we're just going to take the torch and chop it off. And with that being said, I get questioned a lot. Uh, on the cutting torch.
Why I Why do I use a torch? You know you're better off with a grinder. You're better off with a cut off wheel. You should use the Sawzall You should, you know, chew it off with your teeth. you know? which.
I don't really understand. Um, but some people will comment to the point where they talk about. you know, how do you dare get that close to the gas tanks? How are you there? Get that close to the gas lines, you know, so on and so forth. which I guess could be a legitimate concern.
Um, if you've never run a torch, maybe there's some intimidation of of using a cutting torch. I don't really know. Um I can tell you this: I've been doing this for over 20 years and almost daily have a cutting torch underneath the car. and I've never cut through a gas tank or a gas line.
so I'm not sure I'll tell you there if you're using torch control yourself I guess don't stick it in the gas tank and don't cut the gas line? I'm not sure. Uh, there are some cases where uh, like say for example up here, like on these, uh, hangers where I'm not gonna go through and cut them because they're they're obviously stainless. this pipe to some sort of alloy but has a fair amount of iron content in it so it will still oxidize. We still can use the cutting torch.
Um, but if I Let's say for example, if I had to cut these hangers, yeah, I'm going to use a cut off wheel just because they're stainless and you know the torch doesn't work if it can oxidize the metal. So that's that's that. That's why I use a torch because because I do and anybody in the Northeast that works in a shop would would tend to agree with me, a torch is our number one tool. Foreign, Foreign.
What's up? Thank you thank you. Come on thank you. So this heat shield here is all rotted away. Um I'm gonna try to get these These Nuts Try to get them loose and we'll maybe shove a fender washer behind them.
At least get a couple of them loose. I Don't know. She's pretty well whittled away if it was my car and not a customers. I Would just throw that thing in the trash.
Um, but there's that little thing called liability and people are so so happy nowadays. You do something like that and get you. The Hanger There is looking pretty rough made out of aluminum aluminum here in the People's Republic in New York This stuff disappears in salt just as fast as iron. I Don't know if there's really much of anything left to these. The nuts that go on there I think are just like a tin. uh, you know, bucket not I think they call it. remember the technical name form. Let's see here.
negative on that one. That one came out. Yeah. See, they're just.
uh, empty piece of tin. You know, just like a punched stamp nut. I guess I'm using a Rbrt socket so we hopefully get a bite on at least a couple of these. Not on that one.
All right, we got a bite on that one. Sometimes they just do this where they just dissolve. You know the we'll see I think I screwed up my sequencing of turning the camera on and off if I did. If I didn't this is the repeat.
but we put a fender washer behind there and uh, put two of them back in. We were able to get three of these things off and I did another one up front there. but I think I screwed up on my camera I think I was recording when I wasn't supposed to and vice versa. So this is back up here.
Uh, this? these cars. these uh yeah focuses, these escapes and stuff are covered with this thing. front, rear and like I say the Northeast. These things just disappear.
Uh, the salt and the aluminum and the metal. just they don't work well together. It would be nice to have a third one here, but these studs are pretty much. they're just nothing left to them.
So here's what it is. It's better than it was. You can see the heat shields up front here aren't long for the world either. They're getting all rotted away, but you have the aluminum and steel.
Doesn't get along too good with each other. Uh, let's get a cleaner here that's with you. Wheel that up a little bit, get that clean, and then we'll start putting these pipes in. Um, I Don't know why they put such a big flange on that.
you know what I mean in comparison to this one. I mean that's the way the OEM was too. but man, that's a big old sucker. I might have grabbed the wrong size bolts here.
I've looked at this one. thought 7 16 would fit. this one's all the way down there. maybe 3, 8, or 10 millimeter.
Then we'll just run a drill through there. Okay there. I Ran a Uh I just ran a 7 16 drill through those holes. They were pretty close to 7 16 as it was gonna run a bolt through this one.
I Just got some 7 16 by inch and a half. Bolts From upstairs there we've got our gasket. stick that on there. We'll stick this baby on here.
Should have went one size bigger fella. I've got to get a Uh 5 8 ratchet wrench. We'll run those through. We'll stick the nuts on here.
snug that up. That's it. We got a 5, 8 and an 11 16. that's that.
so that should be good. Let's grab our clamps and get the intermediate plate put in. So these are the clamps that we're using on this one. That's what it calls for. We'll just stick that guy. Hopefully we can leave him off to the side so they're not hanging way down so we'll leave that right there. Uh, let me get the intermediate pipe. We're just going to stick that there.
Loosely Let's get the muffler and get that hung up there also. All right. Freaking aftermarket. Of course this hanger on this side.
It's not even in the ballpark, all right, just trying to get it all bent and tweaked where I think it should be. That's the problem was when this goes through 15 different hands to get here by the time it gets dropped half a dozen times. Yeah, we're counting on it being where it needs to be. Let's kind of stick that about where it looks good.
Make sure that gaps look good. That looks good. Now with this style clamp, your pipes don't slide over top of each other. Okay, they're just butted.
We'll say like this, All right. So we're going to take. we're gonna kind of get everything. We're going to get it kind of roughed in.
We're going to start snugging up this clamp a little bit, just enough to lightly hold it I Want to kind of raise stuff up where it's going to be and then what we want to do. Probably what we should have done is I want to Mark the pipe. So I know that we have this clamp on about halfway each way if that makes sense to you. and same thing on this one should have thought of this ahead of time.
Fella inch and three quarter. Okay, it's right there. Okay, stick that back in your mouth I'll stick this up here. Okay, so now we know approximately right because this is three and a half, wasn't it? Yeah, that's three and a half of three and a half inch and three quarter.
I don't know half of it. Tip it like that to four and then make your mark. But anyhow, now we have a rough idea that will be in the middle so very lightly snug that we're gonna push that one in. Push push push.
hey. Miss Though remember that day never ends. Some of our long time viewers know what I'm referencing I'd say that's missing though. Let's uh, move you guys here.
Straighten that up so it's nice and flat. We're in inch and three quarter on each side. I'm gonna snug it up just a little bit more. What are you doing out here Old girl? Oh, all right, so let's take this thing loose here.
I Already marked our pipe inch and three quarter on this one on both because we're using the same kind of clamp. see if we can't get her slipped on. Yeah, there we go. And then we're going to kind of adjust it in our hanger to get these pipes to line up.
Let me. uh. I'm gonna move the camera here, folks. Foreign.
Get that two squared away tweaking around up here just a little bit. I Did loosen up our front clamp there just a little bit more I Just want to get our opening here as close as possible. Things around that looks pretty good. Okay, let's go snug that front one up a little more. just slid out a little bit. tighten that side up a little bit. I Don't know. Oh, there we go.
Well, it gives it just enough friction. It holds itself. Beautiful. Foreign.
all right there. Fancy. Check your nose. What kind of wiener do you want? Yeah, what kind of wiener do you want? This is all.
I got a variety. Oh baby, what do we got? I Don't usually don't let me eat garbage. Well, these are these are from your uh, super customer. Um, um, let's try these ones because she brought the meats.
The famous meat sauce right? Well, you want one? white? one red? That's correct. Wiener? Yes, Ma'am and not a German Arena Okay, okay, you're good sports though. All right, there's that. Bye Kitty Do you know it's lunch time? Is that why you came back? You hungry? huh? You want in? You wanna go get a snack that's nutrients today? Yeah.
Come here. Sit. Hey. come over here.
Come here. Kitty Kitty Kitty kitty kitty. Come here. Hey you wanna treat? Sit down.
No. you can't roll back. Come here. You gotta set first set.
Shake Nope you guys. Shake Pick Oh good girl. I got the camera. Now that's it.
Shake Yeah. both hands. double ball. Oh good girl.
Okay, and there's our finished product with the jumbo flange. If anybody knows the purpose of that flange being that large. Uh, let me know because I don't even have a guess. To be honest with you, the original one really wasn't rotted away.
It was thick and Hefty like that one. Not real sure these clamps actually work. Pretty good folks. We've used them on a number of vehicles over the Style exhaust.
Never really seen a leak or come apart I think these are actually stainless so the rest of the exhaust being Walker will rot out here in the next, you know, years. So, but this is what it is to do that or spend the thousands for a factory exhaust. Most people won't do that. Do what are you talking about? You smoked them.
You don't like them like that. What happened? you're usually feel good I didn't know I don't cook a lot of wieners. Yeah boy, there's so many wiener jokes I can make right now but we're not gonna okay. yeah, we're gonna keep this rated.
G ish Yeah, all right. I'll be ready. You have the famous meat sauce. That's what we're supposed to be trying out today.
Yeah, okay, all right. I Gotta close this video out. Wow. you really scorched those.
It's not even that hot. Before we take this off, we should see what it sounds like I'm sure it's quiet. Oh waymo game in here running now. All right.
I Guess you'll be happy with it. 125 000.60 Well that's it folks. Exhaust on your Ford Escape I Had a lady in the other day with uh, the miniature version. whether ecosport, the little, the little tiny like economical version of this thing that needed exhaust that was I think I was a 19 or a 20. that was the newer one and it was over two thousand dollars. There was no aftermarket availability on it yet and to buy it right from Ford The center pipe was a thousand bucks. The muffler was a thousand bucks. It was insane.
Uh, what this girl had to pay uh to have the exhaust put on I Recommended to her that she go to a muffler shop that bends pipe. However, those places are far and few between here. Um, the only one left in Bath Guy doesn't really like doing much work there, so uh, it kind of put her in a hard spot I encourage her to find somebody who bends pipe that can you know to spend her up a new exhaust. but that's the way it is.
These factory exhaust systems are crazy money and as you see like on this they just don't last very long. You can buy five or six of these aftermarket Walker ones which around here about a year and a half to two years. absolute tops. This will all be you know, completely rotted off again.
So and I've tried a couple different brands unless you can buy a true full stainless steel one which they don't make for a lot of. you know, a lot of applications. This is what you're up against. The Walker stuff is is garbage I mean but it's all we can get so we do what we do with with what we have.
That's what I have available to me. So uh so that's that. Um, go down to the comment section. What's always got me all flustered over there? The reason we're eating hot dogs for lunch is.
uh. customer brought us in some of our homemade meat sauce guaranteeing yes it's the best so she says so. Yeah, we'll see. leave your best comment questions comments The Entity Facebook too And just remember if I can do it, you can do it.
Thanks for watching foreign.
I wish someone made quality non-performance mufflers/exhaust for the aftermarket, up here in the rust belt you are lucky to get three years out of a "lifetime" exhaust system. We have local guys that do 409 ss but its all custom work and costs almost as much as a dealer system.
I saw a guitar branded HONDO n said somebody should get Eric O. one of those ๐
Peopleโs Republic of New York๐
Can you prolong the life of the Walker exhausts by spray painting them?
Most shops have torches, few techs know how to use them
Love the "Don't be a doofus" speach referencing the use of cutting torches! ๐
Put a full turbo back exhaust on SS 3" high flow cat reso and muffler and it cost 2800$ ! Expensive but it worth the money.
Random question is there a reference either online or a book that will tell you how to jack up a car safely what points to use.
Why do they allow salt on the roads knowing the damage it does? Why not do it like normal places where they advise you to buy a winter set of tires??
Walker is pure junk but all the AM systems are and up where you are, like you say, they donโt last longโฆseason or two
Fasteners nowadays-use cheap as possible-as few as possible.
I grew up working on cars in Michigan ,so yeah know all about the rust. I moved to Georgia over 20 years ago & my 15 year old vehicle still has the original exhaust. That's one thing nice about southern vehicles. You will never need a new exhaust unless you're changing the sound because its not going to rust that's for sure. Enjoyed the vid
I'm in Atlantic Canada. We're both passengers on the rust belt bus ๐
Cant believe you still get hate over the torch… Like you said, you use one everyday…. Ignore the people constantly questioning you over it… You're the professional here for sure….
I wish walker exhausts lasted longer than 2 years in ny. They are cheap enough too keep replacing though.
Maybe the big flange provides enough weight, down low to prevent rollover.
The people that tell you not use a torch are the people that can't even use a Bic lighter !๐
Walker is trash, but somehow I'm on year 4 on this exhaust. Good advice on getting one made, that's my next one
But in NJ my old rabbit gti ate exhausts ansa was1 year.. other just a few had it 10 years..
My 2003 corolla parked outside still has perfect exhaust. whats rust
What about a rattle can of high temp paint?
OMG Eric, why would you use a cutting torch when you could use a butter knife!! lmao
I worked at a custom exhaust shop for 10 years back in the day and the tourch was the only thing i used to cut with.
Have you tried the OEM parts websites? The exhausts are MUCH MUCH cheaper than a dealer
That's my thing I like to hear my vehicle I hate twin my vehicle is quiet
When I lived in the northeast I remember we had 2 torches in our 8 bay shop that were in daily use, Iโve lived in Georgia for almost 15 years now and I typically wonโt touch the torch for maybe once every 6 months
these escapes have the worst interior design ever.
Torch is the best method but a good sawzall with an even better blade is a close second. Its all about the blades and using a proper old-school sawzall with a short stroke and without orbital cutting.
No followup video on the meat sauce?! Come on…
Tip: for rusted studs with very little threads left, wrap some steel wool clockwise around the stud smeared with locotite and spin the nut on. Works on bolts too. Obviously for none critical fasters, like a heat shield.
Weiner or sausage?
Just gotta keep the 'fireaxe' away from gas fumes.
More chrome tips?! Turnin' into a regular hot rod shop!
Hi Eric, Great video as usual! About the lady with the Ecosport, can you get an exhaust from one of your friends salvage yard down south?
Great video. I would like to see the fix. Ive worked on the enclaves and believe its one of the most unservicable vehicles ever produced.
We call a torch a 'FLAME WRENCH' where I come from in Michigan.
Only question I have…how the flip did you train your cat?? I know you can train a dog; but I have a few cats that could use some major training…
almost incomprehensible to me replacing exhaust on 19 or 20 model year car. Hell, most of the junkyard cars here have really nice pipes still.
I live in North Carolina I love using a cutting torch to the point sometimes I just cut stuff just to cut stuff but in my defense most of what I work on is garage trucks so u really don't want to go touching some things if u don't have to
Vibration
That is sad that there are no aftermarket options for the girl with the EcoSport. Deming's Auto in Lindley still fabricates exhaust systems – FYI.
Anyone who's a wrench from the salt belt knows the blue flame ratchet is indispensable ..just sayin
I'm still amazed how fast cars rust out back east…..I can see a torch is VERY important tool…
Good video Eric. I have a tip about Keith exhaust system a little longer. When, I goto the car wash. I use the hand spray. I wash the underneath while the car still hot to wash the dirt off the exhaust system and rest of the underneath.
From a dealership automotive tech to an awesome shop tech/owner. Top notch diagnostic job ol son,and excellent job breaking it down for the viewers. ๐๐ป
Great exhaust install as always Eric O @South Main Auto Repair LLC
Man, I do not envy the rust you have to deal with. *whew* I'm spoiled, having lived in the South (and not near any oceans) my whole life.
I guess the same people would never use a welder under a car either! A cutoff wheel creates sparks as well. Man this job is a cakewalk compared to the window regulator job.