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6 minute read
Hello,
Winter is ending and I wanted to share my how-to on how I inspect my vehicle every spring. My vehicle has only 34k, so hopefully everything is pretty tidy.
First, get your vehicle on a level surface. E-brake and or in gear, and put some “stops” on your wheels to prevent rolling.
Gather up all your needed tools. All I needed was a jack, stand, socket, wrench, breaker bar, torque wrench.
Start by locating your jack point and get it into position. Break all your lugs, so that they are easier to remove once the car is in the air. Start to jack up your vehicle and position your stand appropriately.
Use your socket to loosen the lugs all the way off. Remove wheel.
Now the wheel is off, it’s good to check if you have any nails, etc in your tires. This one looks good!
As well if you notice a lot of debris, or sticky stuff on the inside of your wheel, it may be good to inspect your cv boots and or just the whole assembly in general.
Brake pads still have some meat on them, and cv boots look good!
If you have a vehicle with higher mileage, it would be good to check you tie rods, ball joints, suspension and such while the wheel is off. This can really help you budget and understand what your vehicle needs.
Now that the assembly has been inspected, time to put the wheel back on. I start by hand tightening the lugs with the socket. Once the wheel is square and on tight, I then proceed with the socket wrench.
I then lower the car so it is about half the way down, with good pressure on the wheel and torque to spec. Ford recommends 100 foot pounds for lugs.
I then finish up by lowering all the way, and torquing again.
Moving onto the rear, same setup. Only difference is you may need to adjust which wheels get the “stops” as raising the end may change which wheels are on the ground.
Wheel and brakes look good but I found 1 worring suspect...
There is already some minor rust on my exhaust and rear control arm!!! As a full garage queen and meticulously maintaining this vehicle, this kinda pisses me off.
Follow the same process and put the wheel back on properly.
Now to the other side, same as before. I’m starting in the rear.
Pads and such look good!
All looks good! Time to tidy it back up.
On to the front, same as before inspected cv boots and such. All look good for now!
Thanks for checking out my thread! Look forward to checking all the fluids and I’ll be documenting that as well.