came with new parts to put in strut and subframe
Ide been looking for new way to get extra fuel economy and found these to get double any of the vehicles I’ve owned before. 32 MPG which is roughly 700 KM per 60L tank, or 568 km per 50 dollars at a buck a L(recent road tests reveal even better econemy than that 40-45mpg on gravel road at 80km/h). Compared to my 2011 F-150 3.7L 15MPG truck that gets 333 km per 50L, tires are slightly larger than normal it used to get 23 MPG
Found this unit on Kijiji for 1,300 dollars CDN I’de offered 1000 and paid 500 to reserve it due to not having a trailer for the weekend. Basically what happened is the previous owner had hit a curbe or barrier with the front wheel shoving it back ripping the subframe and bending control arm and strut. Had all the parts ready 300 worth to go into the car. The car was a bit tricky to move due to the damage, had enough play to get it turned from driveway to street before the CV Axel popped out ripping the boot causing the AWD to no longer function.
Had to goto Princess Auto and get a come-along luckily they had a nice 4 ton on sale for 50 dollars. Was tired after but the first half was the only hard part with flat tire had to take the air out to move it. 280,000KM on it already, I’ve seen these commonly get around 600,000 km, pretty sure most electric vehicles these days are road tested to million miles for durability tests.
This is what the damage looked like behind the wheel. Subframe is bent and so was the bolt also the linkage for sway bar was also broke on one side.
process used sofar.
Updates
I ordered new fender for 80 dollars and the previous owner already had the matching paint for it..
Old subframe is out and new one is primed and ready to go in.
If your going to be doing something like this be sure to have people looking in on you while working to make sure your not trapped. Its pretty easy job for one person once you get the exhaust apart but you’ll need 2 or 3 days for it unless you dont mind working while sore.
Day 2
- Was not so easy as getting it out, had to grind the muffler bolts off the outside and dremmel the inner one to get new subframe in. still unsure how to get the pressed in parts out maybe dremmel cross cut and pound or drill and pound
- Everything bolted back up ok I do recommend you have a bunch of long extensions and a swivel + swivel ratchet head.
- Part# .W500749.S439 – $20.98 each Subframe bolt
- Part# MEF.200 – $82.28 each Swaybar link
- Part# .W708990.S440 – $4.32 each Nuts for swaybar link (recommend changing)
- Tripod joint would have been nice to buy but ford does not sell them so whole cv joint needs to be ordered. very odd
- New CV axle was 140 on ebay $260 CDN new
Day 3
- The control arm rubbers are very tight and need to be lowered to the ground before inserting back rubber mounts is my guess, i installed front bolt and will attempt this tomorrow.
- Put strut in and connected all the parts, the rotor is rusty so the old brake pads did not fit on with park brake engaged.
- Remember to connect the sway bars links last on both sides because it can make problems assembling the control arms while suspended in air might even need to remove second wheel after getting rear control arm in after lowering and connect sway link.
- Ordered parts
Day 4
- Parts arrive from ford next day service will assemble and unload off trailer and wait for fender and cv axle to arrive.
- Trick to getting rear control arms in was to get the bolts in place while its up then let it down and hit with crowbar till it goes up also hitting the bolt head while being near ready to go in with hammer works good too while hitting it up too because the tip is pointy.
- Trick to getting bolts out of muffler would probably be plasma cutter for the rusted in pressed in part or a truck lift where you can get decent swing/ have herd airhammer would work too.
Day 5
- Sprayed fenderwalls that had a bit of rust on them with rockgaurd from canadian tire. also did the hood aswell. pictures soon.
Day 6
- Pulled the drivers seat out only to put it back in after finding proper burnt fuse.
- Pulled the back cushons out and hybrid battery, then sprayed inside with lemon juice, pressure washed it then baking soda water then pressure washed, you could see stuff comming out of the seats that was a white soap color / texture after using baking soda. Built myself a WetVac with a 2.5 gal pail from Canadian tire pail and regular vacuum cleaner.
- Found out OEM airfilter is 50 dollars for battery air intake , so i may try to clean existing one with lemon then baking soda then soap. overpriced for small paper filter that should be changed yearly IMO.
2 days of drying has passed and the floor is still wet so you may want to use a fan to keep air blowing on the floors also maybe use some junk towels to help soak and dry the floor.
Day 8
- Put the battery and rear seat cushons back in.
- Probably should have tried using soap with the lemon / baking soda but it seemed to have worked out ok anyway. The numb smell is bearable now and interior has very cozy feel to it unless you get it wet again.
- One of the rims had a chip in the rim wall so I had it welded up for $30 at local welding shop took 15 min prorated at $100 an hour. 2 min to get welder and grinder setup and 13 min to tig fill some ALU rod into the Ford Alloy wheels. weld came out very solid and has a nice ring to it when struck, fairly confident it will handle the thermal stresses no problem. It would have taken longer because usually they would preheat the rim before welding it but that was not necessary and it leaves the paint intact for the most part.
- The tires are hard to find used, I managed to find 2 for $30 dollars luckily on Kijiji.ca . Had seen 4 rims and tires for $80 not sure if they had proper bolt pattern though. Mustangs have same bolt pattern and rim size so you can use those aswell but the rubber is a bit larger 235/70r16 so you need to remount to get your fuel efficiency.
- Still stuck on exhaust manifold bolts to connect muffler, whoever designed it must not have known much about engineering exhaust systems (Chevy does not have this issue asfar as I know). The pressed in bolts are bound to rust in place and stay permanently with a little bit of heat also because its hot the nuts will be rusted on permanently aswell. would not recommend tackling this without a plasma cutter and if you have a brand new one replace the bolts before they rust in or you’ll have issue later. would say ford should have issued a recall for this issue aswell.
- Was able to get exhaust bolts out by grinding almost through and then welding some back up around gasket area with a bit of gasket seal its only good till 600F but it should hold.
TIPS
- Hardly has smell unless you go underneath it on the back side and it can cause eye irritation. watch when changing the rear battery filter, if the cover slips it will fall down underneath the battery, I used tape for now may try and 3d print another.
- ” To clean any leakage of the following battery types, Alkaline, NiCAD and NiMH batteries, use either one tablespoon of boric acid in one gallon of water or a mixture of equal amounts of diluted vinegar or lemon juice with water (50/50 ratio).” https://www.duracell.com/en-ca/help/faq/how-do-i-clean-up-after-a-battery-leak/
- Using baking soda to clean hands works good to get the numb smell off and burning sensation. Potassium Hydroxide is already a base so something like lemon juice is better then hit with diluted baking soda afterwards to neutralize the acidic that could form. I find drinking lemon juice helps if you have sinus burning sensation, also Ford does not have any cleaning procedure for these vehicles so I think a recall will eventually be issued. ( maybe they’ll clean it and replace battery with super capacitors(possibly hemp) that have safer electrolyte ) these cars would be awful for smokers as is without the proper cleaning shampoo.
- The issue I think is from the battery exhaust being vented underneath the vehicle and there being ways for exhaust to get back into the vehicle there was a black soot around the battery filter panels inside the vehicle looked like exhaust fumes.
- make a bush buggy, or turn it into a hybrid airplane with an existing aircraft frame.
- Air-conditioner radiator is prone to rock strikes so be sure to mesh screen the grill.
- 5L of oil was enough with a bit leftover to fill the CVT, had to take the top fender plastic bolts off to get at the plug, would suggest cutting a hole in the plastic to make future changes easier. It was Mercon LV synthetic transmission fluid from Ford for 10.50 per L. I found it easiest to park slightly downhill and use a floor jack to make it fairly level with parking brake on.
- 1L dot 3 brake fluid was 10 dollars.
- quick tests gave me a result of 40-45 mpg on gravel roads doing 80km/h
- steering wheel is out of wack wants to sit in the straight position where pump is not active off-kiltering the steering wheel about 45deg sometimes asmuch as 90 if i just let it go. would say that the rack and pinion may have skipped over eachother so a rebuild may be in order. luckily subframe does not need to be removed for this so likely I will likely take it to local ford shop or mechanic shop to get alignment possibly rebuild, kinda out of my experience range without asking around.
odd, amazon canceled the fender I ordered same day it was supposed to arrive. made me wait 2 weeks for that
even said with tracking number it was on its way here. “Although we’d expected to be able to send this item to you, we’ve since found it’s not available from any of our sources at this time. We realize this is disappointing news to receive, and we apologize for any inconvenience we’ve caused you. We’ve cancelled this item from your order.”
could have been the seller too trying to get part costs down without any parts
was quoted 666 for new bumper cover , 1350 for new rack and pinion, and 220 for new fender from Ford so I may be looking around for parts.
https://www.autoblog.com/2009/04/28/ford-fusion-hybrid-tops-80-mpg-1-000-miles-with-1-3-of-a-tank-l/
http://www.lkqcorp.com/en-us/locations/lkq-alberta-.aspx locally sourced part salvager they will pull the parts for you.
ended up selling it for 400 to a scrap recycler because i did not want to try leaving a new battery in it for a while after leaving it in the winter without starting for a few years. (would not boost start) the hydraulic bumper lift was neat it just grabbed the back tires and towed it with a hidden tow system for a pickup truck.
