How to Replace the Shocks and Struts in a Ford Taurus

Driving creates enormous amounts of wear and tear on your car. After about 60,000 miles of normal driving in your Ford Taurus, your ride will be bouncy, and you'll need to change your struts and shocks. New struts and shocks make the ride more comfortable, and they help keep the people riding in your car safe.

Instructions

Replace the Front Struts in a Taurus

1

Turn the car's ignition to the off position, but be careful not to move the steering wheel so the column stays unlocked. Pry the hubcap off, and remove the wheel hub retaining nut from the center of the outside of the wheel with a wrench. Open the hood, and loosen the three nuts directly on top of the wheel well, surrounding the hole where you can see the top of the shock tower. Don't remove the nuts.

2

Lift the front end of the car with a floor jack, and slide jack stands under the frame to support it. Find flat spaces under the front of the cab, behind the engine parts and under the car, for the jack stands. Use a tire iron to loosen and remove the nuts securing the wheel to the hub.

3

Use a ratchet to remove the nuts holding on the brake caliper, which grips the top of the wheel hub, and unbolt the rotor, which is the part that spins through the caliper. Don't let the caliper dangle from the brake hose. Support it with some wire. Disconnect the anti-lock brake sensor wiring harness from the bracket holding the brake hose to the strut. Recognize the strut as the assembly with a slim tube that slides in and out of a tube with a slightly larger girth, surrounded by a coil spring with hardware on either end.

4

Disconnect the cotter pin holding the tie rod end to the steering knuckle. The steering knuckle is the part behind the wheel hub that turns it when the steering wheel turns, and the tie rod end connects the steering knuckle to the wheel hub. Use a separator to pry them apart. Remove the nut connecting the stabilizer bar link to the strut. Remove the nut connecting the ball joint to the lower control arm, and separate them with a ball joint puller. At this point, you've removed almost the entire wheel assembly.

5

Compress the strut spring with a spring compressor until the ball joint has enough clearance to move away from the control arm. Disconnect the pinch nut and bolt on the bottom of the steering knuckle from the strut. Separate the wheel hub from the half-shaft, the axle on the front of a front-wheel-drive car, with the specialized separator and any required adapters. Support the half-shaft with wire so it doesn't hang from the upper joint. Remove the nuts you loosened earlier holding the strut assembly to the body of the car.

6

Pull the strut assembly out from the bottom of the car. Install the strut assembly with the new spring compressed with the compressor. Hand-tighten the nuts securing it to the wheel well, and add a new pinch bolt and nut as you attach the steering knuckle to the strut. Adjust the valve on the bottom of your torque wrench to 37 ft-lb, and tighten the nut until you feel the wrench give.

7

Reconnect the half-shaft to the wheel hub and the stabilizer bar to the strut assembly, using a new link stabilizer nut that you torque to 55 ft-lb. Use a new nut to connect the tie rod end to the steering knuckle, and torque it to 35 ft-lb. Torque the nut beyond that until the slot is in line with the stud on the tie rod end, and insert a new cotter pin. Reconnect the anti-lock brake sensor to the bracket holding the brake hose.

8

Attach the brake rotor and caliper, and torque the bolts to 65 ft-lb. Mount the wheel, and torque the nuts that you hand-tightened earlier to 22 ft-lb. Lower the car, and install a new wheel hub retainer nut that you torque to 170 ft-lb. Pump the brakes several times before you move the car. Have a qualified technician align the front end of your suspension system.

Replace the Rear Shocks in a Taurus

9

Lift the rear end of the car, and support it by the lower control arms with jack stands. Remove the nuts holding on the rear wheels, and set the wheels aside. Pull out the access panel inside the hatch.

10

Disconnect the upper mounting nuts and the lower mounting bolts. They're found at either end of the shocks, which look like a smaller tube that slides in and out of a larger one.

11

Replace the old shocks with the new ones, and torque the lower bolts to 58 ft-lb and the upper nuts to 19 ft-lb. Put the access panel back in the hatch and mount the rear wheels. Lower the car.