Our 2009 Ford Flex has been in the fleet since Ryder was born and provided a pillar of support for us all these years. Not only is it the family bus, but its gone on road trips through rain and snow, event machine hauling photography gear across the entire eastern seaboard and has been the sports team wagon delivering any and all of us where we’ve needed to go. Needless to say, she has wracked up over 270k miles with nary a complaint. Once Mimi and Grandpa bought their car here, we used that throughout the summer and fall in order for me to update the Flex over the winter. However winter turned to spring and as their approach came near I had to push to get the work done that it needed before they arrived.
It all started over a year ago when I noticed it was burning through tires as a result of the inability to hold an alignment. I had replaced some bushings in the rear end, but that exercise made me realize all the bushings in the front were too far gone to ignore. So when I finally had the time to tear into it, I blocked the car and pulled out the major suspension components. When things were all said and done I replaced the strut assemblies, lower control arms (which include the ball joints) and the sway bar links. I also found one of the wheel bearings to be toasted, so that was easy to replace as well while the entire knuckle was out. The project wrapped up pretty well and I’m really happy with how it drives. I did additionally have to replace the rear brakes because the initially the rotors had corroded badly enough that the brakes were grinding but I also found that a caliper had seized. The next steps will be to re-align it and do some basic annual service.
Once the car was back on the road, I owed it (and Kris) some additional love by spending 3 days doing a complete detail. Complete with deep clean, clay bar, compound and wax followed by and deep scrub of all the interior panels and carpets. The car feels almost new and I’m so proud to be keeping this wonderful car in our fleet a little longer.
