Be warned if you need to do Escape / Tribute / Mariner brakes: You're missing a necessary tool

06 Nov 2017

If you have to do front brakes on a Ford Escape, Mazda Tribute, or Mercury Mariner you’re almost guaranteed to be missing a rather rare tool. The tool in question is a nine millimeter allen key.

It may be called a 9 mm hex key socket or Allen wrench. Most kits have both 8 and 10 mm, but an incredibly small amount have the 9 mm. In order to replace the front brakes, this is a tool you must have. This applies to 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006 models at the least. Not sure about 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 or 2012 models, but the two generations are very similar in most regards.

Comments

JoshuaK

Well, I guess you could say the 9mm Hex Socket escaped. I’ll escort myself out.

Dayum, so complicated

Yup, sort of a pain. Took me quite a while to find the right tool.

Actually I may have one of these. Like, between 10 different sizes of those Allen wrenches there should be a 9mm right?

I have two large sets, and there was no nine. My Dad was a professional mechanic for many years, and even in all of his tools he didn’t have one.

Just wrap an 8mm in mm thick sheet metal.

LoL, I don’t have any metal that thin. If I couldn’t find a 9, I was going to file down a 10.

Wait, there’s another Ford Escape/Mazda Tribute thing? Wow, I just thought that there were only Ford Escapes and Mazda Tributes. -(insert The More That You Know meme here)-

(P.S. Why did Ford decide to work with Mazda to create the Escape/Tribute?)