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Japanese: Girlfriends Echo has an oil filter approx 1' right of the headlight, about 6" back from the front of the bumper (can take it off just by reaching under) THAT is the easiest oil change ever.
US: Dad's Escape V6 had the middle coil on the middle cylinder of the back plane of cylinders go bad. 4 hours later I had the old one out...
Osterkraut wrote:P71 wrote:Easiest oil change ever is a KA24 Nissan pickup (4x4). Slid the creeper under, the oil drain and filter are right next to each other. No jack, no ramps, no special tools, just easy as eating pie.
My F-150 is even better. You don't even need the creeper, everything is maybe 18" back from the bumper!
i once changed the oil by pulling up to a ledge in the parking lot at my old apt. complex. didn't even have to lay on the ground!
As I was working on the rear disks, I noticed that the parking brakes also needed replacement. The Intrepid uses a brake drum on the inside of the rotor hat to accomplish this. I haven't touched bracke shoes since the 80's, and I forgot how lowesome they are. Basically, a collection of springs and clips and parts held together by tension. I could take the wheel off and remove the caliper and rotor in under a minute, but getting the e-brake right took an additional two evenings. Doh! Not the fault of the car though, just the jackass who designed drum brakes in 1902.
confuZion3 wrote:Yeah, the Miata's oil filter location is difficult to deal with, but since it's a Miata, I am going to automatically write that off as a necessity: Mazda put it there because it made the car (lighter, faster, better balanced, more reliable, cuter, etc).
My sister's 1993 Camry had the oil filter right at the top of the engine on a section of plumbing. It was right there in your face. I loved that car.
5sfe is awesome like that. I enjoy the same convienence in my Celica.
the 4cyl ranger engines had two plugs per cylinder in order to meet 50 state emissions. you could change 4 of them in half an hour, the other 4... you have to pull the intake manifold off to get to.
also on a ranger: i had a 93 ranger 4x4 in high school, when it went in for an oil pan gasket, we were suprised to hear it was a 6 hour job. apparently the front axle interferes with removing the pan, so they had to pull the motor off its mounts about 6 inches to change the $25 pan gasket.
The SHO motor plugs weren't that bad, with the right set of wobble extentions and laying on the actual motor you didn't even have to pull the intake. But removing the intake was pretty easy, a few bolts or so, I got so good I could pull one of those off in about 10 mins, the only hard part was the supports in the rear.
I think the radiator in my Lotus leaks but I can't tell because it's buried IN the front clip somewhere. Seriously I can't even SEE it up top. Maybe it's better from underneath but I don't have easy access to a lift so I don't know.
I hope I'm not going to have to replace the dang thing; that involves taking off the whole one-piece wraparound front bumper & fender assembly. Not fun...
J
My FC had my favorite oil filter location of all my cars, right on top of the motor. Mazda even made it so when you drain the oil, it all drains out of the filter too so there's no mess when you take it off. I did have to jack the car up to get to the oil drain plug but that isn't really a big deal. More on the subject of Japanese engineering vs. American engineering: my 21 yr old toyota 4x4 does not leak a single fluid and doesn't have a single rattle. Pretty impressive.
then theres the battery in jetta/new beetles that requires you move some wiring around, and nearly impossible if you don't have a wobble extension or u-joint socket. they just HAD to put that extra 15 degrees in there
I changed the front struts on my X1/9 this weekend. It took at most 30 minutes per side. Holy crap was it easy.
The brake master and clutch master cylinders.... I don't want to go there.
Strizzo wrote:the 4cyl ranger engines had two plugs per cylinder in order to meet 50 state emissions. you could change 4 of them in half an hour, the other 4... you have to pull the intake manifold off to get to.
also on a ranger: i had a 93 ranger 4x4 in high school, when it went in for an oil pan gasket, we were suprised to hear it was a 6 hour job. apparently the front axle interferes with removing the pan, so they had to pull the motor off its mounts about 6 inches to change the $25 pan gasket.
T'aint nuthin'. The newer F-series trucks require removing the engine to get the oil pan out since the transmission interferes on one end and the massive sump prevents you from sliding it forward unless you jack the engine through the firewall.
Unless you have a V6, step one in removing the engine is "remove cab from frame". In an effort to make the truck more carlike with less squeaks and groans and soforth, the radiator core support is part of the cab. The V6 just barely fits between the cowl and the core support if you remove everything off of the front of the engine. V8, no way.
MIata oil filter is difficult, but not impossible. At this point, most of them have it made more difficult by engine mounts that are broken, letting the engine sit lower in the chassis and limiting room. As soon as I changed the mounts on the racering car and the street car the job became super simpe again. Don't get me started on the rear PPF bolts, however....
Toyota: the back brakes (drums) on my Corolla are basically along for the ride at this point because the @##$ access for the adjuster is right behind the strut. As for maintenance on the rest of the car - super easy, largely because it doesn't require any. Routine maintenance on a Corolla consists of putting gas in it.
Struts on the old, rwd Toyotas are stupid. They weld the spindle onto the bottom of the strut. This makes it very expensive (or scary, if you're the type who cuts and welds on pressurized cans of flammable fluid) and extremely annoying when a strut wears out. Further, Toyota, in all it's infinite wisdom, decided to make that spindle/strut arrangement slightly different for all 943,000 variants of RWD Corrolla/Celica/Corona they made from about 70 to about 85.
The other PITA I have personal experience with is the in-dash fan motor on the old Volvo 240s. Volvo evidently believes an insecurely mounted blower housing can cause worldwide famine, venereal disease and the plagues described in Revelation, because they attached it to the dash and firewall with no fewer than six metal brackets. We fixed two of these, the first took 5 hours and the second took 3 hours.
