phaze1todd said:In reply to Stefan :
WHERE WERE YOU 30 YEARS AGO!!!
10 years old.
One of my Uncles probably could have told you though. :)
phaze1todd said:In reply to Stefan :
WHERE WERE YOU 30 YEARS AGO!!!
10 years old.
One of my Uncles probably could have told you though. :)
Cars are designed for ease of assembly, not repair.
I am amazed at how they can assemble a vehicle at the factory, add all the fluids and bleed everything in a few seconds and then drive it off the end of the assembly line. Then, one day when you have to replace, say, a clutch slave cylinder and bleed it, it takes you longer than it took them to assemble the whole vehicle to begin with.
In reply to Danny Shields :
When you accept that, then disassembly/repair gets to be a lot simpler.
Yank out the ASSEMBLY and deal with it on the floor or workbench. Or yank assemblies off or out of the way enough to gain access.
Especially German cars.
Knurled. said:In reply to Danny Shields :
When you accept that, then disassembly/repair gets to be a lot simpler.
Yank out the ASSEMBLY and deal with it on the floor or workbench. Or yank assemblies off or out of the way enough to gain access.
Especially German cars.
Yep. I've said that about R53 MINI's for years. They aren't quite as bad to work on once you reverse-think how the car went together.
JoeTR6 said:I seem to have struck a vein of empathy. Thanks, guys. I don't feel so bad about the MINI now.
In hindsight, I'm almost surprised that you can remove the MINI blower motor without step one being "remove the dash". It's just that the engineers *almost* made it a job that won't remove too much skin and leave you swearing off the marque. But instead, I'm pretty sure the neighbor's kids learned some new words. I'd better get over it, because the lower control arm bushings are worn out and need replacing.
LCA bushings are a fun job. Because so many of my friends have MINI's, I bought the special tool to R&R the bushings with the carrier on the car and I've done it about a half-dozen times, although it's been a few years. With practice (and if the owner leaves me alone and doesn't want to "help"), I've done the job using PowerFlex poly bushings in under 2 hours. I do have a lift, which helps. I would not recommend the OEM oil-filled bushings - I've seen them puke their oil in under 10K miles.
I thought replacing the alternators on my kid's Civics were way harder that it should have been.
And if you have ever tried to remove at hub from a Spitfire rear axle, well you know what I mean.
Changing heater hoses on a Volvo 240 is much easier if you have fingers twice as long and a quarter the diameter of the typical human.
Of course there is that wonderful Ford V8 that helps you out by randomly spitting its spark plugs out - probability increases with distance from home and falling temperatures.
Almost anything on a VW VR6 Jetta.... Heater core - starts with getting in the back seat to take screws out for the center console. Control arm bushings - had to cut a hole in the sub frame, the nut on the inside fell off. Actually the clutch replacement wasn't as bad as I thought it would, might of been because my arm was broken and I mostly just pointed and told my kids what to do.
As I found out, tensioning the serpentine belt on the Yaris. Why, you ask? Because there is no tensioner. That's right, Toyota's solution is that you take the alternator loose and move it. Huge job? No, not really. But WAAAY harder than it should be. Also pretty much guarantees the belt will always be too tight or too loose.
The driver side blend door on a 99-09 Saab 9-5. Come to think of it, the heater box as well.
In reply to kazoospec :
That’s how they all used to be. Surprised to see it on a modern car though!
In reply to kazoospec :
Usually those are pretty easy to deal with, not an uncommon setup (every old V belt car and a lot of the Asian serpentine belt stuff), you set it and forget it until it barks on startup or squeals in the rain. That said I remembers the PS belt tension on my otherwise dream to work on 4 cylinder Camry being a real pain in the ass, that or I just couldn't find the hex/square hole and did it the hard way with a prybar.
dculberson said:In reply to kazoospec :
That’s how they all used to be. Surprised to see it on a modern car though!
My thoughts exactly. And on a vintage car, the alternator isn't usually wedged between the block and the fender liner. 
Starter in the Shelby Charger with the 2.2 turbo. Yeah, I know it's been covered in this thread already. And yeah, I've heard there are "tricks" to make it easier. But that design deserves a special place in auto engineer hell.
Honorable mention can go to the Audi/VW 2.8 v6 alternator. 6 hours to R&R is just silly.
While Miatai may be the best and easiest thing I've ever worked on I noticed one glaring flaw (at least on my 97). The long bolt that secures the alternator slides out backward if one ever has to replace said piece. But it slides directly into something solid (motor mount, subframe, I dunno, my memory fails). It pretty plainly looks like the sort of thing that was assimbled outside the car and plopped in on the line without a thought at service.
Is there a "modern" vehicle that doesn't have a number of "quirks"?
Jesus, you people make me really cherish my old Hondas. I swap parts like legos and everything is accessable. Even the blower motor and heater core were replaced without dash woes.
Last more annoying than it should be: Scion XD thermostat: seems simple, right on front, 2 bolt plastic housing like every other car. Difficulty: any where with a plane to swing a wrench hits ac lines. Directly in front of both bolts, with only enough room to remove them, more ac lines. I am beginning to agree with the 'modern cars are built around a/c' statement now. Wobbles, offset ratcheting box ends, and bloody knuckles, as my hands wouldnt fut behind the rad with gloves.
Cars now, are truly assembled reliably with intent to be left alone until the great scrapper calls it home. Any repairs are basically hacking the system. Repairs just keep older cars on the road and hurt the bottom line of sales it seems.
Furious_E said:Toyman01 said:Heater core on a Jeep Cherokee. I can do a Ford E150 in 45 minutes. The Cherokee took 5 hours.
And this is exactly why I've been living with almost no heat this winter...
The heater core in mine is still holding up because I for sure don't want to touch it.
If it has some heat but it's not leaking it may just be plugged up. I had luck with mine by flushing it. Undo the two hoses leading to it and flush it with the garden hose, back and for between sides on low pressure and junk will come out. Hopefully.
Alternator on an Odyssey. You have to unbolt the engine and jack it up to remove the alternator.
This is after you remove the stuck bolt on the belt tensioner.
I gave up and brought it to a dealer. I just didn't have time to deal with it.
$1000 later I get it back and the butt-heads had cut the power steering pump line and it was leaking. (No sir, it must have been that way when it came in. )
No more Hondas for me. For reference I can change the alternator on my Ford Ranger in 15 minutes including finding my tools.
In reply to jharry3 :
This week I was reminded of how nice it is to have a very common American car. Monday morning my 2008 Grand Caravan started steaming from the radiator area. Limped it to work and then home that afternoon. I have neither the time nor desire to replace a radiator when temps are in the teens. Probably in the dark.So I took the van to my regular mechanic and got it there before they closed. It was done by 2 pm on Tues. New radiator and t-stat (which I think was sticking anyway as the engine never quite got to full temp): $400.
If this had happened when temps weren't below freezing outside, I might have saved the $300 and ordered the parts from RockAuto to DIY, but it didn't so I was happy to pay that money and have the van back quickly for my commute in the snow on Weds.
In reply to Daylan C :
Anything on a 3100 GM.
Mk1 ford focus clutch master. E36 M3ty spot with limited scess, a terrible design so it won't bleed at all without some form of pressure bleeder, and the lines are all hardlines, so super difficult to work with. Also, anything serpentine belt related is a bitch because the belt has maybe 3/4" of clearance from the inner fender.
VW 2.5 Air Filter. It's housed within the engine cover. You have to remove a few air hose clamps, disconnect MAF, 2 torx screws holding air duct in, pop the cover assembly off, then flip the engine cover over, remove 6 iirc torx screws which house the air filter. I suppose becausegerman
I think some newer Beetle models w/ this engine came with a 'traditional' airbox
Ian F said:JoeTR6 said:I seem to have struck a vein of empathy. Thanks, guys. I don't feel so bad about the MINI now.
In hindsight, I'm almost surprised that you can remove the MINI blower motor without step one being "remove the dash". It's just that the engineers *almost* made it a job that won't remove too much skin and leave you swearing off the marque. But instead, I'm pretty sure the neighbor's kids learned some new words. I'd better get over it, because the lower control arm bushings are worn out and need replacing.
LCA bushings are a fun job. Because so many of my friends have MINI's, I bought the special tool to R&R the bushings with the carrier on the car and I've done it about a half-dozen times, although it's been a few years. With practice (and if the owner leaves me alone and doesn't want to "help"), I've done the job using PowerFlex poly bushings in under 2 hours. I do have a lift, which helps. I would not recommend the OEM oil-filled bushings - I've seen them puke their oil in under 10K miles.
Doesn't sound as bad as PT cruiser (and Neon?) LCA bushings. Half the time on the vertical one you literally have to cut a hole in the floor when the crappy nut cage fails and lets the nut spin, though I suppose Chrysler were at least nice enough to stamp a circle in the floor where you have to cut.
I did the heater core on my Volvo 240 last week.
Instead of removing the steering column, dash support, and heater box and breaking the AC system like you're supposed to, I opted for the method that involves cutting a heater core-shaped hole in the side of the heater box, then taping it up later.
I should have added to my previous post, timing belt for MR2 Turbo. I did it once, once. The second time I hired it done and the mechanic that did said the instructions should have read "open engine lid, drive new car underneath, close lid".
Heater cores are a PITA on just about any car. I've done two so far: on my old 1987 Mercury Cougar and on my 1979 Trans Am. Both are dash-out jobs, and on the T/A, it's a fender-off job as well.
It's the simple ones on certain cars that catch you off guard. For instance, replacing the rear brake rotors on a late 2000's Elantra. I had to do brakes on the wife's old Elantra twice. Hers was a 2007. To get to one of the rear bolts that holds the caliper bracket on, you have to remove a part of the rear suspension (trailing arm?) to be able to get to it. Otherwise, you are stuck using crescent wrenches, which is a great way to turn those hexagonal bolt heads round.
Why???
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