Poor design

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote:

T.J. wrote:

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: Starter on a 1.9 DOHC Saturn. Alternator on a 1.9 DOHC Saturn. Power steering pump on a 1.9 DOHC Saturn.

Can't remember exactly what I replaced on the Saturn I once owned but the only way to get at it was to remove the front passenger side wheel and inner fender. Ridiculous.

That would be the alternator. Oh, neat little tip. If you're swapping a motor, double, triple, quadruple, and quintuple-check that you put the bottom alternator bolt in the right way. Because if you have to take it out again, and the bolt is in backwards (and it'll go in backwards just fine out of the car...), you're going to be up there with a sawzall to cut that bolt. No bueno. The power steering pump isn't any better. Unless you have tiny TINY hands, the "easiest" way is to get the alternator out first, then take the pump out from the bottom. Brilliant packaging. NOT.

Any of those are easy. 200 dollars to a mechanic and drop them the keys for a day. :)

Maroon92 wrote:

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote:

T.J. wrote:

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: Starter on a 1.9 DOHC Saturn. Alternator on a 1.9 DOHC Saturn. Power steering pump on a 1.9 DOHC Saturn.

Can't remember exactly what I replaced on the Saturn I once owned but the only way to get at it was to remove the front passenger side wheel and inner fender. Ridiculous.

That would be the alternator. Oh, neat little tip. If you're swapping a motor, double, triple, quadruple, and quintuple-check that you put the bottom alternator bolt in the right way. Because if you have to take it out again, and the bolt is in backwards (and it'll go in backwards just fine out of the car...), you're going to be up there with a sawzall to cut that bolt. No bueno. The power steering pump isn't any better. Unless you have tiny TINY hands, the "easiest" way is to get the alternator out first, then take the pump out from the bottom. Brilliant packaging. NOT.

Any of those are easy. 200 dollars to a mechanic and drop them the keys for a day. :)

I was the mechanic getting paid in this case. In retrospect, i really didn't need the money.

Jag XJ-S requires the removal of the dash to repair the AC. I imagine the XJ sedan is the same.

I don't remember which engine it was but to remove the oil filter on certain Peugeot 505s you had to move the alternator out of the way. Really, the alternator!?!?

Volvo PRV V6. Cam removal by cutting holes in firewall IIRC!

Brett_Murphy wrote: FC RX-7 heater cores are pretty easy.

What about the 90 degree coolant hose on the upper intake of TIIs? Now THAT is a stupid design.

My TR6 pretty much disassembles itself. The hard part is keeping parts on...

oil filter on a 1st generation Fiesta, if I recall the horror stories from my mom correctly. you had to disassemble the engine partially in order to get to the bloody thing. oh, and not particularly difficult but still time consuming without the proper torched/hacksawed tools, oil filter on a '02-'06 Mini Cooper S. deceivingly easy looking to do, until you start to realize that hey, an un-cut, standard size 36mm socket, attached to a 1/2" drive ratchet wrench, is simply too tall to use without knocking out the corner of the cowl box that is right opposite the center of the oil filter housing. on top of that, you have the exhaust manifold mere inches to the right of the filter housing, and you have to reach down past an obnoxiously hot valve cover in order to reach it. the angle it sits at guarantees that most ratchet wrenches will have a bit of a tough time getting more than a few degrees of rotation at a time, and the proximity to annoyingly and painfully hot engine/exhaust components guarantees you will teach any impressionable children every swear word known to the universe, and then some

On the old Ford Probe GT the V6 was mounted sideways. The water pump was literally 1/4 inch away from the wheel well. We had to take out the wheel well, unbolt the motor mount and jack up the engine in order to even get a wrench on the pump. That car produced more new cuss words than you could imagine.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the water pump on a quad 4. Once you've done it, it's not bad at all, but if you don't know the procedure, you'll be there for 2 days.

The starter in my wife's 92 Jetta auto would ocassionally act up. It looked like (somebody here will know this, I'm sure) you had to pull the trans to get it out.

from the 2-wheel side...change a battery in a V-Rod

Wasn't there a Dodge Caravan where you had to reach in through the inner fender liner to change a turn signal bulb? I seem to remember getting unreasonably angry at one of those once.

Spark plugs on V6 Fieros, GT in particular. I never did change those plugs...

My old Reliant Scimitar GTE seemed to have been built around the starter. You needed to removed the engine to change the starter but needed to remove the starter to remove the engine

anything on a 98 Chrysler town and Country AWD minivan with the 3.8.. just yesterday, i did plugs, wires, air filter, and fuel filter.. fuel filter is bolted to the top of the gas tank- drop the tank and fight the plastic connectors that need two hands to remove but there is only enough room for one hand.

rear spark plugs are buried under the plenum- plenum is held on by 4 bolts you take off from the front, but you can't get the bolts for the wiring harness until you move the plenum, and thep lenum doesn't move very far until you remove the harness.. air filter is in a box below another box. you need a 10mm socket and a 5/16" nut driver or screwdriver to get to it.

anyone else ever do valve cover gaskets on an Olds Aurora V8 in the car? those are fun, too..

on the totally opposite end of the spectrum is the heater core in late 70's Ford Thunderbird/LTD2/Mercury Cougar/Lincoln Mark whatever.. take off 2 5/16" screws under the hood and the core slides right out- even if the hoses are still hooked up. a swap is a 10 minute job if you take your time.

I had a E150 conversion van... I can't think of any repair task that was 'easy'. Spark plugs were interesting... some from the front... some from the interior... some through the right fender... most totally by feel...

Somebody mentioned the cabin filter... I recall replacing it in an E36 to be somewhat tedious.

My '91 Integra had a similar repair procedure as the Volvo 240... "step 1: discharge A/C...." Ah... no...

the heater heatercore is buried in Volvos from the 140 series on. the a/c evaporator on the p1 (1993-2000 5 banger fwd Volvos) is the Achilles heel of ownership. Besides the FWD.

BMW E46 V6 starter motor, 17 steps to get it out, yes 17...damned thing is in the valley under the intake, and you have to dismantle the plastic cowl cover to get to it, the xi is impossible to get at from below.

Valve cover gaskets on the 4.0 Land Rover Disco II. You need to pull the entire intake.

I hear alternators are fun on contours and cougars with the duratec six cylinder. Mine didn't kill me.

Not looking forward to the four spark plugs under the dashboard on my camaro either. But its not impossible.

heater cores are about the worst thing to do in a rwd Corolla.... the entire dash has to come out

X1/9 heater core is pretty damned easy.

When the heater core blew in my Mazda 626 recently, I just by-passed it instead. I figure I won't be driving this car come Winter anyway .

"Hose from hell" on Celica AllTracs. (shudders)

Here is the very well written and documented 23 page DIY guide for removing the AC Evaporator on a Volvo 850. Yeah, 23 pages!
http://www.woodjoiner.com/volvo/