I'm having to do another ball joint this coming week, and I absolutely can't stand doing them. They're not difficult, but I hate engagement by feel without positive confirmation.
What relatively quick jobs to you loathe? What tricks do you have for make other jobs less insufferable?
oil changes.
I solve this by sucking it up and paying someone else to do them. The end. the cost benefit ratio isn't there anymore.
Anything between November and mid-March because Michigan.
In reply to wawazat :
Co-Sign, but replace Michigan with Massachusetts. 
Cold weather just sucks the motivation for car repair right outta me. I'll do stuff on the Cougar tho.
I don't care for differential work too much. I'm a little under the power curve on tools for that job and I usually tend to struggle with bearing removal.
In reply to Cousin_Eddie (Forum Supporter) :
The scent of gear oil and friction modifier doesn't add to the pleasantries either.
Bleeding brakes. Its probably because I always seem to be doing it on old junk that isn't 100% working. But holy crap I dislike it.
Cooling system maintenance. The hoses always get stuck, I wind up dropping every hose clamp I touch, and I've yet to remove a radiator without taking a bath in the green E36 M3.
Thankfully heater cores are pretty rare, because they take all the above fun and cram it under the dash.
Oil changes on the 2018 Escape can eat an overstuffed bag of dicks.
Rotating tires. A lot of berkeleyery for such simple procedure.
I hate changing diff fluid. The smell is awful and if you aren't careful it seeps into your skin and stinks for days.
Anything with the fuel system.
You'all hit on it.
Coolant related - radiator
Back in the day - rusty exhaust
drum brakes
+1 Coolant stuff.
wawazat said:Anything between November and mid-March because Michigan.
In central Texas, it's Memorial Day - Labor Day for me these days. If I think I can't get it done before noon, it's going to a shop.
In reply to Mndsm :
Would have agreed with you up to the point where an oil change is now $150 at the quick-change place.
Back to crawling under the car to save $$$.
I hate anything to do with exhaust work.
Anything with old gear old. Expecially if I have to heat something up. I start looking at parts washers every time I work on something
Appleseed said:Rotating tires. A lot of berkeleyery for such simple procedure.
When you swap to winter tires, mark the positions of the summer tires. Also inflate them as far as you dare so you don't have to do it in the spring when you mount them in a rotated position.
Me, no matter how simple? Anything working in the yard on gravel!
I'd agree on the rusty exhaust, but that does not fit the OP parameters of "relatively easy" 
Drum rear brakes on trucks; it's a fidgety job and why, why is the one brake spring so long and at such an odd angle........................
Drum brakes. Yes I have the special tools. Yes I know how to do them.
No, that doesn't make it any easier.
I'm convinced that drum brakes were invented by Big Disc to sell more disc brakes.
CV shafts.
I hate having to pop the ball joint off and then getting then out of the transmission is always impossible unless you know the secret handshake.
On the daily drivers, anything. I don't want to touch them. Ever. So generally, I don't. I pay for oil changes and 99% of the maintenance.
On a fun car. Nothing. There is very little I don't enjoy about them. Mostly because they are all old and easy to work on. You can see the ground from the top of the engine bay. Spark plugs are in plain sight and don't require floppy extensions or a hose to get them out of the hole. Even the drum brakes don't bother me too much. There is no rush to finish a project. No time crunch. Just tinkering. I find it very relaxing.
Anything that gets diesel on my skin/clothes. I don't know why I hate it so much, but I do. And on one of my F350's the fuel filter housing was horizontal and situated such that it was 101% guaranteed that you were getting diesel on you when you changed the filter. No two ways about it. Used to be so bad (make me so mad) that my wife began preemptively offering to tackle just that portion of my oil/filter routine.
Don't put that many miles on the diesel trucks any more, so it comes up much less frequently, but the wife drives a TDI, so there's the occasional fuel filter there (much easier to stay clean on that one). My tractor, which drinks almost exclusively leftover and salvaged diesel requires frequent emptying of the filter bowl, usually onto my pants, somehow.
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