Worst job on your car?

[Station]

It think some of the most simple jobs are the most bastard horrible.

 

I've spent the past couple of weeks doing odd jobs on brakes. I can now confirm that this is my least favourite job in the world.

 

a) Copper brake pipes are impossible to shape properly, and even if you get them even closely resembling the original shape, you will have to bend them past subframe/other pipes, leaving you with some crazy pattern spiralling under your car.

 

Brake fluid is rancid stuff. It gets everywhere, it feels strange on your hands (and is carcinogenic), like some reverse lubricant, and you feel itchy all over your body for some reason afterwards.

 

c) Brake pipe unions are made out of the shittest material in the world. Why replace your pipes with copper 'because it doesn't rust' when your shiney crappy unions will be brown lumps within a year. Also, special union open ended spanners, which are a godsend on every other nut, these quadruple the time turning the nut, then taking them off, putting back one, etc.

 

d) Brake seals are vulnerable to the tiniest speck of foreign body.

 

e) If you mess it up, you have to bleed everything again.

 

[Rusty Pelican]

Continuing your brake theme Who thought it was a good idea to make the bleed nipples on my Beemer so small i can hardly see them and that require a 7mm spanner to move them , who the fuck has a 7mm spanner , not me ,Dont matter anyway coz they just snap off .

My 86 Audi Quattro had them as well , must be a German thing ,

Twats

[hennabm]

Ahhhhh

 

7mm translates from German as small size molegrips for a perfick fit.

[ashmicro]

My 80 Quattro Coupe had those too. A damned good soaking in Plusgas sorted them ( and I put new ones in after)

 

Bastard job on the 25 is the 'stat, as it isn't particularly accessible from top OR bottom.

 

Belt change on a KV6 when fitted to the HH-R also causes much swearing and airborne tools.

 

Plugs on a mark 1 Impreza turbo, anyone?

 

Fucking anything on a BL Mini. GRR. The woman formerly known as Mrs. Ash had one. (a) She was too tall for it and ( it was a shitbox.

[dollywobbler]

Mini - anything

CX - even worse. I suggest you don't own either of these cars.

 

Nothing's that horrible on the 2CV, that I've done at least. Rear brake pipes are a challenge, but I let someone else to do that.

[j-j]

CX - even worse. I suggest you don't own either of these cars.

WRONG!

 

everything on my CX is reachable and/or easy.

 

B'stard jobs nonetheless: anything regarding the sump and crank seals: requires the engine and 'box out...

 

Bonded in rear window and 1/4 windows debond and are a pain to reattach.

 

Handbrake adjustment is a pain - 4 eccentrics need to be reset (two are half invisible)

 

Oil filter is in a silly, awkward position.

 

Thankfully the brake bleeds are 8mm though so that's something!

 

The 'DIRAVI' steering system straight ahead adjustment is a pure bastard to do on the RHD cars due to it being under the heater intake.

 

Otherwise, generally peasy stuff - even the brake fluid is non corrosive mineral oil

[r.welfare]

Avensis - fuel filter (impossible, can't see or feel the 2 nuts from above or below!), thermostat (2 bolts easy to access, one v. v. difficult).

 

Also, the Toyota forum is far more interested in answering insane questions from certifiable cretins than responding to sensible detailed pleas for information from the likes of myself

 

Accord - thanks to Honda's back-to-front engine setups the oil filter is a right royal pain in the arse to get to; up and behind the engine so you get a good chance of a scorched hand on the downpipe.

 

And again, the fuel filter - a better location (near the fuel tank for a start, under the car at the back) but super-stupid locking clips that are near-impossible to undo. Oh, and the cambelt looks somewhat complicated so I suspect I will leave that to the pros.

[eddyramrod]

Belts on the Mitsubishi 3.0V6 in my Chrysler convertible; heater rad on my 1979 Cadillac, also driver's door lock on that one, which used to freeze solid in winter. I can foresee some spanner rash when I start dismantling the front suspension on my A40 too...

[Albert Ross]

Nothing's awkward, just time consuming. Like removing the gearbox through the passenger door.

 

The last major-ish job I did was rebuilding the steering box in situ on New Year's day. Handful of greasy ball bearings in sub-zero and a dash of copper grease? Yeah. TRY holding them next time.

 

I did a bit of welding the other day, but not really awkward.

 

Erm. I should point out I repair things for a living.

[greengartside]

Plugs on a mark 1 Impreza turbo, anyone?

don't remind me...what a job. Same goes for E36 BMW's too, plenty of skinned knuckle action there. An absolute fuckstick of a job.

[Torsten2001]

Anything at all

 

I'm bone idle

[Milford Cubicle]

What Torsten said!

Anything that involves more than half an hour of tinkering is a complete mind melt to me.

[cobblers]

Don't get me started on minis. People band about "oh they are so simple and easy to work on"

 

They are simple, but a pain in the arse. Everything on them seems like it's designed as an afterthought.

I bought one, span a big end bearing on the way home. Ended up having the engine in and out 4 or 5 times. Putting those 4 engine mount bolts in and getting the shafts in and out are the most irritating jobs on any car, ever.

 

An engine swap on a mini takes half a day and leaves me angry, bruised, upset and generally hating the world.

 

The same job on a 106, takes the same amount of time. But after it I'm still a functioning human being and can go out into public without punching small boys in the face.

[Rusty Pelican]

An engine swap on a mini takes half a day and leaves me angry, bruised, upset and generally hating the world.

 

.

Hence why I have Imps instead , I hour tops engine on its own , less for the engine and box combined

[dollywobbler]

J-J - I'll concede that changing the spark plugs is easy on the CX - they're even angled towards you. Air filter though - what's it doing down there wedged behind the headlamp? And why does a coolant pipe block access to the alternator? It's a trick Citroen have played for ever I reckon. On an H van, you can get at everything, just not all of everything, making almost every single job a pain in the arse.

[myglaren]

Worst job on your car?

The one that has to be done next, whatever that may be.

[red5]

Heater valve on my (old) Lada Challenge Rally car (or any of the Saloons tbh).

 

The upper sump seal on 2.0 Fronteras.

[catsinthewelder]

Worst jobs...

 

Megane...

My first experience of changing a cambelt. Haynes, ten pound tool kit, all weekend and a somewhat dented inner wing later I was feeling very proud.

 

Unfortunately I should have done the water pump at the same time, it failed which led to.....

 

Tried to change engine, gave up after 3 months of spare time wasted. Then it killed the replacement within 20 miles as so called profesionals forgot to tighten bottom pulley. The next engine lasted about 500 miles before a manufacturing fault killed the top end. Then I gave up and let a mate have it for nowt. He got less than a thousand miles before writing the wreched machine off.

 

VW camper...

Spent most of this winter with its engine underneath it while I fought with it to release its holed oil cooler. Wouldn't have been as bad if I wasn't so determined not to disturb its exhaust system for fear that it would never be re-attatched.

 

I suppose what this should teach me is that with proper tools, a budget that covers replacing the worn out parts around the repair and an avoidance of 16v Renaults then repairs may even be stress free.

 

But wheres the fun in that

[Pete-M]

I've done nothing to the SD1. Changed the oil and adjusted the exhaust. It doesn't need anything doing to it really. Going to MOT it next week and flog it.

 

The XJR hasn't needed anything yet, but I'm gonna give it a good coat of looking at before I do 2000 miles in a week in it in September.

 

The only thing on the Escort which is remotely difficult is getting Czechs to weld the bloody thing.

 

The 406 isn't my problem.

 

Worst jobs I've ever done are the following;

 

Auto gearbox replacement on the turbo Rangie. Never again.

 

Jensen Interceptor starter motor replacement. Don't know why it was that hard, but it took forever.

 

P38 Rangie heater matrix seals. I stopped owning Rangies after that. I'm looking forwards to the re-match with a Supercharged L322 when they're cheap.

 

Maserati Bi-Turbo head gaskets, power steering rack and cambelts.

If I have one golden rule, it's do not buy a Maserati BiTurbo. I'd love a Shamal, but I will never buy one. Not after that.

[CortinaDave]

Not horrendous, but way overly difficult for what you are doing. Last week I had to change a headlight bulb on the Cougar, only to discover that to do so you have to take off the trim panel, grille and then unbolt and pull out the whole headlight units. FFS!

[woolleyiain]

Anything - anything to do with a Mazda Milennia S. The most hate full, stupidly designed piece of toss conceived by man. Especially if it's got a mysterious (and with these bloody things they're always mysterious) vacuum leak. Guess what I've got in the shop at the moment...

[Negative Creep]

Since the engine is under the seats, everything is hard to get to. Even harder to fix it when you have no money and you can't find a single on in a breakers yard as well

[Richard]

Not horrendous, but way overly difficult for what you are doing. Last week I had to change a headlight bulb on the Cougar, only to discover that to do so you have to take off the trim panel, grille and then unbolt and pull out the whole headlight units. FFS!

Most modern cars are like that. Somebody on the FCF couldn't get the dealer to fit a headlight bulb to his C5 because the only guy who could do it without removing the bumper was off sick.

[Negative Creep]

Hence why almost every 206 or Ka you see has a headlight out. But modern cars are so much safer though

[ashmicro]

Hence why almost every 206 or Ka you see has a headlight out.

Or, the ones that are showing 2 lamps - one is wobbling about like crazy because some twunt couldn't line up the locating lugs on the bulb.

 

Scenic II: Drivers side - Pull the header pipe off the windscreen washer reservoir. Still a bastard to do. Passenger side - remove wanky battery cover, invariably breaking THE cheapest spire clips in the world. Bulb still a bastard to fit.

 

Universal Renault repair tool kit: 1xbottle white spirit, 1x box matches.

[Cavcraft]

Removing/refitting BX seats. I always struggled with the flaming torque screws and the access to them.

[Vin]

My worst jobs have always involved the shearing of captive studs. Normally in enclosed box sections

 

Thus, the job then means cutting into said box sections, grinding and drilling out the stud, then welding a new bolt in, then trying neatly to weld up the box section. Normally all from inside the car, which means pulling out half the interior Still, needs must an all that......

[AnthonyG]

To clean out the nozzle on the windscreen washer bottle on a Mk2 Mondeo you have to remove the bumper. That was slightly annoying, would have a lot worse though if I didn't have a mate with a ramp

[mnde]

Removing/refitting BX seats. I always struggled with the flaming torque screws and the access to them.

I found the front seats a piece of piss... it was the rear that was the bastard - a couple of screws had to be drilled out cos they wouldn't shift without rounding off the heads

 

Mark.

[dollywobbler]

I'm with Cavette - finding a way to get to two of the torque-headed bolts is a real pain. But I also agree about the back seat, having had two bolts shear. Neither job left me cursing that much though.