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The Mostest Frustrating cars you have repaired
Topic Started: Mar 7 2016, 03:06 PM (2,087 Views)
Bluebomb


I have two vehicles that I will never work on again. First the 2006 Nissan Murano was absolute hell to replace the power steering pump. This took me about 6 hours and I was doing for a friend for free. Second is changing the timing belt on a 1995 Mercury Tracer. You have to remove the front right tire and inner fender and take motor mount loose to let engine drop 4 inches so you have enough room to get to the belt. That was a long job also.
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Hanuman
"The Almighty Grounds Cleaner"

sser2
Mar 9 2016, 09:27 PM
cwatkin
Mar 8 2016, 11:20 PM
The G10 Geo Metro is by far the easiest car I have ever worked on.

Conor
Metro has a few bugs too.

To replace water pump, need to remove and re-install timing belt.

Use of Philips screws with Loctite, particularly on fuel injector cover. I replaced mine with hex bolts.

Coolant pipe attachment to manual transmission in later models. When removing tranny, have to remove the pipe or risk breaking off attachment straps.
I didn't revise the water line was billed to the tranny on my 97....got a complimentary coolant flush.... :smackface
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CaptainMetro
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Isuzu Trooper (4x4) clutch job on the ground without a lift; total misery.
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cwatkin


I don't like the coolant tube either. That is a pain.

Many engines with timing belts have the water pump as part of the system or in the same area as the belt. At least this one doesn't have the pump running off the belt.

No car is perfect but the G10 Metro is by far the easiest I have worked on overall. I will let everyone know how the first oil change on the Mirage goes. I also plan to change the manual transmission fluid soon after break-in too which is another very easy job on the Metro.

Seriously, how many cars are there where you can just lift the old engine out and put a new one in? I think I could swap an engine on the side of the road if needed.

Conor
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soupysloth
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Member
[ *  *  * ]
most frustrating would probably be my old 1st gen talon tsi everything was so packed in there and a pain, easiest would be my mk2 supra, mr2, and rx7 oh and cant forget the metro
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Murf 59
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Early Alfa Rameo trans axle. It was a trans axle, flywheel and clutch assy, and in board disk brakes all set up in one component. Just getting it out of the car took an act of god. Not to mention if you had to work on the gear driven fuel injection. It was all a bunch of gears.
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truckjohn


The most frustrating ever was a mid '90's Chevy sedan. It used every single size of wrenches known to man. It used multiple different metric and standard size bolts to he every single component on. They used metric heads on standard thread fasteners and standard heads on metric threaded fasteners. They also used Allen and both 6 and 8 point star head fasteners - including male star sizes. It was like 2,000 flavors of different fasteners all sized between 1/4" and 1/2".

The worst part of all of that is that it would have been a relatively simple job otherwise.

Next worst was a late 1990's Toyota. That sucker had like 1,400 miles of vacuum hoses in a great big snarl under the hood. I think the rear view mirror had 6 or 8 vacuum hoses attached to it

Last one was a 1972 Ford F-250 highboy 4x4. It was dirt simple and easy enough to access but every single part was made of cast iron and weighed 600 lbs. The starter and alternator were both the size of a 5 gallon paint can and weighed like 100 lbs. ithe vehicle was relatively indestructible... We ran over enough trees in the woods to prove that... And it would pull anything you could hook up to it. But when you finally did break something - God help you.
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sser2
sser2

cwatkin
Mar 10 2016, 01:27 PM
I don't like the coolant tube either. That is a pain.

Many engines with timing belts have the water pump as part of the system or in the same area as the belt. At least this one doesn't have the pump running off the belt.

No car is perfect but the G10 Metro is by far the easiest I have worked on overall. I will let everyone know how the first oil change on the Mirage goes. I also plan to change the manual transmission fluid soon after break-in too which is another very easy job on the Metro.

Seriously, how many cars are there where you can just lift the old engine out and put a new one in? I think I could swap an engine on the side of the road if needed.

Conor
In my '82 Nissan Sentra, cam was driven by timing belt, but water pump could be replaced without removing the timing cover.

Starter could be accessed from top, with a very clear view of everything.

It had vacuum/centrifugal ignition advance, 2-barrel carburettor with adjustment screws, adjustable valve lash, no electronics, and an AC that could be re-charged with a can of freon-12 by looking at bubbles in the sight glass. The upgrade that came in 1987 changed to throttle body injection and ECU.

There were tons of space around everything, layout purposely designed with a mechanic in mind.

I replaced clutch in it without jigs, holding the tranny in my hands.

I have very fond memories of that car. It was my first one, and thanks to it, I got into the hobby of wrenching.
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68custom


Johnny Mullet
Mar 8 2016, 08:47 PM
ANYTHING on Ford 6.0L or 6.7L diesel engines. And they break down a lot!
try adding a compressor for a CAFS system under the hood of a 12 or 13 with the 6.7! PITA! ^o)
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Ephemeral Glade
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I helped a friend take apart his suspension press in new bushings on his late 80's( ?), Land Rover. Man! Those pieces were like tractor parts.
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don_dowdy
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The old aluminum block Vega engines used the water pump as a timing belt tensioner, so it had to slide back and forth without leaking. They also reqired a special tool to compress four of the valve springs at one time just to get the cam out. Creative engineering, with a good dose of insane. I had a 80s Sentra once upon a time. Put a clutch in, everything is going good, all back together, pushed the pedal for the first time. Plop. Throwout bearing falls off. Took about six tries to get the throwout to stay in place. Compression was so low on that thing that you could put your hand on the alternator pulley and turn the engine. Alternator was on the bottom, drowned if you went through a puddle.
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nwgeo


96 to 2002 Chrysler mini van.... remove and replace power steering pump.... good luck, got to remove alternator and brackets to get it out the top.... factory wants you to remove the intake manifold. alternator not much more fun. Also, the power steering lines, man you have to have arms and tools like a rubber monkey to reach and loosen/tighten.
And lastly, the middle back spark plug, you can get to all the others but the middle back one you have to get from underneath the car with multiple wooble extensions and hope your arm is long enough.... oh man what a alskdfjaldkfj pain.

Lastly Geo electrics.... not so good, engine easy, electric bad, Like right now I am chasing the red wire to the head lights that the light switch takes to ground but it is somehow hot all the time, Then also the hot from the fuse block sends a hot at all times to the head lights but only one is hot(both fuses good) so wire is broken or fried apart. No relay so it is a wacked system.... IMHO should switch the hot not the ground, should not have a hot always hanging out there always going to the light, a recipe for a battery drain through a partial ground.

Lastly on the geo, most are aware of the bad head light connector in the fuse block near under the sterring wheel which corrodes/over heats apart, and the corresponding weak contact points in the steering column swtiches... not to bad to get apart... just don't last.

Last bad.... wheel bearings on VW golf.... good luck pressing them apart.... very very tight.
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Tinker1980
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I'd have to nominate my 1988 Isuzu Trooper that I thankfully no longer own. It broke down constantly. It had a multiport fuel injection setup, long before anyone had figured out how to make one dependable. It had miles of vacuum lines. And every single thing you had to do under the hood started with "Remove the Power Steering Pump".

One that could have been frustrating to work on, was the 1995 Jeep Grand Cherokee I used to own. It had the 5.2 V8, and there was NO room under the hood. The thing is... it never gave me any trouble. Rock solid dependable vehicle.

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Stubby79
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The rusty ones.
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