Look, as a person involved with manufacturing, I’m not about to claim that some automotive engineer was trying to make my life difficult. There are so many factors in the development of products that occasionally the ease of serviceability falls down the list, and it isn’t their fault.
That isn’t going to stop me from complaining about the car brands as a whole, however. I’ve seen many design decisions that seem to defy any logic, especially when there are other cars that do the same things much better.
One complaint I have about my ancient Lexus is actually a much broader issue with modern cars: those dumb-ass engine covers. As expected, I rarely ever open the hood of my Toyota-made product, but when I do, I really, really need to access stuff. I do not want to remove half a dozen fiddly fasteners to get to the damn battery when the battery finally dies in the school pickup line. These covers are pointless, strictly for looks, and in this case, it’s on a car that absolutely no owner opens the hood of to look at anything anyway.
I hate these things, and the excuse that some say about how they “reduce noise and protect components” is total crap as well. How do I know? Well, if you had bought the same-year, nearly identical Toyota Land Cruiser version of my Lexus LX570, you can see that it has virtually none of the offending covers. Wow, the battery is right there!
I don’t think the “noise level” is any less in the “luxury” Lexus version; it’s just plastic garbage to let it “compete” with other high-end SUVs. You want to cut noise? Put padding on the bottom of the hood as they did for half a century.
A different but equally maddening part of the 2007 E61 BMW 530Xi wagon that I owned (and is now in the custody of Mercedes Streeter) had to do with the head-up display. I bought it used with this rare option, and I was able see it easily, but the primary driver (my 5-foot-2 wife) could not. As I recall, on most GM products with this feature, you simply adjusted the height with a dashboard switch; it took seconds. On the BMW? To adjust it, you need to remove the center screen, loosen a bolt, and then turn a different bolt to set the height.
That’s bad enough, but the bolts were WAY down in the dash, to the point that you needed pretty much every socket extension in my set. I probably lost a socket as well; Mercedes Streeter received at least half a dozen free, hidden 10-millimeter sockets when she got my car.
What about your nightmare design-induced wrenching experiences? Try to keep your swearing to a minimum, but I fully understand how you feel.
Top graphic image: Lexus
Changing the headlights in a 2017 Jetta requires removing the bumper cover, going through the wheel well and tearing half of the front end apart.
I’ve replaced headlights before with 3 accessible bolts in a 2000ish Taurus in about ten minutes.
That last rear sparkplug on that Taurus was a bitch…
The passenger side headlight on the 2010 Prius involves some disassembly of the engine compartment, but at least Toyota used distinctive bolts on the parts you need to remove.
Anything from VW. But replacing a rear door lock module in a Mk4 Jetta is especially fiendish. And they are – of course – very prone to failure (and needlessly complicated).
Surprisingly, my Phaeton has been a peach in terms of mechanical stuff. VW Group products use a very engine-forward longitude layout much of the time, but the timing belt/water pump/thermostat job wasn’t bad at all. There are even pins you can buy that slide the condenser/radiator carrier six inches forward, so that you have enough room to work on the front of the engine.You do have to remove the front bumper cover and bumper iron, but that took about ten minutes
Peach or Piëch ?
I was waiting for that one!
Yes, I made my own service position pins. To replace the thermostat on a Mk5 with BPY, even though accessible from the front, you have to remove the DI fuel injector rail and all the injectors. So then you get to do a fuel injector o-ring replacement job as well.
Not mine, my Brother’s. And it was the oil filter placement on his ’02 Bravada. At least they put a little deflector in there for the oil…but reaching past the tire was not fun.
With the coolant crosssover on Fords 3.8 essex V6, its almost like they dont want you to stick on a cobras supercharger!
But also Honda. Adjusting the parking brake on my 2017 accord required removing the rear of the console and disconnecting the rear vents. Left them off to fine tune. Which for some reason disables the proximity key.
The driver’s side pop-up headlight motor’s plug was hidden in a pretty unreachable place. In general, servicing – even just bulb replacement – for the pop-up headlights on this Firebird was unnecessarily difficult. There was plenty of space, it was just so inefficiently designed you couldn’t access anything. Changing a bulb or fixing a motor was a frustrating exercise in bending plastic, scratching trim pieces, and tearing the skin off your hands.
Honorable mention to the POS Cobalt I got for my kids and it’s lack of a transmission fluid dipstick. Want to flush/top off that transmission? Good luck, sucker.
Thank you – I always wondered about popups, given that they came largely on cars from a less technologically-sound time!
I previously owned a 1994 Trans Am and it was night and day. Everything was much easier to access and I even rebuilt headlight motors that weren’t supposed to come apart. It was so easy to work on I wrongly assumed the 3rd Gen would be the same. I was so wrong. I daily an NA Miata (the third NA Miata I’ve owned), and I’d tell you about what it takes to repair those headlights… except they have never, EVER failed. Go figure.
The accessory belt on my Colorado with the 2.8l Duramax is, in theory, very easy to replace. There’s plenty of room between the radiator and the front of the engine. But GM, probably for NVH reasons, put a bunch of little winglets around the outside of the fan shroud and some of the sit right in the way of easily getting a breaker bar on the belt tensioner. Ran into the same thing when replacing the alternator pulley. After tearing my hands up a bit, I just grabbed a zip disc and cut a few of them off.
Honorable mention to the CV axle, which is juuust long enough that you have to fully remove the knuckle to r&r it.
I forgot to complain about replacing the starter on a Northstar.
PT Cruiser timing belt is exceptionally miserable. New Volkswagens in general are all terrible.
Toyota Oil Filters
Sometime around 2005, Toyota decided to stop using canister oil filters. I stopped doing oil changes myself soon afterward. I did an oil change on my wife’s van and the first thing was that all that “drain the filter through..” didn’t work, it just dumped oil on me. Then getting multiple O-rings to align and stay in position was a royal PITA. Worth $30 or so more to let them fuss with it.
Then, in Toyota’s infinite wisdom, they changed from metal to plastic parts making cross threading and cracking something easy to do, where replacement parts aren’t cheap. So, going to a quality oil change center where if they break it is a good thing.
But that saves the trouble of using a can opener on the filter to see what’s in there.
Everyone inspects their filter, right?
Honestly, don’t want to know. If the oil comes out shiny or looking like a Milkshake, it’s just “well, change it, cross my fingers and hope.”
@Jason Noiles, @David
Lotta hate in here for heater cores. I think it may be undeserved. It almost has to be buried, its not just how the system is designed, but I think it may be how the system has to be designed.
So, a challenge, can you design a dash that incorporates heat and AC without making it a bear to get to and without sacrificing the rest of the interior?
Never! Similar to Earth, I swear some vehicles were entirely built around the heater core.
Aircooled Volkswagens Porsches and Corvairs have assembled in the parking lot and would like a word with you, sir.
Uh huh, the heater boxes and associated tubing would like a word with you.
If you’re supplying heat, its a bear
I actually removed the heater stuff on my 914/6. Come to think of it, about half the vehicles on the farm had heaters that were blocked off when they malfunctioned because they were too much of a pain in the ass. Other unheated cars because my grandfather would buy stuff from the car dealer at the end of the year when the floor model with the low price painted on the windshield that nobody else would buy because it did not have the optional heater installed got discounted.
Still got the parts? Working on gathering stuff for Dad’s 914/6
Who TF is Jason Noiles and how did he get in my comment…
A few years ago the shop wanted something like $500 or $700 to do the ball joints on my wife’s Prius. I though that was kind of a lot for some simple suspension work so I went for it myself. Turns out the ball joints in that generation are attached to the steering knuckle by a very low profile castle nut with a huge flange, and 15 winters worth of rust had done it’s work. Every attempt to loosen it resulted it more and more deformation of the nut, and there was hardly any room to work. I eventually had to use a cutting wheel on a dremel to get a flat face on the edge of that flange and go after it with an air hammer to knock it loose. Since the thing it was threaded on to is a free moving stud I had to simultaneously grab on to the other end (after cutting the boot off) with a pliers or vise grips or something and hold onto it to prevent it from slipping. Easier said than done.
All said and done I’d have much rather paid the 500 bucks.
2012 Outback 2.5L – Annoyed by things you have to do OFTEN
2006 Yamaha FJR
MGF: Removing the starter motor. It’s way down in the murky depths of the engine bay. If you remove the rear wheel for better access, you will need all the extensions on your wrench. The bolts are VERY tight. And finally, on the other end of the bolts there are nuts. Non-captive nuts which are not only even harder to reach than the bolts. But you also have to start them with only a rough idea of where you are and what you are doing if you ever want to install the bloody thing again.
Has anyone ever actually met any underbody tray that looks like it was designed to last ~200,000 miles and be removed more than once or twice?
Yours is currently the first response, and I came here to post same. Both front and middle underpans on my car kept losing fasteners and dragging. Since I live in Florida my mechanic suggested they be removed after several instances and I told him please do.
2015 Fit. I thought it was model specific until I read Jason’s article about the same issue.
Yes, because I’m a vain fool and I ordered the off road package for my Maverick, so it’s a metal skid plate instead of a plastic underbody tray. I’m punished for my vanity every time I change my oil.
You’re actually not being punished. The plastic trays on my 2 similar Fords (C-Max and Escape) is a total pain in the rear. They take 2 different size torx bits to remove, and they screw into easily stripped plastic.
This is the one that gets me – I don’t generally do major repairs but the fact that I need to remove 3-4 different fastener types including 2 different sized torx bits to do an oil change led me to buying the dipstick pump to change the oil on my last 2 Audis.
Yes, on my 2 early 90s BMWs. A 330 and a X3. They easily come off and on with captive 1/2 turn screws with Philips heads. Easiest belly pan to remove by far of any I’ve encountered.
The undertray on the Elise has to be removed before you can jack the car up, because it covers the jacking points.
Unless you’ve had to service your own Elise for nine fucking years, on gravel, I don’t want to hear any princesses complaining about undertrays.
Although the actual undertrays coped fine with being removed and refitted several times a year.
When I just started wrenching on vehicles, my first pickup was a 1967 C-10 with the simple 250 straight-six and a column-shifted 3-speed manual. When I bought it it had around 345,000 miles on it according to the guy I bought it from.
After a few years, it needed a new clutch so I bought a Haynes manual and set about removing the drive shaft, the carrier bearing and the transmission. Then in the manual, it had the most infamous three words: Remove The Bellhousing.
I hated those three words. I ended up having to buy a whole bunch of 3/8″ extensions and swivel joints for my meager socket set. Which required multiple trips to the hardware store. I remember it taking longer to “Remove The Bellhousing” than the entire rest of the disassembly and re-assembly combined.
I hated those three words.
Looking back, I was so naive back then.
I mean, you have to remove the bellhousing bolts no matter what, just on some transmissions the bellhousing is attached to the transmission permanently.
My old E34 Touring, none of them. It was a delight, although somewhat pricey, to work on. My presently owned E82, all of them. It’s a nightmare.
2007 WRX: Spark plug change (one specifically). Nearly impossible, little clearance to use tools.
2001 Miata: Oil filter is in a really awful place, nested on the side of the engine amid many other components, hard to reach without cutting your hand or removing things.
2018 Honda Odyssey: The oil filter is right above a subframe, so it makes a giant mess. (Just read now on a forum that people use ziplock bags to prevent that… damnit.)
JIS screws. I just want the screws to come out, man. You’re telling me I have to buy a specific screwdriver set in order to get my dash out without turning the crosses into circles? And I can’t just zip them out with a power drill otherwise I have instant round holes? Oh and in already halfway through taking out my dash now with a bunch of useless screws and a bunch of glitter? This was months ago and I still get a headache when thinking about it.
You did this wrong. The thing to do is buy a set of JIS screwdrivers and throw away your old Philips ones. I did this a long time ago, and now rarely even touch my Philips screwdrivers.
My beloved NC Miata has a “turret oil” reservoir in the manual shifter that requires disassembling the center console, sucking out the old oil with a syringe and replacing with exactly the right amount so there’s enough in there, but not so much that it will overflow.
I think replacing captive rotors on the 94 Accord had to be the worst thing I ever dealt with for what should have been a simple brake job. Glad to see that concept was short lived…
Since we’re airing grievances, I got a lot of problems with you pressed in wheel bearings! The last one I did, the spring clip was rusted in there so badly I had to cut it out with a Dremel tool. Over the years I’ve finally gotten good with the pressing part. I know it probably cost a little more in $ and weight, but a wheel bearing assembly that bolts to the steering knuckle is a much more pleasant experience.
Yes, this whole design concept is bad. Just make them bolt in.
I’ve got two favorites on my Suzuki SX-4:
1) The oil filter is nestled in the crooks of the exhaust manifold where it reduces from four into one pipe. Makes changing the oil when it’s warm kind of a balancing act of having the oil actually warm vs not toasting my hands on the manifold. Oh, and did I mention that there’s only just enough room to get my hands in between the engine and the radiator?
2) The alternator. Oh, the alternator. Step one for replacing the alternator in the FSM is “remove the intake manifold”. What. The. Fuck. An alternator is a wear item. Basically every car will need a new alternator before the engine needs work that otherwise requires the removal of the intake manifold. The FSM also claims that you need to replace all of the seals between the intake manifold and the head when you dismount it from the engine. Thanks, guys! There’s also a goodly amount of “stuff” attached to the intake manifold, of which I was able to remove only most of it without risking breaking something. I got it floppy enough to get my hands (and an impact gun) down in underneath it and get the alternator out. Getting the new one in was a treat since access to line up the bolts was nigh impossible and involved dropping the alternator several times. At the end of that job, my arms were scratched up like I’d given a cat a pill. Unofficially, it’s possible to take the strut off the LCA and pull the alternator through the wheel well, but IIRC, I ran into something seized that precluded going that route.
VW 2.0L turbo engine with a plastic oil plan and a plastic drain plug. Factory recommendation is to replace the drain plug EVERY. OIL. CHANGE. And if you don’t get it torqued just Goldilocks not-too-loose-or-too tight, it will leak.
This is one of the big upgrades with the 4th gen EA888, went back to a metal pan and plug.
Doubtful by the time I replace this car I’ll be getting another VDub
#%^*!ing all of them.
Just this weekend I performed my first DSG service on my mk8 GTI. Learned for this generation that the filter had been moved to the back of the transmission in the doghouse area, there’s a secret second drain plug behind the front air dam, and trans oil temp is not available over the public CAN. I also managed to douse thegarage in slippery DSG fluid while fumbling with the gravity fill tool.
I was quoted $1200 from the local euro shop. And unfortunately, I kind of get it after doing it myself…
Recently I was cursing Honda when I did an transmission fluid and filter change on my wife’s Acura. The filter is on top of the transmission but buried under a bunch of other stuff. Held in place by two hose clamps that can only be touched by feel with my arm bent at a weird angle. What happened to just dropping the transmission pan?
And it’s not even like they are considering the pain of their Dealer technicians when considering design.
I work in the semiconductor industry and we use to get adjustment on thing that had Zero margin for error. One vendor made the designer come out and do it himself to show him what he did wrong.
Commandment number one in car design should “thou shall not design anything you have not worked on before” so sayth the Carlord.
Honda automatics have never had a transmission pan. Don’t know why they had to be so contrary, but yeah, filter changes are a pain. Most people just drain and refill.