For those who work on cars for a living, what was the hardest car you've worked on?

Hopefully, this isn't a rehash of an old topic but I had my SAAB serviced. It is a 2004 SAAB 9-5 AERO.

I had an alternator exchanged. The technician said it was very difficult. They had to cut the exhaust to dismount the engine and lower it to get at the alternator.

What everyone's opinion is on the hardest make/model of car to work on. Was it a bad design?

Conversely, what's the easiest car to work on? Certain brand/model of car?

 

1980 BMW 320
I've never hated working on a car as much as that piece of shit. It belonged to my best friend and it was very difficult and temperamental.

 

^ my brother had a 1980 320i E21, I worked on a few times. Fairly straightforward BMW, easy compared to his 1988 M6.


Worst car for me to work on? Porsche 928, easy extremely cramped engine bay. Electrical nightmare, belonged to a friend of mine. He's a gluten for punishment, he's owned two 928's.

 

^^^ 944's are in the same boat.. electrical is a bitch.

 

Hardest I've worked on - MR2 Turbo. I'm not a mechanic, but tinker here and there.

 

Anything made by VW.

Even changing the air filter on a 1.8T motor required the removal of half the engine. (half sarcasm, half true)

 

Getting at the spark plugs in my Subaru is a pain in the @$$. Boxer motors make it impossible unless you raise the car, remove the front wheels, AND have a good angle joint on your socket wrench.

 

Worst:



Best:

 

^I was just about to say Nissan 300Z. Absolutely no room, specially in turbo.

 

Mini's

 

Yes.

 

911 or boxster. They are so tight to even get your hands anywhere near the middle where everything is.

 

I'm gluten-free.

I think you mean glutton.

 

300zx TT for sure.. boxer engine suck especially when u need to plugs or valve cover gasket.

 

Damn spell-checker

 

We had a few Beetles traded in when I as working for Chevrolet in college. Huge pain to get to anything under the hood.

 

this. Air cooled aren't bad but boxsters suck to work on. If you don't have a lift you basically have to tear the car apart.

 

Came here to say 300zx... but 3000GT as well lol

 

Audi S4's that damn v6t or the v8 version of them are crammed!


My 2012 Maxima, to change rear spark plugs I have to remove complete intake system and manifold off. A/C and alternator removal requires the radiator/fans to come out.


The STIs aren't that easy either to work on since its a boxer engine.

 

The bolded part is very common for transverse V6s. The part after that... well that's just fucking dumb. Fans/shroud only, or radiator only? Would mean a coolant drain & refill + flush procedure too, if the latter.

What's also fucking dumb is some '90s VWs required a manifold removal too... but on a 4-cylinder. Or at least it was in the way. Nice job turning 5-minute job into an hour+

 

Acura 2002 CL-S is easy by comparison

1. remove upper strut brace
2. remove actuator bracket
3. remove and install plugs while laying on engine


Subaru

support front of car on jack stands
remove splash shield from bottom of front
start on either side and reach up and remove and install plugs one at a time

 

I never had to remove the strut brace on my CL, and I had the factory braces and the Neuspeed brace. I did have to remove the imrc motor and bracket though.

As far as Subaru goes, that depends on the Subaru. Some require you to lift the engine slightly.

 

much easer if you do imho, and it only takes a few moments

 

Haven't worked on many cars but my 06 Subaru WRX STi was pretty awkward because of the boxer engine. Working on the S2000 is incredibly easy by comparison.

 

Not sure how different the CL is under the hood to the TL, but I didn't have to remove anything when I did my plugs ('00 TL-P). A little tight squeezing between the strut brace & engine, but it worked.

 

Under hood, not very different at all. The biggest difference is the base CL/TL don't have the IMRC system, so you don't have the actuator mounted to the rear valve cover.

 

Haven't worked on as many cars as you guys have but I remember trying to change the battery on this thing after I dropped the SC on top of it.

 

Land Rover Discovery

Coils are behind the engine on top of transmission against the fire wall. Have to take the whole top of the engine off to change plugs. Everything about them sucked to work on.... and everything anyone's every heard about them is true! I had to change coils and plugs 3 times in 2 years at $800 a pop!

 

If you installed the S/C, why didn't you just do a battery relocation? I know you saw that becoming an issue...


As far as difficult cars to work on, The Ford Ranger V6 is not so simple. It may not be the most difficult in every aspect, but things that should be straight forward are awkward - like changing the spark plugs. The engineers of that Ford should be shot.

 

Three P's....piss poor planning on my part. Ended up doing that anyways and just leaving the battery up front disconnected.

 

I never said it wouldn't work, I said it would be easier without the bar in the way and it is cause you do not have work around it.

 

True. I definitely removed the bar (along with a lot of other stuff) when I did my VC gaskets.

 

just did spark plugs on my forester and it was really easy... remove intake and washer fluid tank. 45min tops with new wires installed

 

Golf IV VR6

 

Same. iirc there's really only ONE rear spark plug that's a real pita to get to.

 

I had to replace my battery as well with the blower in the way. I removed the intake silicone elbow and the 4x bolts that hold the super charger elbow to unit. Start to finish was about 20 mins.

 

Yep... and the Passat W8. VW seems to like fitting huge engines into small bays. Even my 1.8T Passat has a bunch of plastic that makes doing anything a PITA.

Heck, I have to remove the coolant overflow tank just to get at the oil filter.


I wonder what working on a Cayman is like, considering that car doesn't technically have a hood. Do you have to do everything from underneath the car?

And this is what you see when you open the hood of the 991 911: