Most difficult "easy" job?

The Continental Op

Just changing the pollen filter on a MK2 Focus. What a pain. Fuse board has to come out, fuse board hinge bracket has to come out. Also took out the glove box for better access and you still have 3 7mm hex head screws to take out while upside down working around all the cables and fuse board under the dash. Even then you can't slide the filter out in one as there isn't enough room.

Bet in the main dealers its the apprentice that gets the "easy" jobs like this.

Anyone else have any jobs that should be easy but aren't?

L1011

Front fogs on a huge number of cars, headlights on a fair few cars and there's a pile of Chrysler models in the US where to access the battery, you need to take the left front wheel out.

magicbastarder

a friend used to drive one of the famous meganes where the official advice to change a headlight bulb was to remove the bumper IIRC.

he once paid for the fitting in halfords when he bought a bulb and the guy behind the counter groaned when he realised what car it was and told him 'i've helped with difficult births of calves and they were easier than this'.

The Continental Op

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121937566#Comment_121937566

Ah! I see what you mean

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCutcihYpGU

Ryath

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058343480/most-difficult-easy-job

I thought the Mondeo Mk4 was bad. It was fairly cramped, pushed passenger seat right back and lay on the floor on my back. Getting glove box out was handy enough and much more room to work than the Focus. Still a job for small skinny lads though.

Searched to see how bad the Mk 2 Focus was the LHD is even worse, pedals need to removed! 😦

Thought the Megane had a hatch in wheel arch to access, them would still be much like assisting in calving though! Might be different generation I'm thinking of.

Mondeo was a headlight out job for bulbs, first time I did it I had to loosen the bumper to have room to manoeuvre them but I did get the knack later to get them in and out without doing it and much quicker.

Just reminded me I have my Zafira Tourer over seven and half years now and I've never had to replace a bulb bar a licence plate one which seems crazy. Thought Opels were meant to have bad electrics! Probably jinxed my self now!

banie01

Front lights on the big arse Mégane MK2 cabrio, you need the dexterity of vascular surgeon and the tiny hands of Trump to do it without taking the whole unit out,

magicbastarder

probably the same one i mentioned above?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXCZ2v-nIF4

looksee

Similarly difficult to change a light bulb on a Jazz, otherwise endlessly patient mechnic was giving out yards about the difficulties of doing the job, it had to be approached from within the wheel arch iirc.

hoodie6029

Any time you say ‘I’m sure this will only take a minute’ you instantly add 900% to the time it’ll take.

Midnight_EG

Wipers humble me regularly

sligopaul

rear wiper arm on 16 year old Clio, was practically welded on

banie01

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121937969#Comment_121937969

1 and the same, that wheel arch access panel is a nightmare.

HazeDoll

Changing a tyre should be the sort of thing absolutely any moderately able-bodied person can do on the side of the road in the dark.

My Kangoo has the spare under the van, accessed by twisting a bolt in the floor of the van that lowers the spare in a wire cage onto the road. You drag it out with great difficulty, swap it for the flat tyre, and then what? You can try to put the flat tyre into the wire cage and raise it back into position by messing around with the jack under the wire cage and the bolt inside the van. That takes a lot of trial and error, it's very frustrating and you're going to get your clothes filthy.

You could just throw the flat tyre into the back of the van and deal with it later but the wire cage won't stay in place without a tyre in it to stop it jumping out of place, so now you're driving along dragging the wire cage on the road under the van. You might manage to hold it up off the road using a cable tie or something but only if you're willing to spend a while scrabbling around blindly in the muck of the undercarriage looking for something to tie it to.

Brilliant.

MarkR

The focus pollen filter was a pig. I think I put it back together with duct tape before I sold it.

Padre_Pio

I think Mk5 golf air filter, which has 9 screws to hold on a plastic cover.

Why 9?

Why even use screws?

My volvo has a metal clip that takes 1 second to release.

BlakeS94

MK4 mondeo pollen filter is a nightmare but can be made easier by removing the fuse box entirely, makes the job longer but easier than trying to crush the filter in behind everything.

Rear Anti roll bar bushes have given me heartache in the past trying to get the bracket bolts threaded.

hoodie6029

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121938241#Comment_121938241

Or my mate with a Berlingo with a similar set up discovered they someone had nicked the spare at some point. Of course he discovered this when he had a puncture.

Another one. Pollen filter on my MK1 C5. Remove a little panel. Easy. The bolt keeping the filter cover in place is a 5.5mm bolt. FFS. Who has an effing 5.5mm socket?? In a car that is mostly plastic this is where they decide to splurge with some metal???

Can’t even remember what I used to get it off. A lot of cursing though!

Stallingrad

The Superb III halogen running lamp/sidelamp bulb replacement. Haven't done it but dreading it when it fails. The bulb is sealed into the housing with no access so you have to remove a wheel, wheel arch liner, then cut through the back of the unit to to remove the bulb.

What lunatic came up with that?

 

[Steve]

Ford didn't improve it much with the MK3. They put a wiring loom right in the way of the cover in the passenger footwell. Managed to slice my finger open during the procedure too. It's just a weird afterthought by them since every other service action on the MK3 is dead easy and accessible.

Lewis_Benson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121937727#Comment_121937727

Had a mk4 mondeo for 6 years. I became very familiar with the headlamp bulb process as it kept blowing bulbs. There is definitely a knack to it, until you forget it. I was doing huge milage and used to so oil and filters serving myself as was doing it every 3 months. They were easy enough to do.

Akrasia

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121937585#Comment_121937585

My old Saab 9-5 was the same. Headlight bulb replacement required the entire front bumber to come off.

Got good at it after owning it for 3 years and didn't realise that the socket was corroded the first few times I did it and the bulb kept blowing.

circadian

Cee'd headlight is in the same realm, either remove bumper or remove headlamp fitting at great peril of breaking the thing. Pollon filter, fuel filter and other parts are dirt easy compared to other cars though, so kudos there.

Furze99

I wonder do the lads who design these things, ever do basic maintenance themselves??

rob316

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121941032#Comment_121941032

Its like the EGR on VW's, it is almost gauranteed to go yet they put it at the back of the engine which is the biggest bollox of a job to do.

Yeah Right

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121941032#Comment_121941032

It's by design, most of the time. So you can't be arsed doing it yourself and bring it to a [insert car brand here] mechanic.

teediddlyeye

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121942261#Comment_121942261

No its not, manufacturers don't make money from labour. But they do pay for labour under warranty.

Engineers that design them couldn't put together a meccano set.

barneygumble99

Pollen filter on a mk2 Megane , clutch pedal has to come out on some models. I’ll never do one again. Need to be a contortionist.

Padre_Pio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121941032#Comment_121941032

Probably a thousand people designing components in an engine bay and they barely talk to each other.