Worst vehicle that you have worked on

What is the worst vehicle that you have worked on as far as ease of repair, may it be an overly crowded engine bay, poorly designed parts, etc..

For me it would be my Mother in law's 97 Ford Explorer with the 4.0L SOHC motor, the engine bay is not overly crowded, its just poorly engineered for maintanence.

First off, to change the oil, the oil drain plug is convienently pointed at the lower a arm, so when you take the bolt out, it pours oil on the lower a arm making a huge mess everywhere, unless you have a funnel to hold and direct the oil into the drain pan.

I had to change the oxygen sensors, and Ford puts the sensors in clear view, easy to get to, but the electrical connectors are pinned to the top of the bellhousing where the engine and transmission meet, requiring removal of both inner fenders to remove, and everything attached to the fenders.

Also, the PCV valve required an internet search as to its location, for some reason, Ford decided to put it inline in a rubber hose behind the right hand cylinder head against the firewall, about 6" below the top of the valve cover, where you can only reach it with 2 fingers, and since its on a rubber hose, you need to somehow get another hand beneath it to support the hose to push it in.

Also, the air filter has quick release tabs on one side so you can pop them off, lift up the side, and slide the tabs out the other side, however, they are backwards, you have to compress the rubber intake hose to get the air filter cover off, which requires the strength of 3 people, so instead you have to dissassemble the air intake hose.

And to today, I had to replace the heater motor, which is on the firewall on the far right side in the engine bay. I had to remove the cruise module, but there is not enough room to wiggle the motor out, its about 1/4" too close to the washer fluid/engine coolant bottles, if it were designed to be 1/4" lower or further away it would come out no problem, so I go about taking the bottle out, 4 screws, 2 are good, one is blocked by the hood switch bracket which is a tiny bracket, so I had to remove that, and the last screw is between the airbox and coolant tank, angled towards the coolant bracket, and I cannot get a wrench on it since its in a hole, and using a universal joint does not work either, not enough room, so I go about removing the entire airbox. The lower air box has 4 nipples pushed into rubber grommets, 2 on the fender, and 2 on the bottom, 1 comes out, and the other bottom one is stubborn, I manage to break that out, which broke the 2 fender nipples out, and now most of the lower air box is all busted. But I was able to remove the nut holding the coolant/washer bottles on so I could move it ahead 1/4" and get the heater blower fan out.

A close 2nd for worst engine bay was my dads 94 Ranger with the 2.3L, no A/C, super open engine bay, but everything I touched involved 9X more work than it should. For example, changing the water pump or thermostat (cant remember was along time ago), 1 bolt was slightly obstructed by an overkill a/c / alternator bracket that had a square tab blocking off enough of the bolt that I could not get a socket on it. My dad is a mechanic, and he has yet to find a PCV valve on this motor, its somewhere in a hose that disappears behind the motor, we can hear it rattle, but can;t see in the hose where it is.

In 1994, we bought a 1988 GMC Suburban for Mrs. Cusser, actually was in pretty good shape.

We had this for 6 years. Over that time we found that EVERY sheet metal screw in it either was loose or became loose, like GM overtorqued them or drilled pilot holes that were simply too large. I ended up just replacing with larger screws; this included the little trim plates where the removable 3rd seat would go, which had absolutely zero stress on them, just covers. Preparing to return from vacation in San Diego (where we Arizona people go in summer), I found while packing it up that the roof rack (which we never had to use, Sub was so big) was about to fall off, so had to secure that in the hotel parking lot.

Another time the oil pressure gauge stopped working so I looked in the big FACTORY service manual I had purchased, and it said the oil sender was under the distributor, so I was darn glad I had the official manual. So I went to buy a replacement, took the sender to the parts store with me, and the oil sender they brought out was entirely different shape, but the sender for the idiot light looked like it. So we figured their computer must be wrong, took the identical sender. It didn't work, they gave me a different one, still didn't work. I talked a guy at GM dealer parts counter into letting me plug in a new gauge while in the parking lot to try, didn't work either. So I started looking around, found the CORRECT sender underneath, by the fuel filter; that matched what the parts guy had showed me, took care of that. In other words: I would've been TONS BETTER OFF NOT to have had the official service manual at all. You'd think that in a zillion pages that there would be something somewhere about the sender, but no: the section with the gauge specified under the distributor.

Also, even though a 1988, since GM had zero competition in that category then, it was really much more like a 1978 model than a 1988 model. When we later bought a used 1994 Sub, it was way-better engineered. And after 200K miles its replacement 2005 GMC Yukon is even better.

87porsche 944. Breaks down a lot, practically everything requires a specialty part or tool to adjust.

The specialty tools don't run cheap, most are directly ordered from PORSCHE or Bosch. They tend to do the job well enough, but $$$

And I do mean everything. From adjusting the timing belt, to adjusting the door handle pull, specialty tools all the way.

Also, car is cramped, and way too low to the ground. I guess that makes sense because of its sporty nature, but it is still a pain.

... and the power steering hoses like to explode and rain fluid down over rubber suspension components, causing them to crumble and rot with eager zeal.


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Now, for the most part, I like working on my B2600i. Its one of the easiest vehicles to work on available IMO (Very similar ease of repair to say, a corolla, or an old toyota truck. Mechanical simplicity plus ease of access)

But, I have a few questions for the designers, related to working on the thing.

1- Why the frack is the oil filter where it is? That thing bothers the bejebus out of me.

2- Why is chainging the air filter harder than removing the valve cover? Of all the places to design a component that should have easy access, I get the feeling that someone drew this design up in solidworks in under an hour and went home.

3- Those tiny little springs that hold the front brake pads on. For all the effort that went into making the brake change easy (even hinging the one part of the calliper, why wasn't a little more thought put iinto that design?

Imean, I guess its nice in a way to lift up that lever thing and be greeted with a sudden klatter as the brake pads fall to the ground, scatteriing the liititle springs, but there are better alternatives.

2004 Nissan Altima and Murano.

Horrendous designs and materials! The aluminum was so bad it corroded to the point of all suspensions parts had to be replaced in the rear end on a recall.

Nissan's "policy" requires you to buy an entire assembly not just fix the broken part. Cost $3K to fix the AWD spline (how th hell did the teeth break off the spline) when I could have spent less that $1K to fix it.

CVT transmission, NEVER AGAIN! The Murano has been a night mare!

You haven't seen a nightmare until you have worked on a 1990 - 2000 Toyota Previa van.. the engine itself is mounted under the front seats. The oil filler neck and dipstick are only accessible through an engine access hole located under the driver

You win...

But try changing the valve cover gasket on a 92 f150 straight six motor. You have to completely remove the intake system, another gasket have to buy. Plusthe horrendous fail ford does on running cables an hoses. Never again. Id let the b%#ch leak till it started pouring oil.. and then id still have to think about doing the job lol.

PT Cruiser head gasket.

Awe Damn it... Just spent like an hour typing out this long rant on my phone and the shit didn't post....... OK I'll sum it up... Dodge Dakota 4x4's suck... Just avoid, volkswagen vr6 engines are great engines until you need to change the spark plugs, 96 gmc Sonoma would have been shot repeatedly and burned in the desert... But it didn't make it out of city limits sad day... Really hated that truck and flames would have been great)... There was more but I don't feel like typing on my phone anymore lol

My b2200 has been the second best car/truck I've ever owned love everything about it... Sorry I'm still really partial to old vw's lol

1986 Hyundai Excel.
The fuel pump had an actuator rod that falls out of the cam follower. After fixing it 7 times, I mounted a pulse type electric FP to the firewall and called it good.

2003 Hyundai Santa Fe V6.
Just to remove the backside spark plugs, you have to disassemble the whole intake manifold first.

I won't work on front wheel drive cars anymore.

You and me both