This is why I pay people to do things for me.


1) Lexus SC430: to change the headlight bulb, instructions require you to remove the grill, front bumper, and inner fender liners; and completely remove the headlight housing. FOR A HEADLIGHT BULB!

Page 2 of 5 of instructions to change bulb:




2) Harley Vrod Muscle: to change the battery, instructions require you to remove the fairings, tank, air intake, coolant reservoir, and expose the engine's cylinder heads. TO CHANGE THE BATTERY!!

Halfway done. Battery is in the front & underneath of the airbox.




3) Ducati Multistrada 1200: to change the front turn signal LED strip, the connector for the LED wire was underneath the gas tank.

Bike completely disassembled to change the turn signal:





SHARE YOUR HORROR STORIES...

 

.......Opening the hood and finding something like THIS.



That's why, whenever I do a full-review, I always include how easy (or how difficult) it is underhood for those who prefer to do their own maintenance. Most people today, of course, don't any more, simply because of the mechanical and electronic complexity of even entry-level cars today.

 

That is just sloppy, embarrassing. design and engineering to require so many steps and removing so many parts off just to change light bulbs, batteries, drain/replace fluids, etc. Dealerships love it because they force owners to take it to dealerships and hose you for maintenance and repairs.

I have a few.

When I was changing my front brake pads on my pass side I could not get the bolt off to flip up the caliper, I could not get good leverage and it was seized. Sprayed PB blaster on it, heated it, would not budge. Should have been a 30min job at most and was again turning into a miserable DIY adventure of hours. Eventually I got so mad and just gave it my all on the bold, snapped the bolt head right off with the rest of the bolt in the caliper. Hopefully the neighbors were not out because they would have heard a earful of swearing for a few minutes. I was about to take another car to get another bolt and try to figure out how to headless screw out of that hole which I was dreading when for some reason I decided to try to just push the caliper up and it went up, it snapped off to where it allowed my to just flip the caliper up and I was able to back the rest of the screw out. It went okay after that.

I was doing a transmission flush on my moms car, thought it would be pretty easy after doing it on my car but was not going to happen, first they put a plastic piece above the transmission fill hole I could not remove and could not get a socket in there to loosen, then I decided to just drain it and worry about filling it later, the plastic clips kept breaking when I removed the bottom plastic cover which was infuriating me and then the when I went to take off the drain bolt it was round(no way to grip with a wrench/socket) and had a square hole in the middle so the only way to get in there was to stick the square socket attachment head inside the hole and turn, of course it would not budge even after lubricant. After some swearing and wanting to beat the person who put a drain bolt like that in there I gave it my all to loosen it and managed to snap the socket head off inside the square drain bolt hole. Beautiful, just what I needed. Had to take the car to pep boys and get them to remove the socket head, loosen the bolt, and get a new socket, after that it went pretty well.

No really a DIY story but I tried taking the tire off my car that was flat to put a spare on it when my new tires i ordered came in, I thought this would not be that difficult but my rim key had a crack in it and when I went to take the keyed bolt off, the bolt was of course way over tightened and the rim key snapped and I was unable to remove any tires now, thought I would not be able to put my new tires on anymore until I got a new rim key which could take weeks. I was furious, got so mad when I got in my apartment I kicked the couch and pretty much broke my toe. I called the shop and they said they should be able to get the rim key bolts off so I filled the flat tire with fix a flat and drove to the shop, I was a nervous wreck because it did not sound or feel right when I was driving and I thought any moment the tire could go flat and leave me stranded with no way to be able to change the tire/put on a spare. Luckily I made it and they could put the tires on while I just sat there in pain while my toe was swelling up and turning purple, I told him not to put any of the rim keys on and I will just put regular bolts on it.

I was helping someone do some work on a BMW, while he was under the hood the struts gave away and the hood slammed on his head and back, almost knocked him out and he was bleeding pretty bad. We had to stop and he had to stop the bleeding and put ice on his head.

 

Changing the radiator out on my 1993 Toyota truck. Shouldn't have been that hard of a job, but this truck had been hit in the front. So the core support wasn't completely straight. And the old radiator and fan shroud was held in there with a combo of factory fasteners and cobbled together nuts and bolts from the hardware store.

Also the radiator I bought from Advance auto was a pos "universal fit", meaning it was meant for more than just one car, it had several bolt holes to mount it up. Between the core support not being straight, not having the factory fasteners, and I'm sure the bolt holes not being 100% correct on this new radiator, it took me about half an hour to get the old one out and 4 hours to get the new one in. Had to take that SOB out 3 or 4 times and drill new mounting holes because none of the ones in it would line up with the holes on the truck.

What really aggravated me was the next week I was at the dealer for some other parts and just asked them what a radiator for that truck cost. $115 for an OEM Toyota unit, pos part from advanced was $90. I would've had that OEM radiator in there in about an hour.

 

This is actually an amazingly easy car to work on. I've taken out my rear reclining seats by removing two bolts on each seat, guys do their own water pumps for less than $100, glovebox and nav unit can all be removed in less than 10 min. I was amazed at how well engineered the LS 460 is. Not saying I'd want to tackle a head gasket, but luckily they are reliable.

Mine would be removing and replacing a Ford Escort engine in less than 24hrs before a 15 hr each way roadtrip with a newborn. Yes, that was a nightmare. Did it all at the garages on Camp Lejuene by myself. Was quite a bit hostile on the ride home. Engine was great though.

 

There are benefits to covers though. They help reduce noise and keep engine bays cleaner and less susceptible to dust debris build-up. What there needs to be is a happy medium. Most Lexus engine covers simply 'pop off' from three points. The issue is the outlying covers which use the pop screws. Redesign the outer covers with a mounting point underneath them and it would be a non issue

 

The headlight thing is ridiculous. My friend, she had an early-mid 2000's VW Turbo Beetle, manual trans. Headlight went out, pops the hood, cannot figure out how to get to the back of the headlight. There are no screws on the front to take the cover off either. Takes it to the dealer, they charge her $130 to change the bulb, have to take off the wheel and inner fender.

I mean come on, this is your entry level economy car, it needs to be cheap to service. Sold that car after a year due to a couple of random electrical problems that would cause the car to go into "limp" mode, dealer never could fix it. Car was 5 years old and only had like 25,000 miles on it, looked immaculate.

 

Yes, I understand the anti-noise issue with the covers. But that could also be taken care of by thicker, more effective underhood insulation-pads, which rise up out of the way with the hood and don't block access to components.


Lexus, of course, is not the only manufacturer that does this. Mercedes, in particular, is also known for playing Hide-and-Seek.

 

CONSIDER THIS:

Now that automobiles need to be more technologically comprehensive, with pending standardized safety features such as reverse cameras and auto-stop tech, computers, & machinery; plus the idea of making more spacious cars with smaller footprints, cramming everything in a compact package:

WILL DIY MAINTENANCE GET WORSE?

 

I hate to say it but it will get worse. Which is kind of hard to believe.

One of the worst offenders of being hard to work on now days are turbodiesel pickup trucks. Now days they mount the engine down and further back, having it halfway under the cab and cowl.

The easiest way to get the engine out or do headgaskets on a Super Duty Ford pickup truck is to lift the cab off the frame. Yeah, that's real DIY friendly. And most guys that own those diesel trucks have turned a wrench or two in their lifetime and aren't afraid of working on the truck themselves. I mean you just want to talk about bad design, go look at a 6.0 diesel Ford truck.

 

It's definitely not getting any better.

My friend recently showed me how much trouble goes into changing a battery in his BMW E92 335i. He was shocked that I could buy a top-of-the-line Bosch Platinum AGM Group 24 for $170 and install it myself in 10 minutes while he has to dig out his battery from underneath a nest of harnesses, pay a premium for a less common battery size, and then pay to register the new battery in the car, which is a process I mostly understand but still find ludicrous that a BMW's electrical system is allegedly that sensitive.

That kind of crap keeps me on my path of potentially only ever owning two cars throughout my life. Because of that, I don't have any DIY stories of my own cars that were extremely frustrating. The only thing that came close was replacing the brake rotors on a friend's Mazda 6 back when I was younger and didn't own a full set of drill bits to punch out the two locking screws that were unsurprisingly frozen. I honestly don't remember what we did with the old rotors, but we got the new rotors on his car somehow.

 

Changed out the heater core on my '01 F-150. Required the entire dash to come out. It took me about a week of evenings working on it in my apartment complex parking lot. At the end of each night, I would bolt the steering column back into place and reconnect the gauge cluster so I could get to work the next morning. And while getting the dash out was a major pain, getting it back in was almost impossible because several of the screws were located such that once they came out, they were impossible to get back in.

 

Spark Plug change on my 2003 F150 5.4. You knew from the get go you would be donating blood during the task, no other way about it. Mine was even more difficult with the Procharger in the way, having to first remove a majority of the intake piping..

 

yeah i think it was with my 2gs i experienced that. you have to be an octopus to hold the left, right and middle of the dash in order to get some main bolts/screws in.

 

#8 sparkplug on a 1999 Z28 Camaro. It sits buried under the cowl, with the heater box right next to it giving you enough room to get your hand on it and a socket on it. I had to go to the auto parts store twice to buy several different swivel ratchet bits before I found a combo that would let me get my ratchet on it. It was a miracle I got the spark plug back in without cross threading it, my hand was more contorted than Houdini trying to put it back in there.