The hardest vehicle to work on...

[Idaho45guy]

Back in the `80's, when life in the automotive world was sunshine and roses, I bought a 1969 Ford Ranchero GT with a 390 CI V8 that needed a tune-up. Paid $500 to the original owner.

After replacing the points in about ten minutes, and the air filter in five minutes, I embarked on changing the spark plugs. I soon discovered that the driver's side rear plug required, according to my Chilton's Manual, that the motor mount be removed, and a jack deployed under the motor, in order to raise the motor about 2 inches. This would then allow access to the #8 plug due to clearance issues with the brake booster and steering column.

Back in the `80's, I thought this to be ridiculous.

Which it was. But in today's increasingly insane world of nonsensical reasoning and engineering, I continue to come across situations and engineering that defies all reason and sanity.

Today, I decided to check the air filter of my 2007 Chevy HHR.

Now, this vehicle was purchased new by my father and was promoted as a "retro" vehicle that evoked the styling of a `40's Chevy delivery sedan. Opening the hood reveals a very simplistic and spartan engine bay with a 2.0 liter 4cyl "Ecotec" engine that puts out more horsepower than any 6 or 8 cyl motor in the `40's.

However, checking the air filter proved beyond my capability as a seasoned engine re-builder, shade-tree mechanic, and person with above-average mechanical aptitude and abilities.

After studying the engine bay for a few minutes and poking around, I could not figure out how to access the air filter.

Let that sink in for a few minutes...

a 52 year old man, with decades of mechanical experience, years of building hot rods, and a love of mechanical engineering, could not figure out how to change the air filter on a 2007 GM vehicle...

I finally had to relent to searching YouTube on how to do it.

After watching the video, I do not feel bad one bit regarding my intelligence or mechanical aptitude.

The GM engineers who designed the air intake system should be ashamed.

No. They should be fired. Then brought into the public square in shackles and flogged and spat upon by the public for their absolute idiocy and failure in engineering.

What used to be a wingnut and 5 seconds was turned into two hand tools and three different processes in order to check a freaking air filter.

This is a perfect example of how America is failing and devolving into a 3rd world country right before our eyes.

[Mr_Sheesh]

The first time on anything new is always the hardest! Cars now seem built to force you to take it to the dealer for everything, I am starting to wonder when we'll see open source car designs, complete with 3d print files :p

[ebb]

I am hearing that just about anything done on a Ford diesel p/u will require the removal of the cab and front fenders and hood.

[rancher1913]

not anything, but it does make working on it a lot easier. most use their lift to raise the body as one piece and then have good access. my 78 chevy you can just crawl in the engine compartment.

[starnbar]

Ha my 69 dodge rt the only easy way I ever found to get #8 plug I drilled a hole in the inner fender well had a plastic plug for the hole made life a lot easier.

[Pressman]

My 2013 Dodge/Cummins has a filter for the exhaust control system located in the crankcase, it's supposed to be changed every 70,000 miles to the tune of $1500.00 to drop the pan and change it. 112,000 and it's still running ok on the original filter.

[robg]

sunbeam tiger with the v8 motor had to drop the motor to reach the rear plugs.

[bakerjw]

The Chevy Monza had rear plug access issues.

[farmerjim]

No problems getting to anything on my 95 Chevy Silverado 2500.

[Froogal]

I still do whatever is needed on my 70+ year old Farmalls. The 2012 Silverado goes to the dealer for routine maintenance.

[MrWolf]

Change a headlight bulb on a Toyota Primus. You need to basically remove the front end. Takes hours and going to the dealership you are looking at $400+. Just to change a headlight bulb.

[Gator 45/70]

I am hearing that just about anything done on a Ford diesel p/u will require the removal of the cab and front fenders and hood.

Yep, Mine ''gas model 5.0'' swallowed a valve on #4 cyl. Under warranty at the time, Cab off and in the air for a new block and head assy.

[Mal Paso]

My 2013 Dodge/Cummins has a filter for the exhaust control system located in the crankcase, it's supposed to be changed every 70,000 miles to the tune of $1500.00 to drop the pan and change it. 112,000 and it's still running ok on the original filter.

Thanks! I'll stick with my 04.5 Cummins/Dodge. I looked at all the Diesels when I bought it. You couldn't see the actual engine in ford or chevy, the dodge you could see past the engine to the ground. The power steering pump requires a crow's foot wrench but that is as bad as it's been so far.

My 08 Forester is easier to work on than the 06 or 97 Subarus I had. You can see the ground all the way around the engine. I did have trouble with the cabin air filter housing. I think it was designed to frustrate an Owner into taking the car to the Dealer.

[brass410]

69 cougar with 390 eng spark plugs, ladas any year rear wheel bearings, f150 ford 96 forward anything eng related pretyy much require cab lift, tigoun volkswagon starter, ford edge plugs and alternator, 02 sensors on acadia the engineers all sit around on a remote island, drinking fruity little drinks and laugh about the stuff they did on prodution vehicles I'm convinced after 38 years in the trade.

[memtb]

I had a ‘68 Torino GT Hardtop.....with the 390 GT engine. Yes the plugs where a “ party” to access! Pulling the starter was also fun. Removing one of the started bolts required enough extensions “stacked” together so you could insert the extensions from outside the front bumper, along the block to access the bolt! Once you figured out that about 2 1/2 to 3 feet of extensions and the route needed......a piece of cake!

Then there was replacing the spark plugs on a ‘64 Plymouth Valiant. The spark plugs were deep in the head ( sort of a hemi-head” design) with near zero clearance between the head and the top of the shock tower!

But, those were only access issues. My most recent adventure requires buying virtually non-existent parts.......an older vehicle that was never imported to the US. A 1988, Suzuki Jimny (very similar to a Samurai) Turbo. Wait for it.....a Turbo-Charged,543 CC , 3 cylinder, engine and factory AC! memtb

[TyGuy]

I feel modern German cars are engineered to be vengeance for the outcome of the world wars...

[memtb]

Ha my 69 dodge rt the only easy way I ever found to get #8 plug I drilled a hole in the inner fender well had a plastic plug for the hole made life a lot easier.

I’ve only heard this, but never verified.....the first year models Corvettes with V-8’s had same issue and cure! memtb

[kootne]

This guy got it exactly right.
https://www.tsln.com/opinion/baxter-black-my-kinda-truck/
Hope you enjoy,
Dennis

[contender1]

Boy, do I feel your pain & frustration.

And I have for about 35 years or so.

It started when an old girlfriend had to have her Nissan Pulsar clutch replaced. Had to pull the engine to do that. PIA.
Then a later issue with a Chevy S10 Blazer, doing a transmission fluid & filter service. Had to disassemble the exhaust manifold & move the exhaust system just for a 1/2" clearance to drop the transmission pan.

Like you, I'm quite capable as a mechanic & not lost in working on stuff.

But Due to the things I've seen being built, and HOW the engineers do stuff,, about 35 years ago, I developed a saying. (And I got chastised by another forum for posting this.)

"One of these days, I'll be in a social situation, and I'll ask somebody; "So, what do you do for a living?" and they reply; "I'm an automotive engineer". When the silly SOB wakes up in the hospital, I'll be right there,, to show him what happened,, AGAIN!"

Well, I've shared that sentiment for these last 35 years of working on vehicles. But about 3 years ago,, I was in Las Vegas, for the SHOT Show. One evening, sitting at a Blackjack table, we were all enjoying ourselves. There was a younger guy, (27-28) who looked to be a man's man. About 6'1"-6'2" & lean muscle. (I'm was 60 at the time.) He was sitting just past a lady at our table.
As we were all playing, we were also socializing. Someone asked him where he was from, and he replied; "New York." A few hands later, I asked him, "So what do you do for a living?" To which, he replied, "I work for General Motors, as an engineer."

My first thoughts in my head were; "Wrong town, too many cameras, & not enough bail money!"

A hand or so later, I asked him what he drove, & it was a Silverado. I then asked him if he did his own maintenance. He replied he did oil changes. I allowed; "No, real maintenance." He said; "We have a shop for that."

So, I couldn't stop myself, and gave him my decades old saying.

Then I proceeded to say that he really needed to quit listening to the bean counters & design things to where NORMAL maintenance could be easily performed. (Since I really didn't want to go to jail for knocking the hell out of him for the crap they design.)

He played a few more hands of BJ & left.

It proved to me that God has a serious sense of humor. He had heard my thoughts long enough to where he allowed my my social setting,,,, but in such a place to prevent me from actually doing what I dearly wanted to do. All my years of frustration of trying to do simple jobs on vehicles, that engineers prevented or made darn near impossible.
EXCEPT,,, that they WANT us to take our vehicles to the dealerships, pay outrageous fees for service, and often fail to even do it correctly themselves too!

Yep, I feel your pain & frustration,, all too well!

[popper]

Try changing the water pump on V6 (crosswise) buick - no room for wrench. 56 ford, plug is under the air box for heater. Olds J2, lift motor to get to plugs. Change clutch on SIL's (GM Isuzu sport) jap car with integral bell housing and 3 piece drive shaft. Change oil filter on Quad 4. List goes on. If you ever get to go through an assembly line, you will understand. Auto's are designed to be assembled cheap, not worked on.
I actually did change out a broken exhaust manifold on daughter's 4 cyd. Tempo, from underneath without pulling anything & just jack stand for clearance! Try that! And I said a few bad words.

[Dunross]

One of the very few virtues of growing older is that I am no longer forced to work on my cars for being too poor to afford a real mechanic. I have never bought a new car. Just bad economics there. The newest I ever bought is my current truck (a Tacoma) which was a bare-bones model reclaimed after the original buyer could not make the payments then sold for a remarkably decent price.

I've never rebuilt a motor, but timing gears, alternators, starters, radiators, drive shafts and more were done by me for one vehicle after another. My first car was a 1970 MGB because I thought those little convertibles were so cool! Much like the little girl with the little curl when it ran well it was a sweet, sweet drive, but when it decided to act up it led me to cursing British engineering all the way back to Caesar's invasion. I hope I never have to contend with a dual carburetor again!

A 2004 Chevy Impala cured me of Detroit forevermore. Speedometer quit working? No, it's not a cable, but in the "brain" in the dashboard that also controls every other instrument in the danged vehicle. Nothing for it but to replace the thing for $500 twelve years ago. Two years later the temperature gauge went. Another brain transplant. In its model year Consumer Reports actually rated the car pretty well which is what convinced to buy a former fleet vehicle.

And German engineering? A VW Eurovan. A '98 I seem to recall. It was actually the year before they were introduced into the U.S. market having been built for Canada. All of the instruments were in metric, but hey I got pretty good at doing a running Metric to Imperial conversion in my head. I would never have bought the thing, but my wife worked for the local import dealership and they took it in used in trade then let her buy it for what they gave for it. Price was right. Five or six years later the local German car mechanic finally had to confess they could not fix it after having it for ten days trying. It was in the ignition system, but it stumped them and their electronics.

What does my family drive now? Toyotas. All Toyotas. They are not cheap to have worked on, but other than routine maintenance they've been the most trouble free cars I've ever owned. I tend to keep a car until the wheels fall off and my wife's 2013 RAV is still going strong and so long as she doesn't manage to knock the body off the frame (she tries sometimes!) I expect we'll have it another ten years.

[Budzilla 19]

98.5-2002 Cummins diesel in the Dodge trucks. I would LOVE to get the engineer that put #6 injection line facing the cab, not facing forward like it should have been designed! IF you get that line started on the first try, go get a lottery ticket immediately! Hahaha, it can make a person lose his religion, but I learned how to do it,( till you have to follow a hack mechanic that just bent the lines all out of shape!) Oh, and the rear drivers side plug on a ‘70 Chrysler Newport with a 383 in it! One more, ‘79 Chevy half ton, 350 Olds diesel v-8, drivers side head has two head bolts, that if you don’t put them in before putting the head on, you ain’t getting them in, period. Probably some more, like the starter on a’84 Chevy Impala, but that’s enough for now! Be safe.

[popper]

350 Olds diesel v-8 A mistake from the beginning. Neighbor had a buddy (who made a living converting them back to gas) had his changed out.

[Handloader109]

I made the mistake of buying my wife a used BMW off a "friend" for what seemed like a very good price. Drove it a couple of months and it would start missing. Kept getting worse, but it became more of a lope kind of miss. Replace plugs, was electronic ignition, (about an 83 or 84 model). Finally took into a shop that specialized in German repairs. Easy, it is the Flywheel.... What? Yes, the timing is driven by a sensor reading the teeth on the flywheel! Not holes around inside of the wheel, or anything else, but the actual teeth on the flywheel. And ANYONE with half a brain knows that the older a car gets, the more worn the teeth on the flywheel become. Minor wear became a loping miss. $1500 to do this in about 1987..... Nope, sold the car pretty soon after having issue with driveshaft Ujoint fail.. BTW, those ujoints were supposed to be fixed, and you replaced the entire driveshaft with the two joints..... I got around it, but sure didn't like it.

[Mr_Sheesh]

Old Jeep "Viglante V8" engines, 65ish - Ford sold Jeep their Rambler engine design basically, and did severe damage to Jeep with that.

Engine - if lugged at all, Prangs, this is on a 4x4 with 3 on the tree manual tranny.

Guess how we got the truck? (Prev. owner broke the engine, right!)

And then, having fixed it, my dad loaned my truck back to the previous owner - guess what happened then?

(If you're suspecting that he broke the engine again, you're paying attention!)

Was so glad to mod that to a Chev 327 & Turbohydramatic 400 tranny, won't say that was simple; Would have been easier to just get a Chev or something TBH.

[Burnt Fingers]

Toyota full sized pickup. You need to take the intake manifold off to replace the starter.

Most any Mercedes. I had a Mercedes repair shop on my mail route. The guy who ran it was German and had worked for Mercedes. He would get cars on flat bed trailers from all over the country. He was one of the few shops that would/could work on gray market Mercedes.

There was a local guy that had a 600 series convertible. Oil changes ran over $800. Changing the plugs was over $1500. I saw some really neat cars go through that shop.

[Ickisrulz]

I am hearing that just about anything done on a Ford diesel p/u will require the removal of the cab and front fenders and hood.

No, that is not true. It is only true of the 08-10 Superduty trucks with the 6.4 for certain things such as turbo removal.

[megasupermagnum]

Yeah, and you had to replace points, condenser, and distributer cap yearly. You were always fiddling with the carb, or at least living with it being less than ideal, especially in the mountains. You kept a close eye on your oil. When it got older, it started to burn it. Even before then, if your fuel pump took a dump, it filled the crank with gas and toasted the engine. Now I'm not familiar with the Ranchero, but I think it likely it was a 3 or 4 speed transmission, neither with overdrive. You were howling when doing 65 MPH. All that, and the engine was trash by 100,000 miles, maybe 150,000 if you really took care of it.

And you want to talk complex? How about your drum brakes. Lots of blood and cursing has been spilled over the decades from these alien contraptions. And all that for brakes the suck. Did you even have power brakes?

I think you need to take a look back at the whole picture. I think it likely that the most work you've done to your 2007 is change engine oil a couple times a year, and spark plugs seldom. Sure, I'll admit the airbox on that car is not a good design, I looked up the video. Still, it's a couple hose clamps to take it off, and 6 screws to take apart. It would not be fun in dusty Arizona, but once a year in Idaho, who cares? You still have a car you've barely worked on, with a nearly infinite engine life by comparison. It's nothing unusual for gas engines to go 400,000+ miles now. It sips gas, and all those gears and overdrive make highway driving a breeze. Speaking of breeze, how about that AC?

[KCSO]

Ihad to have a new head gasket installed on my Ford PU and they had to take off the whole front end. I too grew up doing my own work and rebuilt may a chevy 1962 to 1970 but no more.

[PhilC]

Really like my '04 Ranger with 4.0 SOHC and it has been the most trouble free vehicle I've ever owned. Glad it has 100k service interval for plugs as you have to come through wheel well to access them. I've "done my own" since my teens, built my first engine before I had a driver's license, and in addition to USAF career as an electronics tech, am also a retired ASE Master Collision tech. When the odometer displayed 100k miles I drove 3 miles to town and had the local shop change the plugs and do everything else from the list in my owner's manual, didn't even sprain my wrist writing the check. ;)

Last week I replaced the fuel pump assy on my Ranger and could share some choice words with designers on that.

My favorite was access to the big block in my '72 F250 4WD, could literally crawl into engine bay to work on it even after replacing the FE with a 429.

[MaryB]

Friends 2005 F250 6.8L V10(yes 10 cylinder...) spark plug change... back 2 plugs are so far under the cowl and so tight to it that we ended up lifting the cab to get at them... he totaled that one on a deer and we both said GREAT now go buy something that can be worked on! He went back to older Ford pickups. Friend of ours in TX brings a migrant field crew up each summer so he found a 1970's Ford pickup with a blown engine. Towed it up, we had the engine out in 2 hours, tore it down, got a short block assembly, rebuilt the heads with new valve seats to handle unleaded ethanol gas along with upgrading the fuel system for it. Rust free truck, he had it undercoated, we sanded it down and did a new paint job in his shop, looked like new! 4 speed manual so bullet proof trans... he has put 150k miles on that motor, truck still looks like new... if it needs another engine rebuild it will get done!

He doesn't use it for work anymore so no hauling a trailer so the next rebuild is going to be high performance. He has the kit to lower the suspension 2 inches for better handling, 4 link for the rear and coil overs instead of the leaf springs... probably going to push that 390 to 450+ HP, maybe more of he does a dual turbo setup. Street truck for fun now that he is retired!

[Digger]

What is with the fuel pumps buried in the gas tanks these days ?!!!!

[megasupermagnum]

What is with the fuel pumps buried in the gas tanks these days ?!!!!

These days? Fuel pumps have been inside the tank for decades.:smile: The only thing ridiculous about it, is that after all these years, access panels still are not standard issue on every vehicle. There is no excuse on why a car or truck couldn't have a simple 8"x8" hole in the floor to access the fuel sender assembly. The guys down south may not understand, but dropping a gas tank on a rusty vehicle is horrible. I would rather pull a transmission than a gas tank. When I replace a fuel pump, I always cut an access panel into the floor or bed so next time it will be easy.

[Mk42gunner]

Hardest to work on? Just about anything since about 1987 with electrical gremlins. They don't make wiring harnesses to last anymore. That and people telling me "You have to have the computer in the vehicle to check it."

Easiest road vehicle? In 1982 I had a 57 F-100 that you could just about crawl into the engine compartment and shut the hood. I opened the hood one night when it was running and it looked like a Christmas tree with all the sparks coming from the solid core spark plug wires. Silly truck still got 15 MPG; better than my much newer ones, but it was at 55 not 70. Dad's 63 Falcon with a 170 was just as simple, but not as roomy.

Robert

[Lloyd Smale]

ce4 corvette. getting at the back 2 plugs on each side too an extension a couple swivels and a contortionist with alot of patients. Then they were know for moisture in the distributor which which caused it to rust and fail and in there infinite wisdom they mounted down low behind the balancer so you had to pull the balancer and to even get at it you had to pull the front clip. I know I did it 3 times on two different c4s. 800 bucks a pop for just the parts.

[Lloyd Smale]

These days? Fuel pumps have been inside the tank for decades.:smile: The only thing ridiculous about it, is that after all these years, access panels still are not standard issue on every vehicle. There is no excuse on why a car or truck couldn't have a simple 8"x8" hole in the floor to access the fuel sender assembly. The guys down south may not understand, but dropping a gas tank on a rusty vehicle is horrible. I would rather pull a transmission than a gas tank. When I replace a fuel pump, I always cut an access panel into the floor or bed so next time it will be easy.

had to cut a hole in the bed of my dakota to change the pump when it went bad. Best one is my challenger. Open the trunk pull out the spare tire and the fuel pump is right there to unbolt.

[xs11jack]

Bought a 66 Corvette, 427 inch engine with 435 HP. They (GM) were trying to transisterize the engine electrics. The transistor that ran the distribitor was mounted on the panel around the radiator, facing forward. They (GM) apprently could not water proof the aluminum box that also was the heat sink for the transistor too. It got so bad that I shy away from driving in the rain. Went to a friend that was a plumber. He gave me some goop that worked like a charm. Before that I had 67 Dodge R&T (Rood&Track). Same problem as Stanbar, Had to drill a big hole to get at the back plugs. I don't think the engineers are in consert to make owner take the vehicle to the dealer. There has been no organization to the designs. If they were really were working on that idea there would be thousands of messed up cars sitting around dealers shops. Look at the farm tractors now adays. The farmers had to got the go to the courts to be able to do their own work on the electronics and the Software. When I was a kid I had a 1949 Ford with a V8. No plug problems there. Sigh.
Ole Jack

[Huskerguy]

Interesting thread. In my younger days I did auto collision and then taught it for 15 years.

In my early years working in rural KS, we didn't even work on foreign cars, they were thought to be junk and too complicated.

I learned to literally dislike a Ford product. I thought they were terribly made but the woorst part was to take a front end apart they had every size socket with the most unusual size heads of anything ever made. Constantly changing sockets and bolts were special for every part of the front end which made you memorize where they all went.

After 5 or so years in rural KS I moved a bigger town that had all those foreign cars..my first job was repairing a Honda civic and I thought it was the easiest vehicle I ever worked on. I have generally loved foreign made vehicles since, European first, Asian second. We measured frames with very precise equipment and the U.S. made cars had by far the highest tolerances of any cars made.

Eventually I worked in a shop where we did Mercedes, Vette, caddy's, Volvos and anything else high end. Loved it back then but I am glad I don't do that anymore.

[Minerat]

sunbeam tiger with the v8 motor had to drop the motor to reach the rear plugs.

You beat me to it. The most cussed job I ever had to do. But when you stick a 289 ford V8 in a 2 seater sports car the size of a TR3 what do you expect.

[jim147]

A top fuel dragster but not why you would think. It had a custom paint job and the dzus fasteners were not captured so to put it back together you had to line every one of them up with the paint.

I've never had to do much to my 2003 Saturn. Vue. But it is a pain to change the timing belt. Spark plugs required pulling six bolts to pull the intake. My wife's 2008 aura is a fight to do headlamps. You have to jack it up, pull tires and inner fenders to remove the entire bumper cover.

[oger]

The first thing you did with the Vette Mag pulse unit was to find another point type tack drive dist. and take the Mag pulse one out change a little wiring so you could use the point type dist.

[megasupermagnum]

Interesting thread. In my younger days I did auto collision and then taught it for 15 years.

In my early years working in rural KS, we didn't even work on foreign cars, they were thought to be junk and too complicated.

I learned to literally dislike a Ford product. I thought they were terribly made but the woorst part was to take a front end apart they had every size socket with the most unusual size heads of anything ever made. Constantly changing sockets and bolts were special for every part of the front end which made you memorize where they all went.

After 5 or so years in rural KS I moved a bigger town that had all those foreign cars..my first job was repairing a Honda civic and I thought it was the easiest vehicle I ever worked on. I have generally loved foreign made vehicles since, European first, Asian second. We measured frames with very precise equipment and the U.S. made cars had by far the highest tolerances of any cars made.

Eventually I worked in a shop where we did Mercedes, Vette, caddy's, Volvos and anything else high end. Loved it back then but I am glad I don't do that anymore.

I have no doubts at all that the 80's, and 90's Asian cars kicked American car's butt. The 90's was all about American trucks. 80's American vehicles sucked all around. I don't think there is such a difference anymore, but I haven't worked on that many post 2015ish vehicles.

European cars though? No way. I liked Saab, but that was about it. I hate working on a Mercedes, even bolting a tire on one is a two man job. I'm sure glad the Italians stuck with the high end markets, I hate Italian engineering.

[Wolfdog91]

M88s ( A1 and a2) sucked just because their so heavy.
283210

Bradley had to be the worst though. Constant wire problems always pulling packs, PUAD's always not working ram door free falling, turrets not functioning crampy as all get out
283211283212

[abunaitoo]

Any ford.
Me and fords just don't get along.

[Mal Paso]

European cars though? No way. I liked Saab, but that was about it. I hate working on a Mercedes, even bolting a tire on one is a two man job. I'm sure glad the Italians stuck with the high end markets, I hate Italian engineering.

The one Saab I worked on was 4 cylinders of the 6 cyl Triumph Stag engine, no fun pulling the head with angled studs but the body was a trip.

[Thumbcocker]

My Father in-law had a new Mercedes in the early 90's. I was driving a 90 Nissan hardbody at the time. 5 speed. 4 cylinder. 28 might and would haul 1000 pounds.

He took the Mercedes in for brakes and an oil change and it cost about 1 1/2 times my monthly truck payment. Later the battery in the Mercedes died. You don't pop into the local parts store for a new battery. The dealer replaced the battery for enough to make a dent in the national debt. Here's the kicker. With a dead battery the radio was no longer programed. The solution. Replace the radio of course. The other option was to send the old radio to Germany to be reprogrammed. It was cheaper to put in a new one.

[white cloud]

My wife has a 1997 Wrangler. It is pretty easy to work on. My 2014 Wrangler is not too bad. We make enough money to take it to a mechanic. Our problem is finding a decent shop.

[Garyshome]

The one that I am currently working on

[1hole]

Like you, I'm quite capable as a mechanic & not lost in working on stuff.

But Due to the things I've seen being built, and HOW the engineers do stuff,,

Part of the problems are driven by "stylists" demanding shapes and spaces in vehicles that look neat but are a beast to maintain.

Part of the problem is engineers rarely consider what will need to be done to maintain the vehicle.

Part of the problem is so few modern (classroom trained) engineers have much - if any - personal experience working on anything.

[30calflash]

Most anything built in the last 15 years will have something that is a royal pain to work on. Unbolting and raising the body to gain access, removal of the front end to change a thermostat, etc. Most all have something that's a bear to do.

Basically I think its from jamming way too much stuff in a small space and emissions crap. That's 90% of it IMHO.

[frkelly74]

Easy to work on.... PT Cruiser.. Fortunate because there is a lot of stuff that will need fixing. But seriously all the vehicles I have had didn't become hard to work on until we got them past the 100,000 to 150,000 mile point. Then is when all the engineered in problems come to light. We have a KiA Soul that just hit 150,000 miles and so far we have replaced tires, brakes, timing belt and water pump, accessory belts , wind shield wipers, head lights, transmission fluid, Oil every 3to4 thousand miles. And had the wheels aligned twice. Most recently , at the last alignment ,the place i took it to said we might want to replace struts and shocks for a cost of about $1200. I think it is okay for now so we will hold off on that.

[Scrounge]

Back in the `80's, when life in the automotive world was sunshine and roses, I bought a 1969 Ford Ranchero GT with a 390 CI V8 that needed a tune-up. Paid $500 to the original owner.

After replacing the points in about ten minutes, and the air filter in five minutes, I embarked on changing the spark plugs. I soon discovered that the driver's side rear plug required, according to my Chilton's Manual, that the motor mount be removed, and a jack deployed under the motor, in order to raise the motor about 2 inches. This would then allow access to the #8 plug due to clearance issues with the brake booster and steering column.

Back in the `80's, I thought this to be ridiculous.

Which it was. But in today's increasingly insane world of nonsensical reasoning and engineering, I continue to come across situations and engineering that defies all reason and sanity.

Today, I decided to check the air filter of my 2007 Chevy HHR.

Now, this vehicle was purchased new by my father and was promoted as a "retro" vehicle that evoked the styling of a `40's Chevy delivery sedan. Opening the hood reveals a very simplistic and spartan engine bay with a 2.0 liter 4cyl "Ecotec" engine that puts out more horsepower than any 6 or 8 cyl motor in the `40's.

However, checking the air filter proved beyond my capability as a seasoned engine re-builder, shade-tree mechanic, and person with above-average mechanical aptitude and abilities.

After studying the engine bay for a few minutes and poking around, I could not figure out how to access the air filter.

Let that sink in for a few minutes...

a 52 year old man, with decades of mechanical experience, years of building hot rods, and a love of mechanical engineering, could not figure out how to change the air filter on a 2007 GM vehicle...

I finally had to relent to searching YouTube on how to do it.

After watching the video, I do not feel bad one bit regarding my intelligence or mechanical aptitude.

The GM engineers who designed the air intake system should be ashamed.

No. They should be fired. Then brought into the public square in shackles and flogged and spat upon by the public for their absolute idiocy and failure in engineering.

What used to be a wingnut and 5 seconds was turned into two hand tools and three different processes in order to check a freaking air filter.

This is a perfect example of how America is failing and devolving into a 3rd world country right before our eyes.

Before being allowed to work as an engineer, students should spend at least five years as a mechanic working on the sorts of systems they will be designing. Then another five years as a machinist. And weekly flogging sounds like a good idea to me, just to remind them that someone has to work on this crap they design!

Also, at no time should an engineer be allowed out without a keeper.

[MaryB]

Another fun one...

1970 Mustang Mach One wit a 428CJ and headers... plugs were impossible for anyone with big hands. I have long skinny hands and could *just* barely get the plugs in. No modding the body to make it easier, this was a concourse level restoration except for the headers, they were aftermarket. Car was worth $125k back in the early 80's... we spent 4,000 hours on just the body, panel fit was way better than factory when we were finished. No filler other than a skim coat! Probably 1500 hours just sanding it to make sure it was perfect. He went on to restore 5 more Mustangs in the following 20 years. Takes almost 4 years to do one... lot of that is spent finding factory date code parts and getting them rebuilt... numbers MUST match!

[444ttd]

i remember when you could crawl into the engine space with engine and go to sleep. my first car(used) was a 1973 buick century with a 350 in it. i had thro a quart of oil into it every week and it ate the bottom of a spark plug(i went from 12mpg to 2mpg and boy, does it miss!!!). i was 16yo and $200 in my pocket when i bought her. i did everything you weren't supposed to do in my car, like go 4 wheelin, burn tire.... she was a good car, other than the oil and spark plug. then i bought God's desecration, a 84 ford escort. i broke the motor mount bolts so much i got a box of them on hand. the timing belt broke, so i deceded to replace it. after burning a hole in my frame and air impact wrench the bolt of the crankshaft, i finally put it on. but wait there more!!! i found out, much later, that a timing light was no good. my uncle and i spent about a week to get it right. the alternator broke as well as the other things that need fixin(brakes, oil, air filter...), stuff i had do. the last time i ever drove it, it had a inner and outer bearing go out about 30 minutes before my place. i was so mad at the escort, that i drove it till it went completely out. the 30 minute drive turned into 2 1/2 hours because i broke it. and broke it, i did. i would driving driving down the road, never mind the squealing, until the escort dragged me to berm. we sit there for about 20 minutes and driving would commence until the the next it dragged me to the berm. when i got home, i had a smile upon my face. i could either sell it or take it to the junk yard.(i sold it for $400)

i was never so glad to get rid of it.

[kerplode]

The GM engineers who designed the air intake system should be ashamed.

No. They should be fired. Then brought into the public square in shackles and flogged and spat upon by the public for their absolute idiocy and failure in engineering.

What used to be a wingnut and 5 seconds was turned into two hand tools and three different processes in order to check a freaking air filter.

This is a perfect example of how America is failing and devolving into a 3rd world country right before our eyes.

They had a set of requirements they were optimizing for. None of those requirements were "ease of shade-tree mechanic access"...

[sharps4590]

Last year we inherited my father-in-law's 300E, 4Matic, 2017 Mercedes with 12K miles on it. I had it for 6 months before I opened the hood just to see what was under there. Nope, nothing there for me. We were going to sell it but it is very comfortable, performs quite well and we can afford it, especially for what we paid for it. So, I just laugh at the service bills.....good grief....lol!! I never needed prestige that bad.

I made my living as a mechanic....back in the late 60's and early 70's, then worked on T-38's for dear Uncle and for a while after I got out of the Air Force. I have 3 MG's, a '55 TF, '56 A and a '74 B and a '67 Morris Minor 1000. I do everything to all of them. I worked on them for a living back in the early 70's so familiarity is there and if you can work on an 8N Ford you can work on any of the old BMC/British Leyland vehicles.

The most difficult to work on, anything Italian or anything German made since the early 80's. The Italian stuff can go back to the early 70's. I swear, before any Italian car is sent to production the first thing designers and engineers ask is, "how can we make this difficult to work on?"

[Gator 45/70]

Had a few, Some were beast's
57 Ford Fairlane 500 coupe 312/4 speed Bored out.
66 Mustang GT 289
66 Ford step-side SWB 6 banger 3 speed
72 Ford Ranger SWB, Dropped a 390 in this one
Couple of VW's 1 was a dune buggy
Dropped a VW engine in a mud boat, Does that count?
77 Maverick 6 banger, Probably the easiest to work on
Several more 240Z 300ZX,81 Vette
Couple of Dakota's weak transmissions in these.
Jeep Wrangler 05 Rocky MTN Edition Wish I had kept that one for weekends
Right now 2014 Maxima and F150 5.0 4x4 for pulling the tractor
Several more like a Toyota suv thingy and a Nissan suv thingy

[Idaho45guy]

They had a set of requirements they were optimizing for. None of those requirements were "ease of shade-tree mechanic access"...

Looks like an engineer showed up to show how smart he is...

[kerplode]

Looks like an engineer showed up to show how smart he is...

No...Just to remind you that the auto company engineers don't care if it's hard for you to work on the car. Don't care. At all.

[Finster101]

No...Just to remind you that the auto company engineers don't care if it's hard for you to work on the car. Don't care. At all.


The engineers all think their design is too good to fail so they don't care.

[bakerjw]

My daughter in law has a 2017 Malibu. To change the PCV valve, you have to pull the intake manifold. Dealer labor? $1,137.50 with $250 in parts...

[JWFilips]

M1 Abrams

[David2011]

I had a '67 Mustang with the 390 in it. Not only are the plugs hard to access, the engine grabs them and doesn't want them removed. I got the back ones out by removing the shock tower struts from the firewall and using a 20" breakover bar with a wiggle adapter on the socket. I broke one wiggle joint before the plug gave way on the second wiggle joint. Free replacement at Sears.

[fixit]

There are several jobs I've hated, and a couple of models as well. Right now, I have a policy of not touching anything involving the serpentine belt on ANY Honda production V6. My eldest and his wife have one, and it's a piece of garbage! Apparently, there is a problem with the tensioner design, and it's a nightmare to deal with. For the sake of brevity, I'll simply say that since the timing belt was replaced, the serpentine tensioner has been replaced every 1000 miles, except when I replaced it, where it went 2000 miles! To say it's a bad design is an understatement, and to make it worse, it's hit or miss as to whether your V6 will be one of the troublesome ones! Honda barely acknowledges that there is a problem, but in my research concerning it, I saw a lot of"I will never buy another Honda" comments. Their fours are run forever dependable, and tensioner problems notwithstanding, so are their 6s. Oh yeah, The timing belt cost is insane,too. Dealership cost, (one of the few repairs I'd recommend the dealer for) run over 1300$, and that's not counting 'add ons' like the other belt while you are at it. There are others I could rant about, but that one is the freshest in my mind.

[Tazman1602]

DISAGREE! If there was ever a worthless more useless system that never, ever ran like it should — it DID run as designed and yes I understand why they did it but…

The Cadillac V8-6-4 system was the absolute pinnacle of engineering lunacy. They(Cadillac) were forced to do this in 1981 to meet mileage/epa regs.

As someone who grew up as a mechanic, went back to school for engineering later in life, and I hate the fact we can’t work on our cars without $10K worth of computers that will be obsolete in five years or less.

That mouthful being said, I’d give my left little toe to have a new Demon Hellcat……THAT I would LEARN to work on…LOL

ART

[WestKentucky]

I had (for less than a year) a 2008 Chevy Cobalt. It had the same 2.0 4cyl that OP describes. The car was less than a year old when I bought it so I figured I had a maintenance free rig for a couple years. WRONG. Crank position sensor and cam position sensors were constant problems. I carried a ziplock bag in the glove box with the required tools and a spare cam position sensor. In the trunk was the same setup for the cam position sensor. Vehicle was under warranty when I took it in for the issue and they couldn’t find anything wrong. Reset the trouble code and went on. Didn’t document anything. 60 miles out of warranty I pulled into the lot again for the same thing. They found the issue and told me what it would cost to fix it. I asked about warranty since I had in in 2 weeks before for the exact same thing but they couldn’t find it in the computer. I haven’t bought a GM product since.

Now, the cam position sensor wasn’t that big of a deal. Remove the plastic engine cover and it’s a bolt that’s easy to access. Crank position sensor was designed and built by satan himself. Remove the steering knuckle, loosen the air intake, take off the bottom starter bolt from the bottom, melt the flesh on your arm going in from the top to looses the top starter bolt. Get starter out of the way and then you can access the crank position sensor. It is essentially a prox sensor and synthetic oil which was recommended would eat the face of the prox off causing failure. Being sandwiched between the block and the starter ensured it stayed super hot as well which clearly was good for it.

Fast forward a few vehicles and I now own a 2018 expedition max. Transmission was shifting hard enough to bark tires and was starting to slip under power. Strange things amuck in that transmission. Long story short it was $7000 for a new transmission... that’s a friggin GM product in a Ford vehicle. Anybody want to buy an expedition?

[bobthenailer]

IMO that FORD is the worst of the forigen & domestic ive worked on as a tech for 40 years

[TyGuy]

There are several jobs I've hated, and a couple of models as well. Right now, I have a policy of not touching anything involving the serpentine belt on ANY Honda production V6. My eldest and his wife have one, and it's a piece of garbage! Apparently, there is a problem with the tensioner design, and it's a nightmare to deal with. For the sake of brevity, I'll simply say that since the timing belt was replaced, the serpentine tensioner has been replaced every 1000 miles, except when I replaced it, where it went 2000 miles! To say it's a bad design is an understatement, and to make it worse, it's hit or miss as to whether your V6 will be one of the troublesome ones! Honda barely acknowledges that there is a problem, but in my research concerning it, I saw a lot of"I will never buy another Honda" comments. Their fours are run forever dependable, and tensioner problems notwithstanding, so are their 6s. Oh yeah, The timing belt cost is insane,too. Dealership cost, (one of the few repairs I'd recommend the dealer for) run over 1300$, and that's not counting 'add ons' like the other belt while you are at it. There are others I could rant about, but that one is the freshest in my mind.

I’m surprised to hear this. I’ve been working as a Honda tech for 15 years next month and I’ve only had to replace a handful of drive belt tensioners in that time. Most of those had a lot of miles by the time they failed. I did have one that came in with the belt routed wrong which put the tensioner under undue stress. Be sure to use an OEM tensioner, Hondas tend to be picky about things like that. I’d recommend ordering through Bernardi Honda’s online parts catalog. You get the real deal parts for just over our employee pricing.

They can be a booger to get the belt off if you don’t have the right wrench. Going back on can be even more frustrating. I use a long ratcheting box end wrench. It makes a world of difference.

I always recommend replacing the timing belt tensioner when the t-belt is replaced. It’s two extra bolts and saves the headache of it wearing out and getting noisy before the next 100k t-belt. At our dealership the timing belt, water pump, tensioner, drive belt and fresh coolant runs right at about $1k. The spark plugs are due at the same time and they are expensive little guys. That could explain your $1,300 total.

The big wallet killer on the V6s is when the oil pump is leaking. It’s under the timing belt and the oil pan has to come down to reseal it. It’s not much in parts but quite a bit of extra labor. You save a decent bit if you do it while the timing belt is off but it’s still spendy. It is also supposed to cure before refilling with oil. I like to let them cure overnight and fill it up in the morning.

Like anything else, the more you do it the easier it gets. Best of luck with it. Keep the transmission fluid clean. Some of the older V6s killed transmissions if you didn’t keep up with the fluid service. I always say no longer than 30k between trans service. Never power flush the transmission. Drain and refill only and genuine Honda ATF is a must!

[megasupermagnum]

I've worked on a V6 Honda, in some kind of SUV. I don't even remember the model, but it looked like a box with wheels. This would have been mid 2000's. Sure, the tensioner is in a less than ideal spot, but it isn't that bad. It is a spring loaded tensioner, just like every other car for decades. What's the big deal? There is no reason they would repeatedly fail after 1000 miles. I'm calling BS.

[MaryB]

I had (for less than a year) a 2008 Chevy Cobalt. It had the same 2.0 4cyl that OP describes. The car was less than a year old when I bought it so I figured I had a maintenance free rig for a couple years. WRONG. Crank position sensor and cam position sensors were constant problems. I carried a ziplock bag in the glove box with the required tools and a spare cam position sensor. In the trunk was the same setup for the cam position sensor. Vehicle was under warranty when I took it in for the issue and they couldn’t find anything wrong. Reset the trouble code and went on. Didn’t document anything. 60 miles out of warranty I pulled into the lot again for the same thing. They found the issue and told me what it would cost to fix it. I asked about warranty since I had in in 2 weeks before for the exact same thing but they couldn’t find it in the computer. I haven’t bought a GM product since.

Now, the cam position sensor wasn’t that big of a deal. Remove the plastic engine cover and it’s a bolt that’s easy to access. Crank position sensor was designed and built by satan himself. Remove the steering knuckle, loosen the air intake, take off the bottom starter bolt from the bottom, melt the flesh on your arm going in from the top to looses the top starter bolt. Get starter out of the way and then you can access the crank position sensor. It is essentially a prox sensor and synthetic oil which was recommended would eat the face of the prox off causing failure. Being sandwiched between the block and the starter ensured it stayed super hot as well which clearly was good for it.

Fast forward a few vehicles and I now own a 2018 expedition max. Transmission was shifting hard enough to bark tires and was starting to slip under power. Strange things amuck in that transmission. Long story short it was $7000 for a new transmission... that’s a friggin GM product in a Ford vehicle. Anybody want to buy an expedition?

Ford Exploder(Explorer) 1998ish model years had that idiotic sealed transmission. No dip stick even to check fluid levels. Friend has one, on his third trans in 150k miles... we rebuilt the last one ourselves to try and get one to last... he is NOT into rebuilding an automatic, he thinks they are to hard. I found a nice online guide with pics and the list of needed tools, ordered a kit and did it in my shop with his help where 3 hands make things easier(plus he was tool gofer!). So far he has 50k on that rebuild, his grandson is driving it now so it is getting torture tested. Grandson was warned that if it goes out he is rebuilding it himself this time.

[Burnt Fingers]

Ease of maintenance is probably not even on the list given to the engineers.

Size, weight, safety, and style are probably the top four. Anything after that is just gravy

[reddog81]

The engineers all think their design is too good to fail so they don't care.

Nope. They know it'll fail. They just expect you to go into their dealer and get it fixed. The dealers make as much off servicing vehicles as they do selling them. The harder a car is to work on, the more likely you'll pay them to fix it.

[megasupermagnum]

Ford Exploder(Explorer) 1998ish model years had that idiotic sealed transmission. No dip stick even to check fluid levels. Friend has one, on his third trans in 150k miles... we rebuilt the last one ourselves to try and get one to last... he is NOT into rebuilding an automatic, he thinks they are to hard. I found a nice online guide with pics and the list of needed tools, ordered a kit and did it in my shop with his help where 3 hands make things easier(plus he was tool gofer!). So far he has 50k on that rebuild, his grandson is driving it now so it is getting torture tested. Grandson was warned that if it goes out he is rebuilding it himself this time.

This is not true. The 1998 Ford Explorer could be had with a 4.0 OHV V6, 4.0 SOHC V6, or the 302 V8. The V6 could be had with a 5 speed manual, the M5OD-R1, or a 5 speed automatic, the 5R55E. The 302 was only available with a 4 speed automatic, the 4R70W, AKA the AOD.

The 5 speed manual has a fill hole to check fluid level. Both of those automatics had a dipstick up on the passenger side, near the fire wall. All three transmissions are plenty capable for the job, and there is no good excuse why they would be going bad as soon as he is saying without severe abuse. I have a 1993 explorer with the 5 speed manual, and it had 230,000 miles on it when I started to take the whole thing apart to work on it. My 1994 Mazda B4000 has the 5 speed manual, and it made it around 280,000 miles of regular towing 2000 pounds before wearing out. I rebuilt it, and it is now about to cross 325,000 miles (45,000 miles on transmission) with no issues at all. Not an explorer, but we had a 1995 F150 with the AOD, and it went 260,000 miles before it was sold. We had a 2000 explorer 4.0 OHV with the 5R55E, and it went around 240,000 miles before it was sold. I also still have a 1994 Ford explorer with the older, and less durable A4LD, and that had 225,000 miles on it. It would still run and drive, but I now use it for parts.

The 5R55E is not a strong transmission by any means, but it is perfectly capable of lasting a long time doing normal stuff an explorer should do, towing up to 4000ish pounds. If you never change the fluid, and do burnouts in the parking lot every week, sure you are going to tear them up. Change the fluid every 30,000 miles, just drop the pan, change the filter screen, and fill them back up. An inline filter in the cooler line wouldn't hurt. Also make sure you actually do have a cooler. The stock radiator should have a tranny cooler core in it. And yes, they have a dipstick.

The AOD has been a ford standard for decades. There's not much I have to say about this one. They work, they last. Maintain as I said above. These also have a dipstick.

The M5OD-R1 is a lighter duty manual transmission. They last just fine, and are not that hard to rebuild. You don't have to do anything except change the fluid often, 30,000 miles or so with a good Mercon ATF. I change mine even more frequent, as I tow a lot, and there is no filter on these. Drive them like a truck, don't bangshift them everywhere you go, or you will wear out the syncro's. The one big fault of these is not even the tranny, it is the fact they use an internal slave cylinder. If you ever replace one, you will see lots of recommendations to go with a Motorcraft. My experience is that Motorcraft is ok, but I hate the clutch hose connector. Instead, I prefer the one from O'Reiallys, which uses a bulletproof clip.

Any questions on 1990's Fords, especially Explorers/Rangers, just ask.

[rmark]

1928 Dodges have weak rear axles, tend to break when towed.

[Idaho45guy]

Any questions on 1990's Fords, especially Explorers/Rangers, just ask.

What is the OD auto transmission that Ford used behind the 1991 to 1998 1-ton pickups and motorhomes?

My dad bought a low-mileage `91 F350 crew cab with the 7.3 diesel and had to have the transmission rebuilt twice within a few years. Over $5,000 each time. He traded it in on a Chevy Duramax 1- ton with the Allison and has been good the last 12 years with no issues.

His buddy bought a mid-90's Ford motorhome with the 460 and the same transmission and it is on it's third one. They both tell me to never buy a Ford product from that era with the OD transmission.

[Bigslug]

I feel modern German cars are engineered to be vengeance for the outcome of the world wars...

I actually think they are proof of why they lost. . .

My dad had a 5-series BMW - a 2005, if I remember correctly. . .

You know how windshield wipers typically leave a good bit of the upper corner of the passenger's side unwiped?

Well, this thing had some kind of eccentric doohickey that not only pivoted the passenger side wiper in a rotating motion, it also moved the anchor point right and left so that the unwiped portion of the windshield became this tiny little space.

Impressive engineering for the sake of showing off. Practically - WHY??? And also, what did it add to the cost of the car, and what would it cost to change out?

[facetious]

What I would like to know is who came up with the idea for making every thing " snap to gather , break apart"

You just know that no mater what you do you will break a little plastic tab some were.

[megasupermagnum]

What is the OD auto transmission that Ford used behind the 1991 to 1998 1-ton pickups and motorhomes?

My dad bought a low-mileage `91 F350 crew cab with the 7.3 diesel and had to have the transmission rebuilt twice within a few years. Over $5,000 each time. He traded it in on a Chevy Duramax 1- ton with the Allison and has been good the last 12 years with no issues.

His buddy bought a mid-90's Ford motorhome with the 460 and the same transmission and it is on it's third one. They both tell me to never buy a Ford product from that era with the OD transmission.

I'm guessing they are talking about the E4OD. I don't know anything about them beyond what I've heard. They aren't my cup of tea. All electronically controlled and shifted.

I know a little more about the manual transmissions of the era, but have not got to work on them. There are a bunch of variations, mostly in gearing of them, but they are mostly known as the ZF5, and later the ZF6. They are bulletproof transmissions, nothing wrong with them at all. The manual tranny's are the way you want to go if you want a heavy duty truck from this era, for heavy duty work.

[Thumbcocker]

DISAGREE! If there was ever a worthless more useless system that never, ever ran like it should — it DID run as designed and yes I understand why they did it but…

The Cadillac V8-6-4 system was the absolute pinnacle of engineering lunacy. They(Cadillac) were forced to do this in 1981 to meet mileage/epa regs.

As someone who grew up as a mechanic, went back to school for engineering later in life, and I hate the fact we can’t work on our cars without $10K worth of computers that will be obsolete in five years or less.

That mouthful being said, I’d give my left little toe to have a new Demon Hellcat……THAT I would LEARN to work on…LOL

ART

My Aunt and Uncle ran a used car lot. They bought several GM cars with this system for peanuts. Their mechanic pulled off the 8-6-4 crap and wired them to run as v8's. They made a pile of money on them.

[snowwolfe]

The worse oil/filter change I ever had to do was on my wifes 2017 Expedition with the 3.5 ecoboost. From them on it went to the dealers. Took me 30 minutes of searching and looking online just to find out where the filter was.

[megasupermagnum]

The worse oil/filter change I ever had to do was on my wifes 2017 Expedition with the 3.5 ecoboost. From them on it went to the dealers. Took me 30 minutes of searching and looking online just to find out where the filter was.

My dad has I think a 2017 F150 with 3.5 non-ecoboost. Just the standard V6. I don't like horizontal oil filters, but it isn't THAT bad of a location. It's better than the 5.4 Triton, and I've worked on others that were worse.

[MaryB]

This is not true. The 1998 Ford Explorer could be had with a 4.0 OHV V6, 4.0 SOHC V6, or the 302 V8. The V6 could be had with a 5 speed manual, the M5OD-R1, or a 5 speed automatic, the 5R55E. The 302 was only available with a 4 speed automatic, the 4R70W, AKA the AOD.

The 5 speed manual has a fill hole to check fluid level. Both of those automatics had a dipstick up on the passenger side, near the fire wall. All three transmissions are plenty capable for the job, and there is no good excuse why they would be going bad as soon as he is saying without severe abuse. I have a 1993 explorer with the 5 speed manual, and it had 230,000 miles on it when I started to take the whole thing apart to work on it. My 1994 Mazda B4000 has the 5 speed manual, and it made it around 280,000 miles of regular towing 2000 pounds before wearing out. I rebuilt it, and it is now about to cross 325,000 miles (45,000 miles on transmission) with no issues at all. Not an explorer, but we had a 1995 F150 with the AOD, and it went 260,000 miles before it was sold. We had a 2000 explorer 4.0 OHV with the 5R55E, and it went around 240,000 miles before it was sold. I also still have a 1994 Ford explorer with the older, and less durable A4LD, and that had 225,000 miles on it. It would still run and drive, but I now use it for parts.

The 5R55E is not a strong transmission by any means, but it is perfectly capable of lasting a long time doing normal stuff an explorer should do, towing up to 4000ish pounds. If you never change the fluid, and do burnouts in the parking lot every week, sure you are going to tear them up. Change the fluid every 30,000 miles, just drop the pan, change the filter screen, and fill them back up. An inline filter in the cooler line wouldn't hurt. Also make sure you actually do have a cooler. The stock radiator should have a tranny cooler core in it. And yes, they have a dipstick.

The AOD has been a ford standard for decades. There's not much I have to say about this one. They work, they last. Maintain as I said above. These also have a dipstick.

The M5OD-R1 is a lighter duty manual transmission. They last just fine, and are not that hard to rebuild. You don't have to do anything except change the fluid often, 30,000 miles or so with a good Mercon ATF. I change mine even more frequent, as I tow a lot, and there is no filter on these. Drive them like a truck, don't bangshift them everywhere you go, or you will wear out the syncro's. The one big fault of these is not even the tranny, it is the fact they use an internal slave cylinder. If you ever replace one, you will see lots of recommendations to go with a Motorcraft. My experience is that Motorcraft is ok, but I hate the clutch hose connector. Instead, I prefer the one from O'Reiallys, which uses a bulletproof clip.

Any questions on 1990's Fords, especially Explorers/Rangers, just ask.

I may be off on the model year... he has 4 Explorers... one year range came with that sealed transmission(automatic) that has no dip stick. They were extremely prone to failure and that year range a used Explorer with an auto is hard to sell around here... junk yards have no transmissions either. Either scrap when they came in or bought up to be rebuilt...

[megasupermagnum]

I suppose it could be Ford did a one off thing. They do stupid stuff from time to time. I've worked on a bunch of explorers, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 2000, 2001, and 2002 that I can remember for sure. Most of the work I've done has been on 1993 and 1994. 1993 is my preference. That is the year before they went heavy on emissions. No EGR, or any other emissions junk. Even for the early 90's it is surprising how simple they were. 1993 also saw the upgraded head castings.

I do know every one that had an auto transmission, has had a dipstick. I can find no reference to a sealed transmission explorer online, but again, I've seen some one off things on explorers that it very well could be the case. Unless the sealed version was significantly different, there still is no reason 5R55E transmission should not be lasting. I would never take another tranny back to that rebuild shop, they clearly don't know how to fix them. I don't either, I don't work on auto trannys.

10 years ago, before the Obama implosion of the used car market, especially with cash for clunkers, you could find explorers everywhere for cheap. It was a very common, and desirable to swap in a M5OD-R1 manual transmission. Bonus points if you could locate an M5OD-R1 HD. It was fairly straight forward, bolt on a flywheel and clutch, bolt on the tranny with clutch slave cylinder, change the petal assembly, install a clutch master, and connect. As far as I can remember, the length was close enough, you didn't even need to change the driveshaft. The transfer case bolts right on. You might not have even needed to cut a hole for the shifter, they might have had a cover you take off. Don't quote me on that.

Now I'm not so sure that is the case. Junk yards don't have those years, because they were all sold to china for scrap steel. They are that hard to sell for the reason they are getting up there in years, and are not a particularly desirable combo. Us Explorer/Ranger enthusiasts left go after the gold standard M5OD-R1 manual and 4.0 OHV combo. If you prefer an auto, everyone looks for the V8. Nobody wants a V6 with auto tranny, and everyone avoids the 4.0 SOHC like the plague. I've got what I consider the pinnacle of Explorers, a 1993, M50D-R1 manual, 4.0 OHV, and manual shift transfer case. All the first gens had manual locking hubs too. If your friend ever has issues with his auto locking hubs, tell him to swap to the first gen manual locking hubs.

[Idaho45guy]

The 4th Gen Ford Explorers, `06-`10, had the sealed transmissions...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eQ7FtNVpD0

[megasupermagnum]

The 4th Gen Ford Explorers, `06-`10, had the sealed transmissions...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eQ7FtNVpD0

Sounds about right. It leaves an acid taste in my mouth to call anything post 2003 an... cough... explorer. What are you going to explore with one, the city?

[woodbutcher]

[smilie=s: This thread makes me smile.Makes me smile even more about my 84 F 150 with the 300 ci inline 6 and the C6 transmission.Finally after appx 450K,a year ago Feb or March,finally had to have some internal work done on the tranny.Changed out the electronic carb and the TFI ignition for the DS2 ingition system,and a non electronic carb when I got the truck about18 or so years ago.
Cost?Free except for my labor.Direct plug and play.Earlier carb was a direct bolt on.Only expense was a carb kit($20.00).
Gooid luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

[MaryB]

Sounds about right. It leaves an acid taste in my mouth to call anything post 2003 an... cough... explorer. What are you going to explore with one, the city?

Looked it up and asked him, it was a 2003 with a 5r55W trans. The aluminum valve body wears where the OD solenoid seals causing all sorts of problems. The valve body is just aluminum so soft... very very common issue... I just read they now have a kit that lets you drill out that port, add a brass sleeve that seals better and lasts a heck of a lot longer. This affects 2nd gear and over drive. Hard to find in a junkyard... and the junkyard trans will have the same issues most likely!

[Idaho45guy]

Looked it up and asked him, it was a 2003 with a 5r55W trans. The aluminum valve body wears where the OD solenoid seals causing all sorts of problems. The valve body is just aluminum so soft... very very common issue... I just read they now have a kit that lets you drill out that port, add a brass sleeve that seals better and lasts a heck of a lot longer. This affects 2nd gear and over drive. Hard to find in a junkyard... and the junkyard trans will have the same issues most likely!

Chevy had a similar issues with the transfer cases in the 2000's era SUVs and pickups. Bushing would wear a hole in the transfer case housing, leaking out all of the fluid and ruining it if you didn't notice.

[Rapier]

Imagine my surprise when I had a left headlight go out on my 2009 GMC 1/2 ton HD PU and the parts store said we will sell you the headlights, but will not put in the left one......what, why? You have to take the front fender and body insulation blanket off or you have to pull the entire front grill, bumper, etc., to get to the headlight...... I go down to the local mechanics shop, not to worry, we figured out another way to do that job, the bill was $15, what did you do, we built a tool to snake in and pull the bulb and insert the new bulb.
Then the infamous gas fume sensor on top of the gas tank the causes the check engine warning light to come on, does nothing, costs $24 but $458 in labor to change, because you need to pull the bed off the truck to change that ***. A small access plate would just be too much to ask. The truck was a great truck, just some aggravating minor stuff.
The 2018 GMC is a totally different story, ride is awful far any kind of distance, terrible seats, a screwed up suspension and short sidewall tires pressured up to near 40 psi. Took that rascal to the tire company, only thing we can do with those new trucks is pull the entire suspension, replace those narrow sidewall tires and order custom seats. Geez. GM threw common sense out the window and built them to a gas milage standard, nor work or comfort, stupid, stupid, stupid..... But it gets more aggravating every time I drive it.