The hardest vehicle to work on...

[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.