Worst car you've ever wrenched on???

My step dad has an'06 5 series. They quoted him $500 to change the spark plugs. I told him, there must be something I don't know about that job or they are charging you $450 to polish the BMW emblem on the hood when they're done.

Anyone know why else it would cost $500 to swap 6 plugs?
 
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transman731 said:
i could list 100's of suck jobs on cars, here are a few (in no particular order of suckieness)
starter on a chevette(must remove brake booster)
the main engine mount on a pt cruiser (motor must come out)
anything on a renault
anything on a cadillac catera
tune up on mid 90's toyota v-6 previa vans (must remove seat to get to last spark plug)
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Just out of curiosity witch motor mount are you referring to on the PT. I've seen tons of motor mounts replaced on PT's and replaced a fair share myself, and never seen a motor pulled. loosen all motor mount bolts lower the car on to a jackstand with a block of wood under the oil pan and you can replace any mount with relative ease. The mount on pass side of the motor might require some prybar work.
 
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used to have a 97 Ford chassis based class A Fleetwood motorhome. That sumbich was loads of fun and gave me plenty to work on. Had to have the radiator replaced. I won't say what it cost me, wished I had done it myself but didn't have the balls (nor the help) to give it a go myself. I couldn't determine if the rad came out the front or the bottom. Turns out you remove the entire front end AC condensor, oil cooler, and take it out that way. I would have guessed the bottomside and thought I'd need a mammoth lift. Cost me a small fortune but I would have made a hell of a mess trying to pull out the bottom.
 
Any 4 door tilt cab fire apparatus that I've had to pull the radiator. I've lost count after 12 years of all kinds of wrecks and rebuilds. Takes usually four grown men to haul it up over the engine and out the side, after all the related inner cooler, fans, and hoha are removed. And any of them burned, smashed, or flipped so bad the cab gets completely swapped. Miles of wiring,plumbing, over head and standard ac heating, blah , blah, blah....And really poor fitting custom fabbed everything (if you can get it from the OE). So a lot of stuff gets retro fabbed and customized. I get excited when a super duty gets smashed, atleast Ford has those parts readily available and they fit.
 
offroad cowboy said:
Head gaskets on a 05 6.0 brush truck that has a full exocage............
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like a pic of that......we've had a few home brew trucks like that, most were hideous.
 
offroad cowboy said:
Head gaskets on a 05 6.0 brush truck that has a full exocage............
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I feel your pain. Did head gaskets on a southern states sprayer truck once. Sumbeach had hydraulic lines run inside the cab....so instead of dealing with that hassle, I dealt with the hassle of pulling the bolts with the head, and re installing with the bolts.


But on the original topic, all European cars bring the suck. NO JOKE, broke down a Volvo once that needed every socket in the set from a 10 to a 21 except an 18 I think. That sucked........
 
fordwheelinman said:
I feel your pain. Did head gaskets on a southern states sprayer truck once. Sumbeach had hydraulic lines run inside the cab....so instead of dealing with that hassle, I dealt with the hassle of pulling the bolts with the head, and re installing with the bolts.


But on the original topic, all European cars bring the suck. NO JOKE, broke down a Volvo once that needed every socket in the set from a 10 to a 21 except an 18 I think. That sucked........
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I wasnt even lucky enough to be able to remove the hood or have it up all the way i was laying on my belly most of the time
 
My old '98 TJ. I think it literally stayed in the ocean for a while at one point. Everything was rusted to hell and nothing wanted to come apart. Braxton and Noah know how freakin terrible that thing was to work on. It was a good little jeep though.
 
hurt4x4 said:
Just out of curiosity witch motor mount are you referring to on the PT. I've seen tons of motor mounts replaced on PT's and replaced a fair share myself, and never seen a motor pulled. loosen all motor mount bolts lower the car on to a jackstand with a block of wood under the oil pan and you can replace any mount with relative ease. The mount on pass side of the motor might require some prybar work.
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the drivers side mount, the one that's in the unibody
 
mbalbritton said:
My step dad has an'06 5 series. They quoted him $500 to change the spark plugs. I told him, there must be something I don't know about that job or they are charging you $450 to polish the BMW emblem on the hood when their done.

Anyone know why else it would cost $500 to swap 6 plugs?
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Probably like my Lincoln, have to take the top half of the engine off to access the rear plugs. Book time was 4hrs at $100/hr plus parts (plugs/gaskets) brought it right up to like $480. Decided to do it myself.
 
'76 Triumph Spitfire. The gas tank vent line had me baffled for weeks on why it puked gas pout the carb whenever you turned the pump on. It wasn't even our car and it sat in the garage for three weekends. It also had the classic British car wiring nightmare among other issues. Fixing one thing caused a chain reaction.
 
I've drilled some extra holes in firewalls and inner fenders from time to time to get to things (on mine and friends beater sort of cars) and then sheet metal screwed metal back to be removable if ever needed again.
 
Macdaddy4738 said:
My old '98 TJ. I think it literally stayed in the ocean for a while at one point. Everything was rusted to hell and nothing wanted to come apart. Braxton and Noah know how freakin terrible that thing was to work on. It was a good little jeep though.
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Where did it go a after you had it? I think I bought it in pieces a while back. Blue with a 4.0?
 
Seems everybody pretty much cusses what they are familiar with and well know it sucks. Or done that one time deal and was scared from it. Usually those are either rewarding learning deals for me or "I ain't gonna touch that pile again if its the last thing on earth to do".................why are those the repeat jobs, different vehicle same deal?? Either way if everything was engineered to work on all the time, most people like me would be screwed and out of a job! I pity any man who works on any modern diesel pickup daily under the hood. Open the hood and engineered vomit covers everything.
 
I will have to say the lower intake gaskets on the v6 nissan frontiers and xterras. The coolant hoses and sensors are almost impossiable to get to. And the rear sparkplugs aint much better.
 
Since this has turned in to a general whine and moan wrench thread .....
90's Pontiac Grand Am alternator .... deceptively on the top "easy" to reach ... 3 bolts ... 1.5 hours to get the bottom bolt out.
90's Chevrolet Eurosport Lumina. We had a 4 door ( loved that car ... still miss it ) had to remove top engine mounts and push the car forward in gear so the engine would rotate on the lower engine mount away from the firewall ... just to change the rear spark plugs.


Matt
 
Wasn't the Z34 Lumina the one that you had to pull a cylinder head to replace the 30cent "O"-ring on the oil pump drive stub ( what USED TO BE the Distributor ) ? one hell of an oil leak if you left it alone.
 
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