• Hey Guest!
    British Car Forum has been supporting enthusiasts for over 25 years by providing a great place to share our love for British cars. You can support our efforts by upgrading your membership for less than the dues of most car clubs. There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Upgraded members don't see this banner, nor will you see the Google ads that appear on the site.)
Tips
Tips

Tell us us something we don't know

Share this page

M

maynard

Yoda
Country flag
Online
1642959632460.png
 
And make sure to put a cover over it that only releases by crawling under the car and reaching up with a 3 foot socket extension. And just to make it really fun, put in the service manual just the two words, "remove cover"...
 
I remember as a kid working on a jeep 6 cyl with an integral intake manifold. Yep, there was a bolt thru the manifold under the carb.
Bob
 
1958 Olds. Had to remove the steel bumper to replace a tail light bulb
 
Basil said:
BMW engineers!
Click to expand...
I'll second that!!

It is interesting, how a car that is so well engineered when driving, is such a pain in the donkey to service. Some of that is on purpose - to keep the revenue flowing to the BMW service network, but some of it is just absent-minded engineering.
 
We use to claim some of that design work was done on Friday night Happy Hours.
 
Basil said:
Had to remove entire front end to replace headlight on wife’s BMW Z4
Click to expand...
Same with my 2000 Volvo.
Found a loose turn signal bulb inside the headlamp.
After three attempts to get it I gave it up.
 
Had an Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme that one had to remove the passenger side front suspension to get to the alternator (FWD). I think it was our VW Passat wagon that had the thermostat in behind the water pump.
 
BobHaskell said:
Had an Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme that one had to remove the passenger side front suspension to get to the alternator (FWD). I think it was our VW Passat wagon that had the thermostat in behind the water pump.
Click to expand...
Another fun task (two tasks) I had to do recently on the Z4: First, to replace the water pump requires that you unbolt the engine from the motor mounts and, with large block of wood on the left side of the oil pan, jack up the left side of the engine several inches. This is necessary because they put a steel cross member (impossible to remove without removing the entire front clip) directly in front of the water pump. So, you must jack up the engine several inches to allow the pump to be withdrawn past that cross member. Then, I had to replace two simple plastic pipes that ran to/from the heater core because they both were leaking. Sounds easy enough except that you have to first remove the intake manifold to gain access to those pipes and getting that manifold off is no trivial task!

I got a quote from the dealer to do all the stuff I ended up doing myself (water pump, heater pipes, all new hoses, thermostat, new coolant reservoir, etc) and it was well north of $3000! I did it all for about $300 in parts and lots of cussing.
 
Replaced the heater core on our '78 Ford Fairmont wagon.
The manual said to remove the glove box,& then remove the
heater core.They neglected to say that was WITHOUT A/C.
You had to remove everything up to the firewall.It was an
eight hour flat rate job.
 
My 1989 F250 (even with A/C) was probably the easiest heater core replace I ever did - took the glovebox off (no tools needed just clips in), undid 6 hex head screws in the plastic heater core box and it fell out onto the floor. Didn't even have to drain the system because the inlet/outlet hoses are higher on the firewall than anything else. Took longer to drive to the parts store and buy one than the actual remove/replace.
 
Back
Top