In case you were wondering–though I’m extremely confident you weren’t–I still haven’t gotten those pads and rotors installed. I did think about doing it though, and even resolved to change the oil so long as I was getting my hands dirty. The last time I was under the car doing a transfusion, I muttered the usual stuff I mutter about the RAV4’s filter placement. This progressed to a lengthy, creative string of expletives when the plastic oil-filter housing broke like a heartily gripped chocolate bunny (the hollow kind, obviously), necessitating a trip to Auto Zone. On my bicycle. Get in the Zone, Au-To-Zone, and drink an overpriced Coke on the sidewalk because you’re Out-of-Shape!
Metal. Metal is always the way. Images: chocalate bunny by Riko Best/adobe.stock.com; devil horns by bergamont/adobe.stock.com
Anyway, working on cars seemed a whole lot easier when I was a kid, watching my Dad do it. For a solid eight years or so, Dad commuted in air-cooled VWs (first a Squareback, then a Beetle, and finally a red convertible Super Beetle) while Mom had a big ‘ol Ford Country Squire wagon – I think she went through two of them before she got a Jeep J10 Thriftside, her all-time favorite. Dad kept these machines in tip-top shape with legit Craftsman tools purchased throughout the 60s (they’re mine now), and it was always quick work.
Image: Sheri Armstrong/adobe.stock.com
The wagons had cavernous engine bays, and just like stock-photo-guy’s Chevy mill above, everything was pretty much right there when you opened the hood. Ditto for the Volkswagens, just open the engine cover and ta-daaa! My job at tuneup time was always holding the timing gun, which looked like a gosh-dang laser pistol. Kid-me was thrilled. Dad was rarely under the VWs and just took a knee to fiddle with the carb settings or adjust the points (which he once set by the side of the road, with a matchbook as a feeler gauge). In later years, as we became a Toyota family and Dad spent a couple of Summers getting an MG Midget into shape, he always recalled those wagons and VWs as being easy, even fun to work on.
What’s the must-fun-to-work-on car you’ve encountered? Or least-fun, sorry if that’s where you are right now. How’s your current stable looking, easy/fun-wise? Let’s talk about it, it’s Wrenching Wednesday!
Really enjoyed the above, Peter!
Obviously an older car with a huge engine bay will be easier, but to be honest I have two Audi’s and they really aren’t that bad. I would rather work on either of them then my dad’s ’93 Z28. Sure, then engine is like half a centimeter from the cooling fans, but I was able to change the belts from below without even putting it in service position. If you do need to remove the bumper or put it in service position, they’re designed to do that easily. It only takes about 30 minutes and you have all the room you need. Sure, some things are buried due to design constraints, but everything comes apart and goes back together in a way that makes sense, like they actually considered serviceability. They’re actually pretty fun to wrench on.
1996 Saturn SL2. Owned it for 20 years now. Dead easy to fix almost anything. Plugs are right up top, automatic trans has a spin on filter and a drain plug, trans pan is up top covering the shift solenoids. Takes regular bulbs, battery and water pump are easy to get to, so is the serp belt if you take 3 minutes to pop off the top engine mount and tilt the engine with a floor jack and a bit of wood under the oil pan. Simple suspension and brakes, no CAN-BUS anything.
90s Saturns were very underrated. Everyone I’ve known who’s had one drove it until they just got sick of it… not because of any major failures on the vehicle.
I worked on a first-gen coupe that still drove great at over 250,000 hard, hate-filled miles. The only thing I noticed that didn’t work was the recliner mechanism for the driver’s seat, it wouldn’t hold the seat up anymore and would just flop the seat completely back. The owners clever solution? He put a big ass inflatable exercise ball behind the driver’s seat and called it a day. I think he drove the car for many more miles like that haha
After inheriting a 1968 Mustang Fastback, I am remembering how easy everything was to work on. To remove something, most of the screws are visible, and there is no swearing over how stuff like a Power steering had to be packaged in such a way that it had to be installed on the engine, before it was installed in the car ( I’m looking at you Dodge).
On top of that you need a basic 100 piece Craftsman toolset to do anything on the tool!
Over the years, it had to be my old Fiat Spider 2000. Dead nuts simple. A 10mm and a 13mm socket and the right extensions, and you could do just about anything. I was daily driving a Fiat in Atlanta traffic, so I became adept at parking lot repairs.
Now? I guess I would have to say my Jeep TJ with the venerable 4.0L, but honestly, I mostly pay someone to do stuff now. I’ve reached an age where a day on my back on the cold concrete just isn’t worth it anymore. I’l pay someone younger who has a better equipped garage (lifts/etc.) to do it.
Yeah, I still do my own oil changes on the TJ and on my Tacoma, but that’s just because they are so simple. On my Honda Element and the V6 Accord Coupe, I pay a Honda independent shop to do oil changes. I supporting a local small business, and they get to clean up the mess that the filter placement on those cars creates.
On the C4 everything is easily removed if you can easily get to it. A lot of the interior stuff is “Take the thing out to get the thing out to get the thing out so you can get to the thing you want to work on,” as GM was wont to do at the time; and virtually everything under hood is astonishingly easy to see and also understand conceptually how it goes together but rarely easy to actually remove.
The 996 is the opposite. Everything is extremely easy to remove but without prior knowledge you’d basically have no idea whatsoever how (especially when a lot of it in the interior is just “pull really hard in a specific place”); and a lot of the stuff on the engine is basically just right there and if you know it’s there you can do it without even seeing it but you can’t see it without getting at an extremely odd angle so you need to know it’s there in advance. You can do oil changes basically by reaching under the car and unscrewing the drain plug, for example.
It’s really kind of a push I’d say.
I did not know this about the C4 or the 996, thanks for sharing!
Peter,
You haven’t done your brakes yet?
What’s stopping you?
*golf clap* 😀
The XJ is definitely the easiest since it is super basic and can typically be mended with simple hand tools. Also the lift means I can crawl under it and do work without even having to jack it up most times, which is good since it is constantly breaking or leaking something.
My third gen Mazda3 is a treat to work on. Everything is accessible and well laid out.
The one that surprised me the most was my (recently sold) Volvo S60R manual.
I managed to do the timing belt, water pump, idler, plugs, fuel filter, front control arms, replacement (junk yard) Haldex AWD module (to make AWD work again), and some other stuff…. all in a TINY 1890’s brick garage it barely fit in, with hardly any room to move around it while having the flu and it being like 15 degrees out….
^None of that is meant to be a flex, I was just so relieved at the time that the Volvo was way easier to do all this work on without any special tools, just some creative problem solving.
2002 Ranger with the 3.0, RWD, Manual, crank everything.
Split window VW bus. Air cooled VWs are notoriously easy to work on in any guise, but with the split windows, There’s 6(?) bolts to remove the bumper, then there’s 6 bolts (from memory) that you can remove to pull the rear apron (between the engine and the rear of the car). From there, it’s a fuel line, some wires, and four bolts to pull the engine from the vehicle. Back when I had one, I could pull the running, driving, stopping bus into my driveway, and have the engine on a stand in under 30 minutes solo. Made doing fun go-fast projects (or anything engine related) a breeze!