Fawndeuce

So like many of you guys, I do most all of my own wrenching on my old crocks, most of the time I even enjoy it.

My DD is a Subaru Legacy GT turbo, never a service call other than regular maintenance in 55K miles.
But it did develop this one issue, in extremely cold weather (< 5F or worse) it would start running rough after cold start, throw a code, go into safe mode.
The intake runner O rings are the culprit, but only on some '07~'09 turbos, no TSB, but there is a new version O ring available that cures it.

The dealer gives me the run around, no TSB, leave the car overnight, has to do it here next morning, may not be that blah blah blah...
But over on the Subie forum, a young pup (I'm youngish here, but old over there ) posts a how-to with pics.
Just buy the four gaskets for $20, pop off the intercooler, lift the manifold enough to get out the old gaskets with a dental pick, pop in the new ones, and a couple three hours Bob's your uncle and you're done!

Now I haven't turned a wrench a "modern" car since I built my up my 5.0 Mustang in the 90's, but I figured what the heck and dove in after work today.
All I can say is OMG (expletives deleted)!!!! I had absolutely no idea how miserable working on one of these modern things could be!!!!
Four million hoses and wires with their brackets and clips crammed into every square inch, plastic parts everywhere ready to snap if you look them wrong or slice your hands up when you have to reach in and feel for all the hidden nuts and clips, and the whole time you're bent over in half.
Ended up taking me close to five hours, my hands are cut up up like I've been fighting with a basket of kittens all afternoon, and my back is just killing me.
So am I just getting old, or have any of you guys been through similar?



Paul

cv67

Right there with you.
02 Silverado
hate working on it
$500 fuel pump $300 water pumps etc. No thanks.
Whatever happened to walking out of an auto parts store spending $60 replacing a few bolts and youre driving lol

helpless feeling when a light comes on and the car wont go more than 20 mph. HUH?
So now I own a $350 scanner that I pray will tell me whats wrong.
Less "parts" to replace now they are a$$emblies and not fun to replace.

Looking for an older smog expemt DD. Mileage be damned they(older ones) are just easier to own and cheaper to fix.
I would never own another new car period....if I did it wouldnt be without a bumper to bumper warranty. One repair could cost 1000s.

AmericanPie

Our '96 Toyota Avalon w/ over 200K needed a valve job; no way I was going to do it (transverse-mounted, FWD, DOHC, 24 valve V6). Horrible access on the firewall side of the engine. Car is still solid and in nice shape, and worth keeping. I just bit the bullet and paid my local indy shop. Cost was over $2K including all new exhaust valves, belts, hoses, plugs, etc. but it should be good for at least another 150-200K and it's still a lot cheaper than buying a new car.

One of the nice things about getting older is realizing you don't HAVE to do certain jobs if you really don't feel like it. I'll save my energy...and time... for working on cars I WANT to work on.

Frankie the Fink

The old sayings, "...you are driving the cheapest car you will ever own", and, "...nothing keeps middle class folks in the middle class like new car payments" are still true ! Fix 'em up if you can.

Frustrating though, my '06 Durango has a dome light out - a freakin' dome light ! Turns out the sexy fade out feature when it turns off goes through some computer chip behind the dash - a $1,500 repair. For a dome light mind you. Appalling.

4 Speed Dave

I do all my own work on all my cars and trucks. It really frustrating with the serviceability of these new cars and trucks. The most recent fun adventure was installing an aftermarket downpipe on my Duramax not only are you doing all the work on a topside creeper but there is no clearance room to get the old one out between the engine and firewall.

The new engines are still the same as the old ones just with new engine controls a good scanner or realtime data logger is really what everyone needs to pin point problems.

biggd

I'm an Auto mechanic by trade, 40 years in the business. I hate working on my daily drivers that's why I own 2 Toyota Camry 4cyl's. They almost never need repairs just routine maintenance. I would much rather spend my money and spare time working on my Vette. My wife says we are boring, driving two old peoples cars, but I was never one to really care what other people think. I just need my everyday car to get me back and forth to work with as little trouble as possible. I also have a Z71 chevy pick up shop truck.

DansYellow66

I know the feeling. A couple years ago I changed out the blower drive pulley and sparkplugs on my supercharged Ford Lightning. It probably took me a full 6 hours to change out the plugs and my hands were like shreaded meat and my back was killing me afterwards. I had to work out so many rinky-dink socket, swivel, extension rigs to get to them changed that I thought I was back in tinker toys era. The little coil pack retaining bolts on the back cylinders were a nightmare. I finally had to tie them to my finger with thread because I knew if I dropped one I would never find it. After I finally managed to get them threaded I broke the thread. What an ordeal.

Also changed out the intake on a newer V-6 Buick - another lovely experience.

MaineDoc

I'm in the same camp. Nothing better than a day in the garage working on one of the old Chevys. However, when it comes to my Honda Accord I don't even change the oil. Time is too precious to be working on a appliance when I could be under one of the Corvettes.

MrPbody

^^^^^ what he said ^^^^^


Russ

C-1 Generation 2

About the only thing I do on the newer cars is just change the oil.The 2010 Grand Sport has yet to be at a dealer,perfect in every way. I usually have a problem with throwing a code on the HHR SS when temperatures get below freezing and the plastic air charge tubing for the intercooler loosens a little.
Just gotta leave them Mustang GT alone till it gets warmer.

Mike Ward

You're just getting old.

SpartyGW

Hey, FtF, you need one of these:

[Edit: link doesn't work...it was a link to one of those cheapy plastic night lights ]

$1500 is stoopid crazy.

AZDoug

I am used to working on my Ferrari.... New cars sound like a piece of cake. Try 5 hours to R&R the engine temp sender because someone thought a really good place for it would be under the four weber carbs, rather than 6" over closer to the T-stat water inlet. I guess it might have been cosmetically unsightly there, or the dipsh1t engineer never even thought about having to replace it.

I do agree new cars have "modules", that are ridiculously expensive to replace, over half is profit markup, the rest labor.

Doug

54greg

New car mech, old car mech all the same to me. The age of the car just determines which and how many of my sons are called for help

TheGanzman

Just a reminder - there ARE some nightmare jobs on the "good old cars", to wit: 1968 Shelby GT500 - Spark Plugs! Sold that car in 1999, and STILL have a scar on my right hand from THAT all-day job!

Lou64

Just changing spark plugs in any transverse-mounted V-6 or V-8 engine can turn into a nightmare real quick. Bleh. Remind me to buy 4-bangers or rear-wheel drive cars in the future.

ChattanoogaJSB

yes, I hate even "older" late models. To wit, I told a friend after diagnosing bad injectors on his stock '89 coupe I could swap them for him and save the labor. First go round two weeks ago I finally got to the bottom of the job, switched injectors, I tested the fuel pressure before putting the intake plenum/TB/cables/sensors/etc back on, finished the job (so I thought) and on the road test one injector was not seated FULLY. Small leak- not evident when the pump cycled to 45 psi once, but evident when it ran for long duration. Going back to take EVERYTHING back off again. Will be testing it a different way this time. Even the C4 forum help didn't keep me from avoiding this pitfall.

Huge numbers of cheap fasteners abounding, half of which are "almost" inaccessible...and this just a simple "top of the engine" job. Makes me remember why I love truly classic examples.

tuxnharley

Exactly!!! Fortunately I can afford to pay someone else to work on the new ones, and save my time for tinkering with and driving the old ones!

Godholio

The two worst things I've ever had to do on a car were replacing the rear bank of plugs and replacing the waterpump on a '93 Taurus 3.8L (transverse-mounted Mustang/Thunderbird engine). To get to the wp the engine has to be lifted at least 3". To get to the spark plugs, your best bet is to roll it off a cliff.

All I've had to do on the '12 Jeep is oil changes so far, but I think I'm going to buy a bluetooth OBDII scanner so I can track everything on my phone. That's actually a pretty neat capability.

steveale

2004 avalanche 5.3L...some of the recent trials...


O2 sensor replace after check engine light, required removal of the front driveshaft to get to the sensor and plug in on the transmission.

Plug replacement, said to hell with the passenger rear, it got 7 plugs and new wires. Dont even get me started on those spring loaded heat shields on the plug boots and how the boots were baked on.

replaced transmission fluid and filter...shift linkage blocks pan removal and has to be completely removed to facilitate dropping the trans pan.

Transaxle fluid replacement...good luck finding it in the chain auto parts stores...luckily found it in an old time ma and pa shop locally.

rear end diff fluid replace, no drain plug in a 2004 (came later)...had to pull the pumpkin cover.



one hint on the O2 sensor, no normal deep well works even with the wire cut...and the specialty socket is expensive. I used a normal wrench and an old mechanic trick. I TIGHTENED it and it went "POP", then immediately loosen and it comes right out.


oh, almost forgot the best one of all. Power steering pump went bad...replacement required taking almost every item off the driver side of the engine. had to pull the pulley and install on the new core...in the process I screwed up a seal but didn't discover it until re-assembly. So I got to install another new PS pump...good news is I knew exactly how to do it the second time.