jobs that shouldnt take that long but something goes wrong

[jakesae101]

dont you hate it when this happens i thaught i really should do an oil change on the trueno as i havent done one on it in the 8 or 9 months ive owned it turns out the previous person to do this job did the filter up tight as $&#$% and didnt lube the seal so it ended up the filter got munted so i had to get a screwdriver and tap the filter round 4 hours to change the oil normally takes me half a hr max share your experiances people

[Dell'Orto]

Trying to undo the filler plug on my AE101 Levin...has been done up tighter than a tight thing. Rounded it off with a socket, heat and CRC havent made it budge. Have nearly cut the thing in half trying to turn it with a cold chisel and its still not moved....

[jakesae101]

oh and i have a fair few burn marks on my hands along with some cuts and grazes now i remember why i like old cars everythings not so cramped to get at things

[Bling]

Decided to change fuel filter on my Levin.

Hadn't done it before, but it looked pretty straight forward to me..... hours later.... f**k it was tight... and the more I undid it, the tighter it got. Will never do a fuel filter again on an EFI car.

Swapped all the struts out for new struts/lowered springs. Didn't own any tools at this stage (so borrowed some off Snoozin), and no one wanted to give me a hand. So 6 hours later I had worked out how to do it. Worst part of that job was that 1/4 of the way through the job it started raining... and I had no garage.

This other time I decided to replace the CV boots.... yes... I am a sucker for punishment. I don't like paying people to do work on my cars I could do, so I do it all myself and learn as I go, but thats all part of the fun I reckon. But yeah, doing the CV boots took me a day I think, as once again, had no idea what I was doing, but by the end of it I had half a clue . I think i'd pay someone to do this job next time however as its a c**t of a job and is messy as.

Needless to say I now own an impact wrench / ratchet / socket sets / most other bits I need. Got myself a set of spring compressors for $11 off trademe the other day to add to my stash http://images.trademe.co.nz/photoserver ... 1_full.jpg

[Leon]

dont you hate it when this happens i thaught i really should do an oil change on the trueno as i havent done one on it in the 8 or 9 months ive owned it turns out the previous person to do this job did the filter up tight as $&#$% and didnt lube the seal so it ended up the filter got munted so i had to get a screwdriver and tap the filter round 4 hours to change the oil normally takes me half a hr max share your experiances people

Same job, same issue, same engine.

In an MR2

Oh what a fun day that was.

[jakesae101]

hmm yes there were a few choice words flying round the workshop found it easyer after i took the bracket off for the exhaust

[Mad Murphy]

dont you hate it when this happens i thaught i really should do an oil change on the trueno as i havent done one on it in the 8 or 9 months ive owned it turns out the previous person to do this job did the filter up tight as $&#$% and didnt lube the seal so it ended up the filter got munted so i had to get a screwdriver and tap the filter round 4 hours to change the oil normally takes me half a hr max share your experiances people

Same job, same issue, same engine.

In an MR2

Oh what a fun day that was.

+1 for that, first time I'd come to change it in my MR2 the filter was on far too tight thanks to the wonderful people at Oil Changers Of course the filter is in a real bastard position and neither filter wrench I had would fit. Took me ages, I finally got it off by using an old leather belt wrapped round it.

[Adamal]

dont you hate it when this happens i thaught i really should do an oil change on the trueno as i havent done one on it in the 8 or 9 months ive owned it turns out the previous person to do this job did the filter up tight as $&#$% and didnt lube the seal so it ended up the filter got munted so i had to get a screwdriver and tap the filter round 4 hours to change the oil normally takes me half a hr max share your experiances people

Same job, same issue, same engine.

In an MR2

Oh what a fun day that was.

I find the MR2 oil filter isn't too hard to get to, and theres enough room to get something in there to undo a tight filter.

I helped a friend with an N/A S14 once though.... That on the other hand, was a pain in the ass.... Too tight, and hard to get anything in there.
Ended up managing to find a gap to stick a screw driver through it and barely make the filter move.

[79rolla]

replacing head gasket on a 3l in perinats van..

took it off and got head planed without issues

should have been a day, 2 topps to put it back together.. i put the head on and cam belt but it was sized solid.. try'd turning with bars towing down road to no avail.

the annoying thing is i was turning it over by hand 5 days earlier.. i knew i had timing right and hadn't dropped a bolt down the bore, only conclusion i could think of was the bore had rusted up in the shit weather.. tried pulling out injectors and fulling with oil and break fluid, also checked cam wasn't seized.

ended u pulling head off when i got motivation again 2 weeks later, to find that the 2l gasket that i was given is in fact NOT the same as a 3l, the gasket was sitting ontop of the pistons witch sat about a mill above the block at TDC and when i torqued the head down i had the timing perfect and it just crimped everything and locked it solid... iv never heard of this happening and nether has the experience mechanic that sold me the gasket and i was consulting with about the issue, (he's a desil mechanic and works with these motors regularly)

so iv got it halfway back together now, hopeful it hasn't done any damage to bearing lol

[Mr Revhead]

I just spent 1.5 hours removing a door from an Imp!
That's one pin, and 8 screws....
Pin for the check strap refused to budge.. so had to grind away as much as I could top and bottom until I could spread the holder and pop the pin out the side....

Then 8 screws that were rusted in and painted over.....

Next I am removing a guard. that is welded on and has had dodgy repairs done to some of those welds, already spent about 3 hours on that...

$&#$% I love old cars

[Dell'Orto]

Trying to undo the filler plug on my AE101 Levin...has been done up tighter than a tight thing. Rounded it off with a socket, heat and CRC havent made it budge. Have nearly cut the thing in half trying to turn it with a cold chisel and its still not moved....

Just got this out before...I've probably spent the best part of an hour all up grinding and filing this little bastard, and in the end hammering a socket on and using a 24" breaker bar got it

[holden_fan2005]

Decided to do the front brakes in my 88 holden barina. Thought it was going to be a hour job after the parts arrived.

1st thing, got the wrong discs (88 was a change over year!!). 2 days later new ones arrived.

Got the news ones and proceeded to change the 'bolt on' discs.

A week later the car is still in the garage because the shaft holder thingy needs to be pressed off the hub to change the discs.


So much for a darn slip off slip on job

[Trls250s]

Swapping a gearbox over in a C33 laurel. Took 45 minutes just the top 2 bellhousing bolts. Then i come to it and the shifter wires had been cut so i had to solder on new wires, then the torque convertor didnt line up...

Usually takes me 4 hours to change over a box on AE85/MZ10/St141, but this took me 12.

[cat007]

haha what a great thread

A while back I decided to rip my engine out and give it a rebuild as it was stock.

While the engine was out I thought, heck, I'll paint the engine bay as it was a bit messy. Then I thought, heck, I'll paint the whole car. Stripped back to a bare shell (literally! Everything that wasn't welded on, got removed) and many many months later - a weekend or two overhaul on the engine turned into a hell of a job lol

[sergei]

Decided to wire in the link G3 (thought it will be couple of weekend job sort of thing) on my ST165 a few years ago (when G3 just came out), pulled out engine loom, got bigger injectors, start chopping things, didn't like the wire mess all over the car pulled out whole dash... Then I met my wife, and car is still sits in the $&#$% garage with all its guts out.

[KinLoud]

my first solo fwd clutch change (2nd ever)
Got an fwd corona off some back packers for $100. It had been broken into and clutch was worn so they could drive it up hills to get out of Taupo!

Got new drivers window and ignition lock
Found random clutch bits in my parts bin
Pulled gearbox off (3hours)
Put clutch plate and pressure plate in, gearbox back in, driveshafts in etc (4hours)

Engine wouldn't turn over
Hmmm
Next day...
Pull gearbox off (2 1/2 hours, I was learning)
Find that pressure plate was hitting bellhousing
Install different pressure plate
Tried to get gearbox back on... won't go (3 hours of shagging around)
Take gearbox out...
Find I burred the splines on the friction plate so it wouldn't slide back on (1hour)

Next day
Put different friction plate in
Gearbox back in (2 1/2 hours)

Car drove mint!
Sold it to another backpacker for $850

3 day mission But great learning experience

Ken

[Makaveli]

I think when you do the work yourself on the car, provided you know what you are doing. You shouldn't be having problems.

Like sump bolts I have rounded off in the past. Had to get another guy to use a MIG welder to weld another bolt to it to tap it with a hammer to make it turn. Solution/Prevention: Use 6 Sided Sockets - Hex (Black Impact Sockets). Buy quality. I use Powerbuilt. Snapon are good too I heard. This shouldn't round off the bolts. Also make sure you use a new washer, so you don't need to overtighten the sump bolt to prevent leaks.

Trying to change pads without having a Clamp or Brake Pad Spreader (noobie I know).

Trying to change oil with a scissor jack without using jack stands (axle stands) very dangerous. Car can fall.

Even the so called professional places make mistakes. I had powersteering pumps being rebuilt to only have more problems with no powersteering at all (seized gasket I think it was. Also when they replaced the powersteering pump (AGAIN) they broke the air box mount. Random marks on the wheels from a screw driver or something on OZ Racing rims.... when they did the front pads.

Best advice before doing any job: read the workshop manual, some online guides are good (depending on the source or the author) and having the right tools and taking your time, never rush a job or take dodgy shortcuts.

[SUBARUCONVERT]

Ha ive had many of these things, went to put some new front discs and pads on my old BF5 wagon after work. jacked up wheels off, one caliper slide seized, proceed to free up with heat, crc (insert any other lube could find) got it free and clean, go to remove disc, rusted to the hub. fight with it for an hour ok all done now the other side, SHET same as the other side but worse, 11 at night all done something that takes me about 40min at work, and maybe 90 min at work with the problems i had

[Sick Puppy]

Stupidest five minute job was replacing bulbs on a mate's Mondeo- bulb covering is held in place with a wire coat hanger style clip. As I was putting the bulb in, the clip came out... five minute job took three hours of trying to get the fricking clip back into the mounting...

4AGE engines were nightmares to get filters off- trying to get the filter by reaching under the 'warm' exhaust manifold.

That, and the next job I'm looking forward to is replacing the sunroof motor on the Curren- only tool four years to find the information on the internet, since not a single mechanic/ panelbeater/ electrician wanted to touch it... looks to be an easy enough job lol

[celica_xr9145]

I know the feeling, what was an easy task of removing front wing took up the whole day and still didn't get i off, couldn't find the last bolt to completely remove it.

Lost my temper with it so i ended up giving the job too my dad who got it off in a matter of a few minutes