What Places Are Notoriously Hard to Reach on Your Car?
We all have to dig into our vehicles to repair, replace or simply retrieve something at some point. Be it addressing a bad exhaust manifold gasket, failed starter, or your cell phone that slid between the seat and the console, some places are notoriously hard to reach. Sometimes it feels like this was created by design, especially when you need to get something done quickly.
This week’s question should generate many unique stories and relatable tales of painfully difficult things to reach in your vehicle. There are just some places that are so much harder than others, especially on some vehicles. For me, it’s the ritual of doing an oil change on my Lincoln Mark VIII, because I truly hate the filter location.
See the Mobil 1 oil filter nestled deep within the engine cradle, further obscured by the anti-roll bar underneath? Granted, I’ve made this job harder for myself, as said bar is a much larger piece from Addco. While access to spin the oil filter off from the block is straightforward, the oil pours down the engine cradle (all around the pictured metal/rubber hose) and collects at the divot in the cradle’s sheetmetal. It’s a mess, especially since there’s another divot which requires careful placement of your oil pan to ensure it catches used oil from both locations.
It’s a hot mess (literally), but I haven’t even discussed the real chore: getting the oil filter between the engine and that Addco bar. The trick is to stick your pointer finger in the oil filter, clamp down with said finger, and pull down hard so it slides past the bar.
I’ve owned this car for over two decades and can change the oil without frustration, but this filter is still “notoriously hard” to reach. So now I shall kick the question back to you:
What places are notoriously hard to reach on your car?
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ERG valve on my 1989 Corvette convertible
Have you every tried to access the wiring behind the dash of a Volvo P1800? Being a contortionist would be an assett! 🙂
Just remember someone approved the design of your nemesis. Soooooo, If I ever meet an automotive design engineer, the meeting will end with them having a black eye or two.
Violence is not the answer.
Spark plugs on a V-8 Maverick by the shock towers. Heater core on an early Tahoe with buckets and center console. Seats and console come out then dash. BMW X-3 valve cover gasket a pain. 50 things to remove first. Trans on 06 Ford escape. Alldata printout has 63 steps and most are confined space. Also alternator on same escape with V-6. Pull right front axle shaft. Not a roadside fix
1993 Toyota MR2 alternator. People think the MR2 is hard to work on by virtue of it being mid engined, but almost everything is easily accessible. Not the alternator tho. It’s buried down low and you can’t even remove it from the top in some cases (depends on which amperage unit you have). It requires about three feet of extensions, and then you have to perform contortions to get it out of the engine bay once the bolts are removed.
1982 & 84 Crossfire Corvette spark plug wires. The front four on both sides of the engine route through the motor mounts. The back two on the passenger side route behind the starter. All of them route behind metal covers bolted to the side of the engine block. The wires themselves are approximately 5 feet long. It’s a ridiculously thought out design. Very poor engineering.
2017 Cadillac XT5. You get this weird trouble code “Steering assist is reduced drive with care”. What the hell does that mean? To make a long story short, the thermostat needs replacing. Where is it? Underneath the intake manifold.
In Texas, behind a vineyard building (yes, Texas), I saw a curved front quarter panel and a small bumper sticking out of an open barn. While my wife was tasting wine, I asked the proprietor if I could go see what that was. He said, yeah but don’t touch it. It was a 1965 Sunbeam Tiger Cobra. It had the snakes on the rear quarter panels, toggle switches across the dashboard and through the gap under the hood you could read the “Shelby Cobra” stamped on the valve covers.
The 85ish gentleman said he and his wife used to drive that car all over the country and he intended to restore it and do it again. He wouldn’t even entertain an offer.
I have photos but it doesn’t seem I can post them here.
Wow – eleven pages of Woe and Misery! The one positive thing – next time I’m in a bind under the car I will not feel like the Lone Ranger. Small consolation.
Want some fun? Try the back two spark plugs on a Sunbeam Tiger!
On my ‘71 LS-5, Big Block ‘vette with air the spark plugs on the right side were difficult. You had to jack up the car, remove the front wheel and access through a rubber flap and even then the two forward plugs were hard, I used a combination of a 1/4 ratchet w extensions and one of those “Sidewider” ratchets.
1999 Ford F250. Just about anything in the engine bay except the alternator. The engine sits so far back that plugs, coils, and injectors are ridiculously difficult to get to. I have replaced those components on seven of eight cylinders. If and when those things need replacing on cylinder no. 4 I’m taking it to a mechanic. It might be easier to replace the entire engine.
Rear plugs on 4 cylinder 2011 Nissan pickup.
1968 Mercury Park Lane, basically the same as a Galaxie or LTD. On cars with factory A/C, like mine, the heater hose connections are up inside the passenger side fender. Incredibly difficult to reach, requiring removal of the front wheel and disassembling the inner fender, and someone with really skinny arms. Should you need to actually replace the heater core, the hood and passenger fender all need to come off. Absolutely terrible design.
Any year C6 and model differential drain plug. The mono leaf is in the way had to cut down an Allen key to make it work and that don’t work all the time.