Biggest PITA job you've done

[House Sparrow]

I have done too many jobs that I would love to forget. Pennsylvania is the road salt rust capital of the world, so anything that involves dropping a fuel tank automatically sucks. Most heater core jobs are also guaranteed to suck, some much more than others.

One particularly despicable job I did recently was a radiator replacement in a late 90s Ford Taurus. What a prime example of the piss-poor engineering that guarantees I will NEVER own anything they build. The entire front end of the car has to come off, as the radiator bolts in from the front (unlike the older ones). Grille, headlights, upper cross bar, bumper, airbag sensor and AC condenser off, fenders partially unbolted...what a POS! I would rather do a head or intake job than one of those radiators.

I'm glad that radiator failures are not a common occurrence on these cars. The tranny cooler had ruptured on this one, and was spewing ATF into the cooling system. The next one I get, it will depend upon my mood that day if I even agree to do the damn thing.

[bgott]

I'm glad that radiator failures are not a common occurrence on these cars. The tranny cooler had ruptured on this one, and was spewing ATF into the cooling system. The next one I get, it will depend upon my mood that day if I even agree to do the damn thing.

That job is the gift that keeps on giving. Once you have the radiator in you have to get all the oil out of the cooling system.

[SPDMETL]

Not getting paid since it's mine, but...99 GMC 4x4 plow truck popped a brake line. They're all clustered along the driver's frame rail...along with the fuel lines. And the hydraulic lines for the rear plow blade. And they are all rusted to hell. Out comes the fuel tank.Trying to drop it far enough to see how the fuel lines come off. Snap! Yummm, plastic sending unit. Guess I oughta replace the 13 year old fuel pump while it's apart...
I'll have $1K into this brake line by the time I'm done! 50 years from now, there will be a
pile of rust flakes where the truck was, nicely accented by stainless lines...fuuuhhhhhkk

[AndyL]

I keep waiting to see superduty hit the list... cab removal for anything? Lol...

I swear to God, some days walking through the shop, you'd think the mechanics were hoisting the cabs to do oil changes maybe they were, force of habit?

[scbird94]

Volkswagen Toureg window regulator. WTF huge pain in the ass. Volkswagen ANYTHING is a pain. After i am emperor of Earth it will be a sin punishable by death to own a VW/Audi product

[jtfc]

My very first starter ever on a freightliner. From the get go nothing went as planned. Ended up using every extra extension I owned hooked up to a 3/4 gun at full hammer while another mechanic used a torch to loosen things up. Finally get everything loosened up and am laying down pulling the starter out I hear the other mechanic ask if im ready? 2 seconds later as my chest catches the starter he mentions yea they are kinda heavy. Swore off starters for a long time after that ....

[dankicksass]

Heater core in a Thunderbird aero car, Northstar starter, VW/Audi longitudinally mounted engines.

[Bronson]

Pussies! Heater core, bah! Anything inside the engine nacelle on a V-22 Osprey. Not only the actual job, but the reams of Military Paperwork involved in the simplest job.

[House Sparrow]

Originally Posted by bgott

That job is the gift that keeps on giving. Once you have the radiator in you have to get all the oil out of the cooling system.

Yep, flushed that thing four times until all the gunk was gone. Even after it looked fairly clean, I had a hell of a time keeping the heater core unclogged and getting heat. The water pump impeller was deteriorated, too, so there was rust slop mixed in with the ATF. The really sad thing is that this car only had about 70,000 miles on it when all this occurred. About a month ago, I had another 3.0 Taurus towed in with 69,000 and a junk transmission. They like to drop fuel injectors, too. Definitely NOT a car I would recommend to anyone, but they're great for business $$$

[racinfarmer]

Biggest PITA job?

Change the main beater in an FMC PSC-156 pea combine. The worst was it wasn't even my damn combine.

[sdguy55]

Originally Posted by jtfc

My very first starter ever on a freightliner. From the get go nothing went as planned. Ended up using every extra extension I owned hooked up to a 3/4 gun at full hammer while another mechanic used a torch to loosen things up. Finally get everything loosened up and am laying down pulling the starter out I hear the other mechanic ask if im ready? 2 seconds later as my chest catches the starter he mentions yea they are kinda heavy. Swore off starters for a long time after that ....

Thats a dickhead move to have someone underneath a hd starter and not tell them how much they weigh. Not a big deal to me anymore but i remember when i first started doin them i was amazed at how heavy they were. I think they are like 80 some lbs

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using Tapatalk 2

[D9H 90V]

Turbo or injection pimp on a duramax, suck-tastic

[dreamingmuscle]

Originally Posted by SPDMETL

Not getting paid since it's mine, but...99 GMC 4x4 plow truck popped a brake line. They're all clustered along the driver's frame rail...along with the fuel lines. And the hydraulic lines for the rear plow blade. And they are all rusted to hell. Out comes the fuel tank.Trying to drop it far enough to see how the fuel lines come off. Snap! Yummm, plastic sending unit. Guess I oughta replace the 13 year old fuel pump while it's apart...
I'll have $1K into this brake line by the time I'm done! 50 years from now, there will be a
pile of rust flakes where the truck was, nicely accented by stainless lines...fuuuhhhhhkk

It's easier to pull the bed off to replace the fuel pump and brake lines. Then it is to drop the tank.

[Sh1thead]

Originally Posted by AndyL

I keep waiting to see superduty hit the list... cab removal for anything? Lol...

I swear to God, some days walking through the shop, you'd think the mechanics were hoisting the cabs to do oil changes maybe they were, force of habit?

Its on here ... trust me.

[bgott]

Turbo or injection pimp on a duramax, suck-tastic

Fuel control actuator is a cast iron bitch, too.

[JKady]

Most recent pain, was what should have been a simple engine swap on an '88 Wrangler with the carbureted 4.2. Was the 3rd time it'd had a crate engine installed due to problems with our supplier (Thanks for nothing by the way J&S), and the last few techs under the hood were less than kind. Spent as much time with a tap and die set fixing fasteners and holes as I did assembling anything. Nevermind the fact that the 16 or so vacuum lines had been turned to mush with this thing puking oil everywhere, or the mess of mix matched standard and metric fasteners that happens when Chrysler and AMC collide.

Fight the thing the whole way back together and running, only to find that it once again, leaks oil, this time not because it has 1/8" of crank endplay, but from the head gasket of a supposedly "new" engine. Owner of the Heep and managment have both decided that if some mechanic in a bottle doesn't fix it, it's something he'll learn to live with since everyone is into this jeep for far more than its value at this point.

[aussiek2000]

Found one that was a PITA to change headlights.

[Hesketh]

Try replacing the Throttle Body on one of these, it is fitted to the back of the supercharger which is under the charge cooler. To cut a long story short you are needing to remove 90% of what is to the left of the rocker cover. And there is a lot of messing about to get the inlet manifold off which has the charge cooler built into it.

Very much a PITA job have had to do it 3 times now to 2 different cars got it down to about 5 hours out with the old and in with the new.

I have said that is the last time, but...

[Indy_500]

Heater core for me too on my Sierra PITA

[Jhoff310]

Mine's not auto related, but it fits the bill...
Last year the owner of a local flower shop contacted me and wanted me to gut his shop so he could turn it over to the owner since he wasnt renewing his lease. I had to tear out 3 walk-in coolers, remove all the counters, shelving, any electrial that wasn't in place when the flower shop signed the lease originally...basically take it back to a shell. I gave the florist my bid and he contacted me a couple days later and said go for it..Then he dropped the ball on me...had to be done it 3 days. Ii it wasnt bad enough that it had to be done in 3 days, the power was off...It was honestly around 115 degrees inside....Talk about a case of swamp ass..We got started at 7AM saturday and finished up at 2:30AM Monday. I dropped my trailer off in the driveway at 3AM..grabbed a bite to eat and a shower before heading off to bed by 4...back up at 6 to go to work....I rAN into snag, after snag, after snag on that job. By the time we got the bills settled up and figured out our wage per hour, we only made $10 hr ...a far cry from what I had hoped for and had charged him before

Jeff