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Nomination for "BEST Automotive Maintenance Feature Ever"

ChaseDE

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Aug 25, 2016
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2,178
Location
Delaware
Opposite of the other thread about unnecessarily difficult maintenance, praise the engineers that make it easy! :rocker:


1 good example, my 1999 C230K Benz, if you have a tailight bulb go out....


1. the dash tells you that there is a bulb out
2. open trunk, pull back fabric, turn one knob, pull out tray with all push-on lights in it.

amazing

benzlight.jpg
 
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calif phil

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Jan 17, 2017
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Concordia KS
1987 Buick Lesabre The rear license plate slid in a grove. Open the trunk and slide it in. Now one could steal it with opening the trunk first.
 

Milton Shaw

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Feb 11, 2011
Messages
4,845
The 77 and up GM Impala size cars. The evaporator/heater core etc were under the hood and took about 10 screws to remove the cowl cover and took longer to find the right size wrenches than to get access to it. Sure beat the now normal "remove the whole dash and everything attached to the firewall" to get to either one of those.
 

bwringer

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Jan 1, 2013
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10,320
Location
Indianapolis
Toyota oil filters.

I've owned at least six or seven Toyotas and changing the oil has been entirely straightforward on all. Even on the Corolla, I don't need to raise the car as long as I use a drain pan that fits underneath the engine.

On my Sienna with the cartridge oil filter, the oil filter comes with a little plastic widget. You remove a plug, pop in the plastic widget, and the oil in the filter drains.

No frame rails or exhausts in the way on any I've encountered. That said, I'm sure someone here has a tale of a Toyota with a real ******* of a filter...


In general, I've found Toyotas to be a lot easier to service than other brands. There are two major reasons for this:

1) Lots of parts commonality. Toyota tends to keep things the same for a long time, and use the same engines, brakes, etc. on many different models for many years, with very few mid-year or plant changes.

2) Higher quality fasteners. It's a small thing, but it makes all the difference after a few years of salt. I just did a bunch of suspension work on my 2002 Corolla with 430,000 miles and had no problems with stuck fasteners. That would be unthinkable on any Ford over two years old.

Toyota tends to leave a bit more room for servicing as well. Honda, for example, packs everything very tightly -- there's always a way to get things done, but you have to know the trick and have some talent at origami.
 

CoogarXR

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Jan 11, 2016
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6,867
Location
Ohio
1993 Lincoln Mark VIII 4.6 DOHC water pump. It has like 3 bolts and an o-ring seal. It's like a 30 minute job even for a novice.

Looking under that hood you'd think any job would be a nightmare, but that water pump was shockingly easy.
 

bwringer

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10,320
Location
Indianapolis
Just thought of another one. This one is rather obscure...

Back in college, I had a late 70's Datsun 310 (yeah, remember Datsun?). Changing the clutch involved removing a hatch on the top of the bell housing and two bolts to remove a clutch lever assembly. You then rotated the engine to remove the pressure plate bolts and then the pressure plate and clutch came out through the hatch. You could do the whole thing in about 30 minutes without even jacking up the car.

Absolutely brilliant, and I don't think I've ever seen anything similar on another car.
 
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ChaseDE

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Delaware
In reference to oil changes. On my benz it has a top cartridge filter too. So you just crack the filler cap, drain like normal out the bottom, then crack the top filter cap, wait a sec, and remove it, easy peasy filter change with no mess....great thing.
 

CoogarXR

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Ohio
This one is not specific to any car, but any car where they put the fusebox under the hood, or in the side of the dash (visible when the door is open), etc. Anywhere but completely under the dash with no way to see labels without a mirror.
 

Hotsauce

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Apr 16, 2014
Messages
58
Location
Southern Ontario
My Benz or most any Merc/BMW - nice solid & uniform place to jack up the car. Such a pain & gamble jacking or lifting on the perimeter frame from my experiences
137934-do-tire-store-uses-jack-pad-w221_closeup2.jpg
 
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ChaseDE

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Delaware
i do not have a jack point like that on my (older) benz, i dont think, looks nice though.
 

kylerohde

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Dec 9, 2016
Messages
61
Location
Kansas City, MO, USA
Similar to Hotsauce's...

Most cars will tell you where to jack up the car for emergency roadside tire changes, but give you ZERO guidance as to where to jack up a car for placing jackstands. So, you end up searching enthusiast forums for instruction and hoping what you find there is correct. Pain in the ****.

On my sister's '09 Civic, the owner's manual has very clear instructions and the car is engineered to make it easy. For the front, the cradle under the engine is a secure jack point and then the jackstands go on the normal pinch weld areas on the sides. In the rear, the towhook is also engineered to be the jack point and then the side pinch welds are for the jackstands. Brilliantly simple. That's the Honda people know & love.

Contrast that with Ford, whom I love, but they give ZERO instruction on proper placement for my 2011 Mustang, even in the freaking service manual.
 

nh_yota

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Joined
Mar 10, 2015
Messages
4,078
Location
Seacoast New Hampshire
Toyota oil filters.

I've owned at least six or seven Toyotas and changing the oil has been entirely straightforward on all. Even on the Corolla, I don't need to raise the car as long as I use a drain pan that fits underneath the engine.

On my Sienna with the cartridge oil filter, the oil filter comes with a little plastic widget. You remove a plug, pop in the plastic widget, and the oil in the filter drains.

No frame rails or exhausts in the way on any I've encountered. That said, I'm sure someone here has a tale of a Toyota with a real ******* of a filter...


In general, I've found Toyotas to be a lot easier to service than other brands. There are two major reasons for this:

1) Lots of parts commonality. Toyota tends to keep things the same for a long time, and use the same engines, brakes, etc. on many different models for many years, with very few mid-year or plant changes.

2) Higher quality fasteners. It's a small thing, but it makes all the difference after a few years of salt. I just did a bunch of suspension work on my 2002 Corolla with 430,000 miles and had no problems with stuck fasteners. That would be unthinkable on any Ford over two years old.

Toyota tends to leave a bit more room for servicing as well. Honda, for example, packs everything very tightly -- there's always a way to get things done, but you have to know the trick and have some talent at origami.

I agree with point #1 but not point #2 - I hate the smaller hollow-head bolts that Toyota uses for various things because it's easy to round off the head when you're trying to break a seized bolt loose.

Regarding Toyota oil filters - the one in my Tacoma is remote mounted on the top of the engine so you can change it without removing the skid plates under the engine.
 

bczygan

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Joined
Nov 4, 2009
Messages
22,002
Location
DETROIT! Arsenal of Scrappers
Opposite of the other thread about unnecessarily difficult maintenance, praise the engineers that make it easy! :rocker:


1 good example, my 1999 C230K Benz, if you have a tailight bulb go out....


1. the dash tells you that there is a bulb out
2. open trunk, pull back fabric, turn one knob, pull out tray with all push-on lights in it.

amazing

benzlight.jpg

Should be a spot there for spare bulbs.

Fuse panel should have spare fuses mounted too.

Bill
 

crazylunker

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Joined
Sep 2, 2014
Messages
198
Location
Connecticut, Trumbull
Just thought of another one. This one is rather obscure...

Back in college, I had a late 70's Datsun 310 (yeah, remember Datsun?). Changing the clutch involved removing a hatch on the top of the bell housing and two bolts to remove a clutch lever assembly. You then rotated the engine to remove the pressure plate bolts and then the pressure plate and clutch came out through the hatch. You could do the whole thing in about 30 minutes without even jacking up the car.

Absolutely brilliant, and I don't think I've ever seen anything similar on another car.

I immediately thought of this when I saw the thread. It was one clutch change that I actually enjoyed.
 

JRC3

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Jun 30, 2014
Messages
12,481
Location
Southwestern OH
1 good example, my 1999 C230K Benz, if you have a tailight bulb go out....

1. the dash tells you that there is a bulb out

Heck, Ford was doing that back in 1970s on Mustang IIs. :p

1979_00001_08.jpg



Now I gotta go look for my Foreigner cassates. :rocker:
 
Last edited:
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ChaseDE

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Aug 25, 2016
Messages
2,178
Location
Delaware
hah my 99 benz has a cassette player too, which is neat although not a maintenance item. there is not a cassette hole on the face, you press the tape button, then press eject on the digital face, and the face pops open like magic and you put the tape in. neatest thing i thought i ever saw the first time i did it.
 

MBfreak

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Dec 10, 2010
Messages
2,301
Location
Linkoping , Sweden
BMW E36 ( maybe other Beemers too)
Oil filter is an insert that sits in a alu-housing.
The cover for that housing points upwards and is very easy to access.
Loosen the screw that holds the cover, the screw goes thru the center hole in the insert. After a few turns of the screw , a drainage hole is uncovered and the filter and housing oil drains down into the sump. Unscrew , lift off cover, let rest for a minute and lift out the insert without spilling a drop of oil.

The job can be done buy your SO in her sunday best and is totally mess-free.

Ola
 

JRC3

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Jun 30, 2014
Messages
12,481
Location
Southwestern OH
hah my 99 benz has a cassette player too

I had a 99 Aurora that had a cassette too and CD. Isn't it funny they still put cassette players in cars in 1999? Maintenance thing about that Aurora, it had a hatch in the trunk to get to the fuel pump. I for one am glad it did.
 

Roju1985

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Joined
May 23, 2013
Messages
138
1993 Lincoln Mark VIII 4.6 DOHC water pump. It has like 3 bolts and an o-ring seal. It's like a 30 minute job even for a novice.

Looking under that hood you'd think any job would be a nightmare, but that water pump was shockingly easy.

I think the ford 4.6 is pretty easy to work on for most things. I've cut my teeth on many first time auto maintenance and repair on my girl friends 03 mustang with the 4.6 (including a water pump swap) and after the fact realized it wasn't as bad as I thought going in.
 
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ishiboo

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Oct 27, 2010
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Location
Oshkosh, WI
This one is not specific to any car, but any car where they put the fusebox under the hood, or in the side of the dash (visible when the door is open), etc. Anywhere but completely under the dash with no way to see labels without a mirror.

Beats my VW which falls on the absolute opposite end of the spectrum. The horn shorted out in the steering column with a few thousand miles. Opened the fuse box and there was no legend as to what fuse was what! Went to the owners manual and it said call your dealer! Called the dealer and they said how the hell should we know.

That's right - they purposely don't tell owners what fuses are what.
 

timbitca

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Aug 7, 2012
Messages
966
Location
Moncton, NB, Canada
I had a 99 Aurora that had a cassette too and CD. Isn't it funny they still put cassette players in cars in 1999? Maintenance thing about that Aurora, it had a hatch in the trunk to get to the fuel pump. I for one am glad it did.

Get this, my '03 Sierra has the upgraded Bose speaker package, head unit has CD player and cassette.
 

JRC3

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Jun 30, 2014
Messages
12,481
Location
Southwestern OH
Get this, my '03 Sierra has the upgraded Bose speaker package, head unit has CD player and cassette.
The Astro vans had a separate cassette player if you had a CD. I'd rather have the storage compartment it was traded for.
$_1.JPG



Speaking of Astros. A heater core is like a 20 minute job on a 2nd generation. I had a leaker once and I JB Welded it. Something I never would've considered until I saw how easy it was to remove. Seriously, a small plastic cover, two little straps, and 2 easy to reach hose clamps.
 

myyaz33

Active member
Joined
Feb 1, 2012
Messages
42
Location
Nebraska
If nobody already said it, digital tire pressure readout on dash. Takes the guess out of knowing when to check them. Nice if you live on a sketchy gravel road.
 

Corndoggeh

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Joined
Apr 2, 2016
Messages
1,198
93 Ford Ranger 4.0L V6

All maintenance Items except 1 spark plug are in extremely easy to reach areas.
Alternator, AC compressor dryer, and most sensors right on top, starter right on the bottom.

Heater core is a 30min to 1hr job, push glovebox sides to unhinge it from the stop, pull heater hoses out from the engine side, unscrew 2 screws on plastic cover, pull and slide down heater core and replace.

Best part is the electronics are easy to deal with, no redundant electrical conundrums that I've seen hence why I like dealing with older vehicles than newer ones.

But the best automotive maintenance feature ever in general? LOTS OF HAND ROOM
 

firebirdparts

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Jun 8, 2016
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10,666
Location
Kingsport, TN
I have 2 nominations.

GM (Chevy) 3.1L V6 had a basically a remote mounted water pump, and the housing stayed in place. The replaceable part was a bearing/impeller/seal cartridge like an in-block water pump would be. You could replace this in 15 minutes while talking and eating a sandwich. I don't know if the 2.8 was the same way.

volvo 850's, V70's and in fact most of the FWD volvos I have seen have a heater core designed to be removable. Heater core can R&R in maybe 30 minutes. This one was clearly designed on purpose to be maintainable.
 

firebirdparts

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Jun 8, 2016
Messages
10,666
Location
Kingsport, TN
Just thought of another one. This one is rather obscure...

Back in college, I had a late 70's Datsun 310 (yeah, remember Datsun?). Changing the clutch involved removing a hatch on the top of the bell housing and two bolts to remove a clutch lever assembly. You then rotated the engine to remove the pressure plate bolts and then the pressure plate and clutch came out through the hatch. You could do the whole thing in about 30 minutes without even jacking up the car.

Absolutely brilliant, and I don't think I've ever seen anything similar on another car.

Very interesting. the old removable input shaft trick.
http://vintage.mitchell1.com/PClubData/chassis/enis79/V2I796019.pdf
You got me really curious. All clutches in all cars could be removed through a hole if there was no input shaft.
 

WVBrady

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May 5, 2005
Messages
1,679
Location
WV
Old VW Rabbit.

Seatbelt attached to door.

Get in, sit down and close the door. Seatbelt is automatically on!

Bill

If it was like mine, there was no lap belt. The idea was that your knees hitting the panel below the steering column would take the place of it. My kneecaps ached just from thinking about it. :shocking:
 

tonyciambrone

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Nov 4, 2015
Messages
1,152
Location
Northern Illinois
Toyota oil filters.

I've owned at least six or seven Toyotas and changing the oil has been entirely straightforward on all.

Some Tacoma's are best done pulling the passenger wheel and pulling part of the inner fender..

As much I like oil filter on top, like some toyotas, some subaru, some mercedes it does tend to make a mess.

Easiest car I ever worked on was Mitsubishi Eclipse, specifically with the 4g63. Minimal special tools, 4 cylinders are almost always easiest to work on.
 

starquestMM

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Joined
Jan 7, 2013
Messages
1,078
Location
JC, Missouri
dodge magnum motors with the accessories on their own bracket. Four bolts and you could flip the whole package up to rest it on top of the motor.
 

gsloan

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Nov 6, 2012
Messages
67
Location
Campbell, CA. Valley of hearts delight
Our 2003 Ford Escape 3.0 v6 has a drain plug in the auto trans. It drains exactly 1 gallon of atf. There is no filter to change. It's so easy, I drain and add 1 fresh gallon every oil change. Trans still works like new after 14 years.

Also fuel pump is easily replaced by lifting the rear seat and removing an access plate in the floor. It took only a half hour the first time. I bet I can do it in 20 minuets if I ever have do do it again.
 

S/RConcepts

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Mar 5, 2016
Messages
181
Location
Illinois
I have an interesting one. Window motors/window regulators- some can be easy, but a lot of them can be the bane of your existence. The best one I've found so far- an early 00s Audi A6. I had to change the rear window motor and regulator on one, so remove door panel and unplug a few connectors, standard stuff. Now here's where it gets interesting: you remove 4 bolts, and the upper door frame, window, window motor and regulator- the whole shebang- lifts up and completely out, leaving just the door skin itself. Take it over to a workbench or sawhorses, and it takes no time and no hassle at all to change. So, as horrible as some things Audi makes you deal with, they got this one thing right.
 

Sawdustmaker

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Jan 15, 2017
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928
Location
Placentia, Orange Co., California
I have 2 nominations.

GM (Chevy) 3.1L V6 had a basically a remote mounted water pump, and the housing stayed in place. The replaceable part was a bearing/impeller/seal cartridge like an in-block water pump would be. You could replace this in 15 minutes while talking and eating a sandwich. I don't know if the 2.8 was the same way.

volvo 850's, V70's and in fact most of the FWD volvos I have seen have a heater core designed to be removable. Heater core can R&R in maybe 30 minutes. This one was clearly designed on purpose to be maintainable.

2.8 was the same. Had a 1987 Olds Ciera. Took me 30 minutes as I had to go and make a sandwich.:bounce:
 

JerryC

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Apr 28, 2012
Messages
244
Location
Memphis TN
Some of the older Ford engines had a low engine oil sensor that lit a warning light on the dash if you were one quart low. Agree with TPS that does each tire pressure.
For oil changes, not factory but a Fumoto valve is a huge plus if you do frequent oil changes.
For the 2011 mustang guy, I had one, I remember that my manual specified the pinch seam jacking points, a pain because you need an adapter for a typical floor jack to properly use them.
But I'd say the best maintenance feature to date is ODB-II for easy monitoring and diagnosing issues.
 

dbabicky

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Dec 30, 2012
Messages
874
Location
NE Wisconsin
1963-91 Jeep Wagoneer and 1974-83 Cherokee had a removable panel to access the fuel sending unit without dropping the tank. (they must have known they had ****** sending units, LOL !! )
Not sure of other years but 2006 Ford Super Duty with the 5.4 Air Filter change.
 
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