What was the most challenging repair you've ever done, and how did you overcome it?

General Discussion
1

Hello mechanics and car folks alike. I just wanted to ask you a question since I’ve always wondered what it would be like to be a mechanic and a guy who does car repair himself to perform one of the most challenging tasks and overcoming such obstacle.

My cousin’s dad was a mechanic and he was often heard using expletives while performing extremely difficult tasks. His thumb also got chopped off completely when a vehicle he was working on fell on top of him.

If you don’t mind sharing, what was the most challenging repair you’ve ever done, and how did you overcome it? Have you ever been physically hurt while working on cars ?

1 Like
2

Swearing is part of the experience IMO. At some point, most everyone gets frustrated enough to curse. Or, if they get hurt and it comes out :wink:

And yes, I have been hurt many times but never bad enough to seek medical attention. The thing I tried to avoid at all costs is banging your ice cold hands against some metal object and looking down to seek blood oozing out from the grease covered skin. Gloves help reduce the abrasion but not the pain :grin:

Most challenging has been performing work by myself that would be far easier with multiple helpers- separating bodies from rolling chassis, installing and removing engine/trans combos etc. The first time I lifted a corvette body from the frame using my floor hoist- estimating the center of gravity was a bit nerve wracking…and hoping it was sufficiently supported not to break something… Closely related, removing a large boat from its trailer by myself…

5 Likes
3

The most recent one is the one that sticks out…

Replacing all 8 front suspension control arms on my Audi A4. The key bolt that gives MOST people trouble gave me none at all. All 4 upper arms came out and when in easy. No tapers for the ball joints, just pinch bolts. Hey, the rest will be easy! Noooo, No no NO NO…

The lower arms have a ball joint taper for one and a pinch bolt for the other. The pinch needs to be spread to allow the ball joint body to be removed. Yeah, don’t own that tool. Bought two different types. The factory style tool didn’t work, the other did. Now the bolts… a heat shield with bolts in strange places needs to come out as does a splash panel. Beat the bolts out!

The second arm has a taper forged and tightened by Thor, the god of thunder. I don’t own Molinar to break the joint so that taper broke my ball joint tool so I bought another. Got one side out but not the other. I removed the control arm and the knuckle assembly (meaning the axle shaft needed to be removed - about 500 ft-lbs to break that nut loose!). I cut the ball joint off above the taper, heat the knuckle which expanded enough to allow the steel insert to come out. I put that into my press to bust out the taper. I re-heated the knuckle to tap in the insert. Yay…

Installing the new lower arms meant a little file and hammer work to get them all in. Also I cut one bolt apart to install the new ones the opposite direction because the steering gear was IN the WAY of removing it. Loosening the rack looked like I needed to remove the engine! (dam German engineers) Compress the suspension and tighten the bolts. Done. Works great.

That week I invented at least a dozen new swear phrases… no single word would do it justice…

7 Likes
4

Years ago - replacing the timing chains of my 1974 Chevy Luv (made by Isuzu). Upper and lower chain - the lower chain broke. Once I got parts (shipped from Japan), it was pain to replace. Drop oil pan, remove front chain covers. A bolt on one of the chain tensioner broke and ended up chiseling/breaking the chain tensioner to get better access to the bolt. Spent 2 days spraying the exposed bolt with liquid wrench then took large pair of Vice-grips and was lucky the bolt actually moved and was able to get it out.

1 Like
5

Wow, what an ordeal!
It will be easier next time :grin:

6

Yeah, because I’ll PAY someone ELSE to do it! :laughing:

5 Likes
7

The first time I did the Corolla’s timing belt replacement, the hardest parts were:

  • inventing & constructing the engine supporting ass’y
  • removing the crank-shaft pulley bolt (required an invention)
  • removing the water pump pulley (it remains a puzzle the best way to do this)
  • removing enough of the front mount ass’y to get the new belt through (bolts wouldn’t break loose, required buying some new sockets and/or remove other bolts instead)

I discovered there was no need for home-brewing the engine supporting ass’y . That function can be accomplished by jacking the engine from below with a block of wood on the sump. Much easier & that’s the way I’ve done it subsequent times. The engine supporting ass’y method probably makes the job a little easier if you have access to a lift.

Next hardest was replacing the truck’s rear limited slip differential clutch pack. Considerably easier than the timing belt b/c no inventions required, but it does involve a lot of grunt work & heavy lifting.

3 Likes
8

IDK about MOST challenging, but this one sticks out in my mind as among the most aggravating.

TLDR: '00 Olds Silhouette (Chevy Venture / Pont Montana) power steering lines. Rack end fittings had no access except from the top, putting me shoulder deep. Very stubborn fittings and I swear they were 17.5 MM - nothing fit well. And there was pretty much no room to get in there with anything but a wrench.

2 Likes
9
  • removing truck’s coolant fan
  • rusted-stuck wheel cylinder bleed valves
  • replacing Corolla’s engine air filter
10

Way to many to list, and the last one is always the worst one… lol

If you have never blead working on a vehicle, then you have not worked on very many, I’ve been cut, sliced, stabbed, metal in eyes, battery blew up in my face and put me in the ER, backfire burnt my long hair, rolled over my long hair on creeper and got stuck multiple times, 2nd degree burns on arm from hot oil, smashed fingers/hands/arms and the list goes on and on and on…

One of the most frustrating jobs was replacing the cv axles the 1st time on the 90’s Dodge Monaco/Eagle Premier cars that used a roll-pin at the trans, no internet or books on it, and then installing the axle and roll-pin just to figure out that it is off by 1 spline… :face_with_symbols_over_mouth: The next umpteen times doing them was a cake walk after that…

One of the hardest ones was removing the entire dash all the way to a bare firewall on a 280ZX, well removing it was the easy part, remembering where everything went-not so much…

Also replacing the entire wiring harness from the transmission to the ECM and TCM’s that were under the front seats, the entire firewall was bare to get to the harness, then I was pulled off of it for 2 weeks before being able to install the new wiring harness… After putting everything back together correctly, the vehicle would not start, no start signal to the starter… Called dealer parts department, manager said oops, there is a revised pigtail required that goes behind the dash… I towed the vehicle to the dealer and said your turn, I will pay for the part, but y’all installing it at no cost, we spent a crap load of money with that dealer and so they agreed… BTW, the service manager called my boss (the owner) and said other than seeing the brand new harness in the vehicle, they could not tell the it had been replaced… This was on a late 90’s Hyundai… Basically from the firewall to the back seat had to be gutted to replace the main harness… The waiting 2 weeks to put it back together was the hard part… Again, no YT, interweb or shop manuals… Just had to figure stuff out back then and hope you got the correct torque specs and torque sequence back then from the dealer…

You can’t buy experience, but it sure does cost you a lot… lol

5 Likes
11

What about 11/16”? That’s close.

11/16” = 0.6875”

17.5 mm = 0.669”

I’m thinking my GM cars from that era (1998 Regal, 2003 Silhouette) were probably SAE units.

12

Yeah. The “this one” link I put in was to a thread I started here about it aaaaalllll the way back in 2010. The subject was something like “Is GM Just Messing with Me”?

One of the first things I said was that I promise 11/16" wouldn’t fit. (That leaves out a 17mm). I had an 11/16" flare nut wrench, and two different 11/16" open ends. And none of them would go. I tried and tried and tried a lot. If I’d had better access, I might have tried to hammer one on, or cut the line and hammer on a socket. But the access was insane. I think you had one of these vans once. I had to go down from the top between the engine/trans and firewall, past the exhaust. No way to go in from the bottom or the sides. I have no idea what a pro would do. Pull the whole rack? Drop the subframe out of the way?

The only thing that would go on was an 18mm, but with an uncomfortable amount of slop. If I stripped them I’d have been f’d on a DIY basis. Of course, at the time I was worried about paying someone else $400. And that was for real at the time. I’m in a better place now…and am having the shops do more and more stuff for me. :wink:

2 Likes
13

Ah yes, I think I posted not too long ago about my recent experience replacing PS lines on my TB. What’s frustrating is being able to SEE stuff but not actually REACH it. Replacing the seals on the pump was a beach but absolutely necessary to ensure the new lines wouldn’t leak.

I also had to fish a formed hard tubing line for the EVAP behind almost everything up against the block.

Yeah, I’m wicked talented at taking stuff apart and then losing interest :rofl:

2 Likes
14

Both of those cars were designed in the metric era at GM. A lot of the fasteners were chosen to be close to English… 15 mm and 18 mm. GM went metric with the X cars in the late 70s.

Any new designs from that point onward were metric. But many were Minglish… metric and English in the same car because they carried over parts that were not redesigned, so English fasteners. V8 Chevys and rear axles were carried over for many years so they stayed English. Engines no longer but rear axles were still Minglish as late a 2004 (my truck).

15

Most miserable, changeing fuel pump in Napa parking lot at 18 degrees, yes some gas spilled on my bare hands. 1970 or so f100

1 Like
16

Another topic in this vein: The stupid car-repair mistake which caused you much grief? Suggest to omit those causing personal injury.

Mine was the well known ’ measure twice cut once’ variety. I presumed my truck wheel’s valve stem hole was 0.453" diameter , when it was really about 5/8 inch. Attempted to install a small valve stem into a big hole. Was wondering why it was so easy to install??? … lol … .

1 Like
17

My dad and I spent the day together yesterday as it was his birthday and we found ourselves a cozy spot to chill and have lunch, as well as to talk about car repair; I read out all the comments on here sharing their experience with challenging tasks and dad was really interested in the information and experience shared, as he also has some knowledge with repairing vehicles. Needless to say, yesterday was all about CarTalk.

Thanks everyone for sharing your experience. I can just imagine the frustration, hard work, dedication and patience resolved around such a career and hobby.

My dad also had his thumb nail snatched from working on his vehicle.

5 Likes
18

A bud decided to do his own drum brake job, screwdriver slipped off the spring, thought he poked his eye out as he was blinded, lucky him it ended up he had pushed the lower eyelid under the top eyelid!

19

That’s a good reason to wear safety glasses when working.

2 Likes
20

I posted my challenge here in 2022 and the issue(s) still is unresolved. That’s not because no one responded, it’s just a mystery!