atb

I like to wrench on my cars and motorcycles.
As frustrating as working on the 928 can be, I always ultimately end up considering it a privilege to be able to own and work on my sharks. We all know the 928 has quirks, the "having to remove two parts, to get at one", the engineering of many large parts into a very compact space that often requires the skills of a contortionist, or wishing we had been blessed with hands that look like Kermit the Frog's.
My daily driver is a 2003 Toyota Tacoma. Had there been a firearm in the shop last night, it would have be upgraded to the "swiss cheese version". I had a check engine light warning, scanned it, and got a fault code for a faulty VSV. This operates ventilation to the charcoal cannister, and is basically a vaccuum diaghram valve- made out of plastic. After some internet research, it appears that the valve is not available separately , but must be purchased with the charcoal cannister. $317 at Toyota. Bought it, and went to install it last night. Truck is on the lift, and I'm following the vaccuum lines the cannister, which is mounted, make that sandwiched, inbetween the gas (saddle) tank and the underside of the bed. I'm looking at acres of open sheet metal on the underside of the bed where this thing could have been placed, and they decide to squeeze it above the tank. To protect it from debris perhaps? I could believe it if the entire cannister were sandwiched in there, but its just the leading edge, and all of the valves hanging off it are exposed. So I look at the new part to see how it bolts up, go back under the truck, and sure enough there is a captive bolt above the gas tank. Looks like the tank straps are made to swing down to lower the tank. Try that, tank doesn't move. Put it back together. Ended up unbolting the old unit from a portion of the old bracketing, separating the new unit from the similar new bracketing, and putting it all together. The whole time I was cursing what a piece crap design this Toyota was, and how the only reason it was designed this way was to provide job security for all the Toyota mechanics out there because had Toyota moved the cannister two inches aft, it would have been a five minute job. And as I looked over at my 928's I admonished my truck, telling it no uncertain terms that it was "not worthy of my time to be repairing it", and how these hands work on Porsche 928's, and how Porsche would never had made such a blatant design flaw, and how yes the 928's can be difficult to work on, but there is always an engineering based reason for it. And finally, upon completion of the install, immediately driving the truck out of the shop into the adjacent parking lot because "it had no business being in the presence of my 928s a second longer than absolutely necessary, for having put me through such BS for a repair, and an emissions-related repair no-less, which isn't really even a repair but a sad excuse for perpetuating an industry driven solely by the motives of an overreaching government."
Okay. Rant off. thanks guys.

Tom. M

Yowza...you must have been pissed LOL....but better a charcoal canister than living in LA in the early 70's........

Now just try removing an alternator from a 1990 Integra???? Oh..wait...you did that once before too.... unfortunately mine is still wedged between the oil filter and the drive axle LOL...

jeff spahn

How about an alternator from a 2004 Acura MDX. My god. About as bad as a mid 90s starter on a 3 series BMW.

PorKen

Shoulda bought Amuricun.

My new-to-me dirt hauler, a '85 GMC 3/4 ton 6.2L diesel, is soooo easy to work on...and parts are cheeeeap.


GMC Trucks for 85 - A truck you can LIVE with.

snoz

My 97 Tacoma is pushing 230K on the clock. I really haven't replaced much more than normal wear items (shocks, struts, ball joints, and probably a clutch before too long). There's something to be said for that kind of durability.

Tom. M

His real solution should have been:

Check codes...write code down:
Clear codes...
Drive to testing station.
Pass test...

smile when the check engine light comes back on in about 100 miles

fraggle

sometimes that won't work because there's a "READY" status that needs to clear before it will pass.

I hate working on my DD cars, my wife's or my BMW. there's always pressure to get it done!@

LT Texan

I'll keep it going.

Electric water pump and thermostat on my wife's X5.

Man that was fun.

But out of warranty.

And had it back on the road on the day BMW would make an appointment to take it in.

yak 944s

The transmission on an E36 Coupe, includes that dam starter ..which to make it easy... you have to remove the intake, which then means taking off all those damn clips for the injector wiring and not losing one.

nc_growler

Love our 1998 Toyota 4Runner (still very low on miles) but the starter had to be replaced.

Had to use super long extensions (+wobbles) and eventually had to undo the front brake hose to sneak the starter out passenger wheel well after contorting to get it spun around to fit between the chassis and the exhaust manifold...

I've never been so pissed at what should have been a simple job.

Pretty sure if I looked in the WSM it would say: Step 1 - Remove engine.

Geez!

yardpro

you guys have hadno pain until you have worked on a jag xj8......
idid the alternator a few weeks ago.. an all day job.. OMG what a pita...

i am now in the process of doing the left front wheel bearing and there is a special tool that you need to remove the abd rotor... no one for a few hours has one... i had to buy one... for $200.00... i had to take off all the ball joints, and the tir ro, and completely remove the entire hub from the car... once the abs rotor nut is removed, then i get to press the hub out of the bearing, press the bearing out of the carrier, press the bearing back in the carrier, then press the hub in the bearing... WTF...
again a 5-6 hour job.. with the 928.. had it done in an hour..... I love my 928.

M. Requin

Oh man what a timely thread! 2 weeks ago my lovely wife, who has never learned what a rear view mirror is for, backed her '06 Civic into our '00 F350 in the driveway to the tune of 2K for a replacement fender on the F350. Done a week ago. Now I like many above DO NOT like to work on either her Civic, or the F350, but we have had a really noisy DS rear brake on the latter, so I decided, hey, time to pull that caliper and clean it up - usual source of noise on these, and usually an easy job. Thanks to accumulated mung I didn't beat flat rate, and spent about half the day on the job. On the test drive - thank god in our long driveway!- a brake hard line to the rear brakes blew out, so now it is back in the shop that did the fender R&R (they had to remove the bed to replace the fender, so maybe they "touched" that hard line, we'll see- it's also endemic to late Ford and Chevy pickups I've learned). Coulda been on I81 with a passenger and two horses in the trailer, so this was very lucky.

My point? Not much really, everything ultimately goes wrong with everything (see my sig) but what I LIKE to fix is my 928!

brutus

Working on daily drivers is like working on the washing machine. Sure it saves money but it is NOT fun !

namasgt

Try to work on a v6 Honda engine, I could have sworn they had an intern design that thing. I was changing the rear cam cap seals because apparently they become rock hard and leak massive amounts of oil, 145,000 miles on the engine.
You have to take the whole rocker arm assembly off that also holds the camshaft in place. Turns out that one of the small bolts holding the plate behind the cam gear goes trough the rocker arm assembly, so now you have to also take the timing belt and cam gear off, to be able to take the rocker arm assembly off. All of this for just changing the rear cam cap seal.
Then one day I was changing the timing belt and decided to take the oil pump off to replace all the O-ring and seals associated with the pump. You can not take the oil pump off without taking the OIL PAN OFF first since the oil pickup tube is mounted on the oil pump, but its bracket is mounted to the bottom of the block.
To take the oil pan off you have to undo the differential and both front CV axles because of the way the engine is mounted (The CV joints go trough the middle of the oil pan!!!!). The car is a 95 Acura Legend, nice cars but it sucks to work on them.

I think they designed them in a way so that when a repair comes up, the mechanics labor cost would be so high (since so many damn parts need removing to get to one little thing), that the owner just trades the car in and buys a newer model instead of spending big bucks on the labor....

M. Requin

Perfect! Unless your DD is your 928, of course...