Is it just me.......

[Original_Ranger84]

uh nope, you check it by pulling the 11mm plug underneath. its a check plug like a diff or a manual transmission has. if fluid comes out while the engine is running its full.

where'd you get the whole "lift the car up......pull sensor" thing?

Not lift the whole thing up. you lift it up until you can pull the tire off and visably see the sensor as it is not just a plug, there is a ring inside the transmission and that sensor reads it. What its reading I have no clue but it is a sensor not just a plug.

 

[mentalbreakdown00]

It is just a plug, you are pulling the VSS to check fluid which is incorrect. It is an 11mm plug on the passenger side just beside the CV axle

 

[pfrye2007]

Yeah I know your right about the GM fuel pumps... About 50% of the mechanical work at the shop I worked at was for replacing bad chevy fuel pumps. (they even made a coupon for it... lol

I know the tranny connected to the GM 3.4L motor with a front wheel drive auto tranny was designed to be drivin into the ground and then replaced pretty much. It says it is an non service part ( doesn't even have a dip stick. You fill it by a cap thats inches away from a hot manifold, and you check it by pulling the passanger tire off and leveling the car and pull the sensor while its running.) Also it says it has like 100,000mi service intervals.

Yea Tell me about it lol, I had a Lumina Z34 3.4 the twin dohc (4 cam engine) but I had a 5 speed though. Put 3 thousand dollars in the hunk of crap including a brand new engine and had nothing but problems with it, took it to a chevy garage and had them tune it back to its original power that chevrolet came out with for it and popped the 5 speed tranny about three weeks later lol, The getrag 5 speed was the transmission and it was NOT mad for anything over the factory stock 210 hp haha, (found this out the hard way) haha

 

[ranger_mclaren]

I honestly think GM makes there cars and trucks to the point were you half to take it to the dealership and pay the outragious rates per hour to help keep them in buisness. Thats why I always say I if you say you like GM products then you've never worked on one.

 

[LittleHorse]

GM makes it a pain in the ass to change something that is soppose to be changed often like spark plugs. On the chevy blazer with a 4.3, on the driverside the steering shaft is in the way of the middle plug and on the passenger side the shock tower is in the way of the front plug, plus you half to go though the wheel well as well as on the 5.0 cadillac motor. Don't even get me started on the rear mounted distributers. and my moms lumina you have to unbolt the top engine mount the rotate the motor forward to get to the back spark plugs.

ever replace the plugs on a late model full size Ford?

Or the plug wires on a V6 Taurus SHO? (hint...start with removing the upper intake plenum)

That said, as far as things being easy or difficult to get to or replace - Ford is a major offender there, but I would say Chrysler is far worse about poor engineering resulting in failure.

having bought a Jeep TJ about 3 weeks ago, these are the things I've discovered that were stupid

The bolt attaching the track bar to the front axle - it has a 9mm shank but the outer diameter of the threads are 10mm. So you have to put it through a 10mm hole, leaving you 1mm of slack in the bolt once it's been installed. As anyone whose had a solid axle, coil spring front suspension probably knows, the integrity of the track bar is CRITICAL in avoiding death wobble. Every bolt I've ever seen with a shank has a shank matching the major diameter of the threads. This bolt was specially made.

Then the torque value of the bolt is beyond the yield strength of the grade 10.9 bolt they used, so once it's been installed and removed once, it will never hold torque again.


Next is the oil pump drive gear. In 05 they changed to a Mercedes engine control system which replaced the distributor with a distributor housing containing a sensor and a sensor rotor. When they did this they replaced the gear that has completely worn out before 20,000 miles. Retrofit of a previous gear is possible but requires some minor machining, and that's the best fix Chrysler has come up with, even having known about the issue since 2005 and issued a TSB about it. Failure results in destroying the cam gear and engine damage from lack of oil pumping.

 

[ranger_mclaren]

ever replace the plugs on a late model full size Ford?

Or the plug wires on a V6 Taurus SHO? (hint...start with removing the upper intake plenum)

That said, as far as things being easy or difficult to get to or replace - Ford is a major offender there, but I would say Chrysler is far worse about poor engineering resulting in failure.

having bought a Jeep TJ about 3 weeks ago, these are the things I've discovered that were stupid

The bolt attaching the track bar to the front axle - it has a 9mm shank but the outer diameter of the threads are 10mm. So you have to put it through a 10mm hole, leaving you 1mm of slack in the bolt once it's been installed. As anyone whose had a solid axle, coil spring front suspension probably knows, the integrity of the track bar is CRITICAL in avoiding death wobble. Every bolt I've ever seen with a shank has a shank matching the major diameter of the threads. This bolt was specially made.

Then the torque value of the bolt is beyond the yield strength of the grade 10.9 bolt they used, so once it's been installed and removed once, it will never hold torque again.


Next is the oil pump drive gear. In 05 they changed to a Mercedes engine control system which replaced the distributor with a distributor housing containing a sensor and a sensor rotor. When they did this they replaced the gear that has completely worn out before 20,000 miles. Retrofit of a previous gear is possible but requires some minor machining, and that's the best fix Chrysler has come up with, even having known about the issue since 2005 and issued a TSB about it. Failure results in destroying the cam gear and engine damage from lack of oil pumping.

Oh i've had my far share of difficulties with chrysler too. simply replacing the starter or the alternater on a dodge neon will take you a weekend. If have a short temper span like I do. Or a chrysler Labaron the plugs wasn't as bad as simular to changing the plugs on a V6 honda but simply running the wires though the flat intake made me bust a few knuckles and say some words.

 

[ranger_mclaren]

I think the most difficult thing i've ever removed off a Ford RWD (never worked on a FWD ford exept my focus.)was the tranny the top bell housing bolts and harness are a pain in the ass but that really goes for all RWDs unless it has a body lift. Oh, and the manifolds I almost always snap off the bolts.

 

[Hopman]

Oh, and the manifolds I almost always snap off the bolts.

Next time, just soak then in PB Blaster for few hours. Works every time.

 

[cammeddrz]

my personal fav is the 1993-1997 v8 camaros. the book quotes out 10 hours to do spark plugs and wires.......anyone here that has done them knows what i am talking about, you have to lift the body off the K-member to do it. (you can do it without but it is a million times harder)

 

[ranger_mclaren]

my personal fav is the 1993-1997 v8 camaros. the book quotes out 10 hours to do spark plugs and wires.......anyone here that has done them knows what i am talking about, you have to lift the body off the K-member to do it. (you can do it without but it is a million times harder)

Nice... No thank you!!

 

[pontiacfieroguy]

id say easily the hardest thing ive done was replacing the timing belt on a 90 accord i had (dont beat on me too bad, it was cheap transportation). it easily took me 8 hours to do it partly because the crank pulley was torqued to 750ftlbs according to the dealership. i eventually got pissed and broke the crank pully off with a hammer and just bought a new one. hell even replacing the clutch in my ranger only took me about 5 1/2 hours and that was the first clutch ive ever done

 

[97RangerXLT]

I think alot of it has to do with the size of the car. GM's Grand PRix and Monte Carlo were not too horrible to work on, had a 94 GP and a 96 Monte, both not too bad altho you had to remove the washer bottle and a body brace to change the battery in them. the 94 Olds 88 that I had was awesome. bought it in 02 with 58k on the clock, drove it to 08 and when I sold it it had 180k, on it, only major work I had done outside of maintenance was the MAF sensor went bad and nuked the computer with it. (I let the stealership fix that one to the tune of about 500 bucks) when I sold it the original a/c still worked, still ran great and drove great. CHanging spark plugs was easy, the worst part was pulling the boot off the plug. ( I dread doing the plugs in my 4.0 ranger, they look like a royal pain in the ass)

my 94 Dodge Intrepid while not as reliable as the Olds, has been super easy to work on too. again, a larger car. the only reason I sold the Olds and kept the Trep was the a/c didn't work on the Trep and the paint is peeling off the roof. it did have about 10k less miles on it in 08, but I figured I would get squat for a 14 year old car that looks like hell and has no working a/c... so I kept it and sold the olds.

the 09 Charger we have, got the lifetime warranty on it and I don't have to chase that one with a toolbox at all just the maintenance items. the spark plugs don't look too horrible to get too.

The Ranger... a lot of things about the 4.0 to me for servicing are a pain. including that ford ran the plug wires under the upper intake manifold and how ford has the egr system running into the upper manifold. makes removing the manifold a pain.

after helping work on a friends 97 neon, you could not pay me to own one of hose POS's, but then again, I feel the same way about the cavelier as well. You want a car that is easy to work on, get a large one.

AJ

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

That's why I buy older trucks.

My '85 has some headscratchers too...

I spend more time dinking with it than I do driving it... it is lucky I enjoy it.

 

[Original_Ranger84]

It is just a plug, you are pulling the VSS to check fluid which is incorrect. It is an 11mm plug on the passenger side just beside the CV axle

THat is the check hole... According to Pontiac the VSS hole is what you are supposed to pull. It was a 11mm bolt that held it on. And it is literally right next to the CV joint. I spent 5 hours looking this up and even the GM dealership said that is where you check it.

 

[Hopman]

This thread is really funny to read. Who'd have thought there'd be an intense debated on how to check transmission fluid on a GM car in a FORD forum????

God I love the web!