What are your worst vehicle nightmares?

2004 Nissan Maxima (Never again!): I should have known when I had to cut off sway bar end links a few months ago... Last night I decided to help a buddy out and fix his girlfriend's car and replace her alternator.. for free. What was originally suppose to take an hour took 9 hours! The previous "mechanic" over tightened and stripped almost every bolt needed to be removed. It took 2 hours to get the stripped tensioner up, and another 7 of fixing broken bolts. I will not work on a Maxima again. This car has been a nightmare.

1998 Dodge Neon DOHC Timing Job: I had to re-do the timing on this car 3 times. Reason being? Literally off by an 1/8 of an inch each time. Took 3-4 hours each time to do it, and it's a PITA to begin with.

1993 C1500: Father decided to "help" me with swapping his engine. He managed to turn the transmission almost completely upside down and offset to the passenger side.

 

Any FWD V6 or V8. I4's are a piece of cake.

 

Anything on the first gen when we had it (both of them) The chassis was pure rust.

And brakes on a friends car, could not get the caliper bracket would NOT come off, no matter the heat, PB blaster, impact wrench. I gave up.

 

I replaced a transmission in a 2014 BMW M5 last year. By that I mean I had to swap literally everything from one trans case to another after a clutch fork snapped causing the clutch to explode and destroy the case! All those solenoids for the electric shifters are a massive pain let alone everything inside the trans.

 

Pretty much BMW, Mercedes, and Volkswagen all scream nightmare to me, lmao.

 

Speaking of Blazers as well..

The number 3 spark plug. Every Blazer or Jimmy I've ever done a tune-up on I've been able to turn the steering shaft to the flat spot. On my 95 it works, perfect clearance. On my 97.. nope. Not enough. I even tried jacking up the motor and trans as far as I safely could, still nothing!

I spent an hour and a half trying before I finally had to fab my own tool out of a wrench. Still stumped about it. Not sure if there was different steering shaft put in or what.

 

The worst auto nightmare I've had was a 1980's Land Rover. The truck had a "small" electrical issue, as well as installing an alarm & starter. I spent 2 days chasing gremlins in that silly truck. After that one our shop doubled the shop rate for those types of vehicles.

 

LOL, I don't blame them. Is it just me, or were the 80's really bad about wiring on a lot of vehicles? I mean those 720 hardbody's... sheesh.

That reminds me of when I was a GM tech and we had a Pontiac, I believe, in the shop for nearly a week with the dash, seats, and console out over one shorted wire causing an airbag light. Insanity.

 

How about changing the starter on a 70's Camaro? Yuck!!!!!!!

 

Never had a problem with the 76 I had. Easiest vehicle I've ever had to work one. Got to the point where I could change out the clutch, by myself, in a parking lot in about an hour and a half.