Steve M wrote: ↑Tue Oct 22, 2024 6:17 pm
Why is life never simple?
I also had to replace a sidelight bulb in the front light cluster. Simple job you'd think. Not so, I say. This is what you have to do to get to the back of the light clusters.
Three and a half hours so far.
It's almost like the car manufacturers want to make it as difficult as possible for owners to carry out even simple repairs.
Decades ago I'd quite happily change plugs, points and do an oil change on my old minis and a Moggy Minor. The last time I tried to even change a set of plugs was on a Fiat Punto about 10 or 15 years ago. Had to remove all sorts of bits to even get to the plugs and then go to Halfords to buy a special tool because the plugs were too deeply set for a normal plug spanner to fit on them.
Steve M wrote: ↑Tue Oct 22, 2024 6:17 pm
Why is life never simple?
I also had to replace a sidelight bulb in the front light cluster. Simple job you'd think. Not so, I say. This is what you have to do to get to the back of the light clusters.
Three and a half hours so far.
It's almost like the car manufacturers want to make it as difficult as possible for owners to carry out even simple repairs.
I would have to agree.
I built a kit car about twenty years ago and completed a full nut and bolt restoration of a Triumph Spitfire in the last twenty years - an absolute doddle compared to this job. Back in the 1980s I could remove the engine, replace the clutch or head gasket, refit the engine and have it running in about three hours on my Sunbeam Imp. I did get a lot of regular practice with those two jobs on that car.
£250 to change the plugs on my Skoda, £15 each for the bog standard plugs and the rest in labour to find them under all the dross that covers the engine.
I remember going on detachment overseas once after rapidly replacing the clutch in a Herald, leaving my missus to road test it, etc. When I got back she said her and the next door neighbour had to whip the gearbox out and swap the friction plate over as I had fitted it back to front despite the markings on it. Such was the simplicity of motors in those days.
