Modern car maintenance.

[cass3958]

I love working on my S Type. I complain occasionally about the lack of access down the side of the engine and having big hands makes it difficult to get to some bits but in comparison to a modern car..... Well....

My Son has a 2013 Mini Cooper made by BMW. On Friday I noticed that a front wishbone bush had failed so decided today to change it. I bought the new bush from my local Euro Parts and rather than buy just the bush which would need pressing in I bought the bush and the carrier for an extra £20. The carrier is only held in with three bolts. Simple I thought. Three bolts, Old bush out, new bush in and three bolts to tighten up. Oh how naive of me.
Looking on Youtube for instructions you have to drop the front subframe to get to two of the bolts which are tight up against the bulkhead on top of the subframe. To drop the subframe you have to remove the front bumper, bumper crash bar and mountings. The wishbones have to be removed from the car so the steering ball joints, drop links and anti roll bar have to be dismantled. The bottom ball joints have to come off and I had to destroy both in the process. Another trip to Euro parts to buy two bottom ball joints and I decided the other wishbone bush should be changed at the same time as I am removing the subframe. I would hate to have to go through this again in a month when the other side fails.

Five hours later I have run out of daylight but I have finally removed the two wishbones from the car but not yet dropped the subframe to get to the bolts holding the bush carriers in place.

The problem is when BMW designed this set up it was built in sections. The engine and gearbox are all mounted on to the subframe with all the suspension and then offered up to the bottom of the car by a robot in one piece. All the bolts holding the suspension to the subframe are on the top of the subframe going down. There is no room to get to the heads of the bolts to undo them and certainly no room to extract them due to the underside of the car and the underside off the engine and gearbox. If they had only designed it so all the suspension bolts went up from the bottom they would all be accessible from under the car and none of this messing about would be necessary.

Tomorrow I have to remove all the bumpers and disconnect the steering linkage so I can drop the subframe to get to the two bolts to remove the bush carriers and then reassemble it all. Also there is no uniformity in bolt sizing and I have had use 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18 mm sockets on different parts to remove the bolts.

Still doing it myself has possibly saved £700 in labour charges at a BMW garage.

[cass3958]

Three days later and the bushes have been changed and the car back on the road. Why do they design cars like this other than to allow garages to make a fortune out of simple repairs. To take the bumper off I needed a cross head screwdriver, a star drive allen key, an 8mm and 10mm socket. Why not have all the fixings the same size. On the suspension I was jumping from 15mm to 16mm to 18mm back to 17mm headed bolts.

Yesterday when I was picking up my S Type from the Jaguar and Aston Martin garage they had an Aston Martin DB9 V12 on the ramp. I say on the ramp as the body was high up on the ramp whilst the Engine, gear box, suspension and drivetrain where sat below it on a stack of pallets. Why was the whole drive train out of the car? Because the windscreen wiper motor had failed and had to be changed! I kid you not! The wiper motor is on the bulk head tucked under the scuttle and the engine is so big the top of the inlet manifolds touch the underside of the wiper motor and the only way to get to the wiper motor is to remove the engine. 40 hours labour at £65 an hour to change the wiper motor. £3120 including tax plus parts and fluids just to change the wiper motor and apparently it is a common fault!