Working On A Modern(ish) Car For The First Time Was An Utterly Infuriating Experience

My MkV VW Golf GTI may not be that new, but it’s the most modern car I’ve ever worked on. And my, does it make DIY mechanics tricky…
Working On A Modern(ish) Car For The First Time Was An Utterly Infuriating Experience

I’ve never been much of a home mechanic, but I’ve always tried to do simple jobs like oil changes and general servicing myself. It’s always been on older cars, though, like a 1986 Mercedes 190E 2.3-16, a 1992 VW Corrado and a 1990 BMW E30 318iS; 80s and 90s legends that are all easy peasy to spanner yourself. So, although my current car - a 2005 MkV VW Golf GTI - isn’t exactly a new motor, it’s by far the most modern I’ve worked on. And my god, was it a ridiculous faff to service.

Let’s start with the oil change. When shopping for all the necessary bits online, I was overjoyed to see the oil filter was an internal one. “Ah,” I thought; “it’ll take just a couple of minutes to change that, like the internal filter on my old Merc”. But no. The filter lives in a housing right underneath the engine, and you have to take off the sump guard just to get to it.

Then, you have to remove a drain plug cover - which was as good as seized after being overtightened, by the way - find that the drain plug is hopeless without the special VW tool you’re supposed to use, at which point you’ll probably just accept there’s going to be a slight mess as the remaining undrained oil in the filter housing splashes out. Drain plug cover out of the way, and you have to whip out a 36mm socket to remove the filter housing. Who has a 36mm socket? I certainly don’t, and had to buy one especially for the job.

Everything you have to take off to get to the air filter. And yes, I know my front offside wheel is in dire need of a refurb...
Everything you have to take off to get to the air filter. And yes, I know…

Traumatised by what was one of the most needlessly tricky oil changes I’ve ever had to do, I put off changing the air filter for another few weeks. The last time I changed an air filter it took about two minutes and involved popping open a little box, swapping the filter to a nice fresh one, and sticking the lid back on. Not so here. The filter is sealed within the engine cover, so you have to take the whole damn thing off, removing various plugs and pipes and carefully lift the assembly off a quartet of rubber grommets.

Then, you have to undo something like 12 screws and remove a heat shield thing to take the engine cover apart. When I reached this stage, I realised two things: one, the new air filter I’d been sent was the wrong shape, and two, the half-wit who’d last taken the engine cover off had broken it in several places, stripped several screw threads and tried to glue it all back together. The only way there would have been more swearing at that point is if Gordon Ramsey was walking past on a carpet made entirely of Lego bricks, while eating a disappointing soufflé.

Working On A Modern(ish) Car For The First Time Was An Utterly Infuriating Experience

Removing the engine cover is not easy, so I can see why it had been broken, but bodging it together and sticking it back in the engine bay rather than replacing it makes he or she a cretin of the highest order. Wherever you are, I hate you. Very much.

The engine cover being removed at least meant I could do something productive and change the spark plugs, but I’m now faced with doing the whole job again with a replacement airbox and the right filter.

I (mostly) enjoyed working on my older cars, but there was nothing fun about the work I had to do on my Golf. I’m sure not all modern-ish cars are as painful for the home mechanic, but with the amount of plastic tat you see under the bonnets of cars these days, they just aren’t going to be as easy to spanner as older motors.

What hellishly tricky modern-ish cars have you had the displeasure of working on?

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Comments

Callahan Mcginty

Depends on the manufacturer, ive heard modern VWs are especially hard to work on. My 330ci, which was made from 2001-2006, is an absolute blast to work on. No rust, incredibly strong bolts, and easy to work on as long as its done right. my oil filter is on top of the motor and only needs a wrench, and the air filter is a few clips. Doing my clutch was as easy as any car if not more so since my trans only weighs 70lbs

04/23/2017 - 00:14 |
4 | 0
Dominic Angelico

When I first did the oil change on my Holden Cruze, I thought it would be nice and simple.

But then I found out it’s just a tad too euro for my liking and surprise mf the oil drain plus needed a torx key to remove, which I didn’t have, because “why the f^%# not” said GM at some stupid meeting

04/23/2017 - 01:11 |
2 | 0
Anonymous

Welcome to the life of every service shop worker, we deal with this kind of stuff every day.

04/23/2017 - 01:34 |
0 | 0
Portner

Had a golf IV from 2003 it was like yours, still easy,
Had a bmw 120d from 2004 hell that thing was apocalyptic

04/23/2017 - 06:52 |
4 | 0
Anonymous

Thats why im buying an old volvo 244, no plastic at all

04/23/2017 - 06:55 |
0 | 2
ʙᴇᴀᴢᴛʏ✌️(JDM ftw)(wannabe Akio/Takumi)
04/23/2017 - 08:20 |
6 | 0
FWD Is better than RWD

rwd is gauy loosers

04/23/2017 - 08:35 |
0 | 10
Anonymous

I drive a Mk5 GTI, and i despise working on it, I’ve had 10 Golfs from a MK1 GTI to my current MK5 GTI and this is the first one I actually hate owning.

04/23/2017 - 09:36 |
0 | 2
Michael Hoffmann

From my experience it seems to be a “german car manufacturer” thing of making simple tasks needlesly complicated on modern cars. I’ve worked on alot of cars from 2000 and up and I have to say the worst to work on are cars from manufacturers like VW, Opel or even the european Fords. Compared to these makers working on modern Japanese or Korean cars is like a breeze.

04/23/2017 - 10:09 |
0 | 2

This is also the reason why I only own cars that have been build before 96, those cars are usually considerably easier to maintain for the DIY homemechanic without the constant need for carmanufacturerspecific tools

04/23/2017 - 10:12 |
0 | 2
suchdoge

My 2006 Jeep was very simple to work on, no engine covers lots of room and a simple cable throttle body which i loved

04/23/2017 - 12:34 |
0 | 0

Sorry to say that but that’s because Jeep still used 90s Tech at that time.

04/23/2017 - 19:02 |
0 | 0