Just finished changing the sparkplugs, HT leads, coil pack, Thermostat, waterpump and cambelt on a 2000 VW Beetle.

I have worked on Hondas for a little over 12 years now and I like them very much. 10, 12, 14, 17, 19mm sockets and you can take the car to bits.

Unfortunately, people I know buy German despite me hating them and of the increasing German stuff I have worked on (Audi/Porsche/VW/BMW), the VW Beetle has to take the biggest prize for multiple c*nt manoeuvres on car assembly. The French are also guilty of this, but generally their stuff is so crap, they make it easy to replace.

So, changing a cambelt should be a straightforward job. Taking the wheel off proves good in that a 17mm socket works here. Phew.

To take the underbody shrouding off, you need a torx drive. Why couldn't you just use a bolt? I mean you use a 10mm bolt elsewhere, why not keep it simple?

And now onto the harmonic balancer, 6mm allen head. Makes a change from the bizarre 7mm head you need for the brakes!

Cam belt shrouding is held on with 10mm bolts, whereas the crankbolt itself is spline drive 19mm meaning none of my 1/2 drive will fit it.

WTF IS WRONG WITH A HEX BOLT!

So, removing the thermostat you get a choice of 10mm hex head or 4mm allen head combined. WHY?!

Worse, you can't physically access the bottom thermostat bolt without taking off several other brackets.

The Aux belt tensioner is released using a 15mm spanner. Nowhere else on the engine is a 15mm spanner used. Why not a 17mm as this would offer up better leverage?!

In order to change teh cambelt you have to remove the engine mount. No drama, accept the wonderful mix of 16mm and 19mm bolts have you guessing.

That's not the real issue, that is presented in one of the engine mount bolts being nigh on impossible to access short of removing the engine! 40 minutes for 1 bolt. Joke. This Could have been 40 seconds if they had no recessed the bolt or offered a deeper recession in order that the ratchet didn't hit the bulkhead.

The waterpump itself is held on with 10mm/4mm hex/allen bolts that are easy to remove. Don't get too comfy though as a metal P clip prevents clean access of the pump without bending it first.

The pump itself is an abomination and the impeller is plastic and has disintegrated into about 50 bits which takes me a good 30-40 mins scraping it all out of the block. Fortunately, the new one is metal.

Timing marks are not like on Honda's clear, easy, obvious. No no no, they are crap and vague. There is a cam mark which is massively subject to parallax error and crank TDC mark is vague. There is one on the flywheel which you can't really see without removing most of the cooling system.

The cambelt tensioner requires a custom circlip pliers tool which I didn't have. Why couldn't they have used something you could get your spanner on? Either way, fsuck you VW, found an easy cheat for that one

Sparkplugs - a 5 minute job. Not if your fsucking inlet manifold goes over where the hell they are! Disconnect the injectors and remove layers of skin from knuckles trying to thread HT leads.

Anyway, all back together and thanks to the mechanic who did the cambelt previously who was a tooth out

Car runs better than ever!

So love your Honda - those Japanese guys are very clever/thoughtful in ways you just can't always see

 

That's one of the reasons I really do enjoy working on the s2000. The mX5 is similar in that respect. It seems it has been designed to be taken apart with just a few tools.

The freaking Reno espace's I've had I've just run until I scrapped them cos I couldn't be arsed with the bizzare mix of fixing methods and restricted access.

In the good old days, motorbikes came with a little toolkit in a wallet under the seat. A 10,12,14, 17 and 19mm spanners, a couple of Allen keys and a box spanner for plugs and a reversible screwdriver blade. You could dismantle the thing to its component parts with that kit.

Fluffing manufacturers!

 

Nexus - you're my hero! You've written everything I could not be bothered to after spending unnecessary amounts of time underneath something European and poxy like a TT! (My mate knows who he is!)

To bring a little fact to your post, Japanese cars are built to JIS, which uses a very simple 'code' of bolt head sizes (8,10, 12, 14, 17, and 19mm) to match up to the 5, 6, 8, 10 and 12mm thread sizes, albeit with different head sizes on the M12 normally to designate a fine or coarse thread.

Where as euro cars are built to ISO, which brings with it 13mm heads for the M8s, 15/16mm for the M10's and often 18mm for the fine pitch m12's, not the wheels though, they are probably 17/19mm, of course

As for the differing use of torx (which are always cheese soft on French cars in particular) who f-in knows why!

Oh, and why do VW in particular use especially shallow headed bolts, just to make slipping off them easier so you end up accidentally punching the (always conveniently placed) sharp fixing next to it!

 

Thanks for reminding me why I got out of the motortrade!

 

That was a fantastic read, Ron!

Also, remember the Wapping Great Company's a a conglomorate of companies using their own sources its stuff from a zillion (usually cheapest) sources so their own standards aren't always consistent. And trying to fit the same bunch of oily crap into so many pointlessly differentiated body styles WILL result in some zany bracketing. The Kafer shape makes less than zero sense with a front-engined teansverse end-on layout and is thus only good as a fluff-brain detector machine.

Furthermore, you've only got to compare a German exploded diagram with a Japanese one, to see the stupidity of their thinking. They'd be better sticking to philisophy, or soemthing equally as useless and leave the detail to the pernickety-thinkers.

Yes, Japanese designs tend to be far better thought-out for routine maintenance and the are generally far more practical.

 

and who taught the Japanese the secrets of mass manufacture and car construction?

clue - it wasn't the French

 

Haha that made me laugh, I've been in that situation when doing the same jobs (except plugs obv) on a Fabia PD130 although it didn't sound as bad as your experience. Glad you got it all sorted!

I did some work on a 407 2.0hdi that I owned... what a pile of crap. It took me hours to replace glow plugs sat on top of the engine feeling in the back of the engine for tiny 7mm nut heads. Everything seems as if it was designed never to be replaced.

I was pleasantly surprised when working on the S2000, simple design and so easy to work on for a high performance car/engine. My in car repair kit for the CRX/S2000 used to consist of 10/12/14/17/19mm spanners, ducktape, Honda filter removal tool and some pliers

Ford Mondeo euro3 tdci commuter wagon I'm currently running seems a bit more agricultural in engine design, which suits me to the ground. No DPF, no electronic actuator and an EGR you that you can block off!

 

LOL as if Brit car design was so much better...

 

the thread is about the ease of maintenance/repair

just about anyone with experience of working on cars, particularly older ones, will tell you that British cars are a paragon of simplicity compared to French ones

design as in style is another matter and not the subject of this thread

and fyi - it was the Americans that really transformed the Japanese approach, as they did most of their industry post WW2

but they too have now lost the plot

 

Especially in respect of Quality Control, which was derived from American military protocols IIRC.