Without a doubt, the most carnage I've ever had to endure just to change a goddamn receiver-drier. 🤬

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Willing_Cupcake3088@reddit

I fully expect my wife’s 21 Atlas to look like this just for me to replace the goddamn horn. Fucking Germans make a great car, but boy do they like their “remove half the shit in your way, then struggle anyway” mentality.

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punkassjim@reddit (OP)

I’ll be honest, I’ve never understood the frustration with German cars until this stupid part. I’m a mk3 guy from way back, I’ve done all my own work on several Golfs over the years, and I’ve had the R32 for several years. Taking the front end off never scared me, and I only rarely needed to do it on my older cars if it was timing belt time or whatever.

But the receiver drier? On my mk3 it’s just bolted into a cavity under the frame leg, super easy to get to. Bolting it to the condenser and then burying the condenser so deeply under the bumper just seems sadistic.

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Willing_Cupcake3088@reddit

My wife’s Atlas is creeping up on that magic mileage where I need to look at the timing chain. The tensioner view port isn’t too bad because I can just bore scope to view how much it’s extended. But when I actually have to change it I’m gonna need to unbolt the damn engine and raise/lower it to get to the up and lower chains.

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mr2freak@reddit

Why does everything bolt to everything else on the front? What the fuck!?!

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tsukiyaki1@reddit

Good old VW “put the car in the maintenance position”. Aka remove the whole front.

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mr2freak@reddit

My wife has a Honda Fit. Taking the front end off that car is like a dozen 10mm bolts and a handful of pop clips. Somehow even grants greater access than this VW. Germans automakers are just cruel.

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Ghost17088@reddit

I assumed service position was bent over with my legs spread.

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Dr_Ramekins_MD@reddit

Just had to replace a faulty wastegate actuator on my Golf - two little T30 bolts holding it on, swapping it out and calibrating the new actuator took all of an hour. Removing enough other parts that I could actually reach the damn thing? Well that's why it was two days in the garage.

Seriously, VW, if you were going to build these actuators out of cheese you could have at least put it on top of the turbo.

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124Enjoyer@reddit

Beinng able to take the fronnt off is nice to get to things. Actually having to take the front off though, absolute hell. ''Let's just put Torx-45 bolts in this bumper bracket, behind the bumper, in a way you can't comfortably fit any kind of socket on/in. Oh, and 5 clips on each side!''

Changing the belt on my A4 B6 was the easy part, getting to it made a few wrenches grow wings all of a sudden.

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mr2freak@reddit

The front core on those has to be the biggest cluster fuck of engineering nightmare this side of the Hubbel telescope. I loathe that car.

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420DNR@reddit

How did you know it needed replacing? Or was it leaking

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punkassjim@reddit (OP)

The AC hadn’t worked properly since new. I replaced the high pressure switch, the compressor control valve, both coolant temp sensors, expansion valve, and figured replacing the desiccant would round out the overhaul.

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Wiseguy_7@reddit

Every time I think about getting a German car this is what I'm concerned about and how much it'll cost to fix.

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punkassjim@reddit (OP)

This has been a shockingly cheap car to maintain, but I do all my own work.

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pompino@reddit

Recently did the same on a mk2 octavia, so same sorta setup.

Crazy how long it takes and how many layers to get to that radiator!

Tried to witness mark everything but in sure my lights aren't going to be pointed correctly.

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punkassjim@reddit (OP)

I checked my headlight alignment last night, and was *shocked* to see they were somehow still aimed right. I had even unbolted each headlight and adjusted them independently to get better panel gaps at the fender/bumper junction. Somehow I must’ve just matched the height difference.

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Scorpi01234@reddit

Ive got an r32 as well, u get pretty quick at putting it in service position after a couple goes. Just wait till u havs to do timing chains, easier to just pull the whole motor and trans than attempting to line the trans back up when ur done

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punkassjim@reddit (OP)

At one point I got down to about 30 seconds to put my mk3 in service position. But the mk3 is a much simpler front end.

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Remarkable-Will-3041@reddit

What is the bumper taken completely apart?

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SelfEjectingImposter@reddit

My wife's mini is like this. Step 1: go fuck yourself and remove the whole front. Step 2: did you buy the special tools?

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barrelsofmeat@reddit

Still wake up from nightmares cold sweating about that time when I changed the clutch on my girlfriends R50 ten years ago

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Curly4Jefferson@reddit

I know it's not actually a hard job, but the amount of shit I had to unscrew and move or take apart just to change the battery on my fiance's mini baffled me. I did look into replacing the clutch and saw pictures of half the damn car on the ground and noped out on that lol

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SelfEjectingImposter@reddit

Facts lol. Is her mini new nough to need the damn ecu programmed every time you change the battery?

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CameronsTheName@reddit

Ever tried doing the timing belt on a Audi B5 S4 ? The V6 Twin Turbo leaves sweet piss all room even with the service position.

Better off just taking the entire nose cone off.

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Pkock@reddit

The best BMW salesmen of all time were the 2 B5's I had in a row. That was enough VW/Audi for me for a lifetime.

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124Enjoyer@reddit

I did the belt on my B6 1.8 20vt last year before selling it. Taking off the nose, between the wrost designed bolts I've ever seen and coolant hoses the seemed to be glued onto the radiatior was a very challenging patiennce test (needless to say I did not pass)

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punkassjim@reddit (OP)

Man I love the B5 S4 so much but the fact that I’d have to lift the car off the engine just to do the turbo inlet pipes is a huge barrier to entry. That car with stage 3, though? *Civilized monster*.

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CameronsTheName@reddit

I had a B5 S4 Avant. The V6 died so it ended up with a B6 S4 V8 in it.

Surpringly fit with basically no modifications to the car using a wrecked B6 S4.

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jakuvaltrayds@reddit

It's 4 bolts. It's so easy.

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SelfEjectingImposter@reddit

Before or after you pull the plastic trim that has a 50/50 chance of breaking

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HeirElfEsquire@reddit

70/30 with a chance of rain

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advmaxx@reddit

damn German cars.

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Schlarfus_McNarfus@reddit

Thanks. This picture is pretty much what I have in my head when I tell people to avoid German cars, since a couple similar experiences working in an auto shop 20 years ago. Things have only become more complicated!

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Minuuven@reddit

The joys of modern vehicles, engineers should be required to change every part on them before their design is used

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Jmauld@reddit

Buys a German car then complains about German engineering.

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70stang@reddit

As a fellow R32 owner, welcome to "Service Position."

I'd go ahead and do a bunch of other shit while you're in there. Water pump, serpentine, pulleys, coolant interchange pipe, and the PCV are all good options to triple check while you've got the front off.

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Squidking1000@reddit

Should probably just swap the long block while your there to.

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punkassjim@reddit (OP)

I did the water pump, serp belt, crack pipe, and PCV a few months ago without entering service position. The crack pipe was a little tricky, but not bad. And I'm so glad I found out about the Touareg external PCV, it's so much easier.

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Intheswing@reddit

I’m not a German car owner or would be buyer - if I remember a wheeler dealer episode with a TT that had a similar take apart the entire front end and gets removed just to replace a belt or something like that.

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MyMotorStory_app@reddit

I think it was a competition between German engineers to win a trophy as "mechanics hate me a lot"

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Dr_Ramekins_MD@reddit

Just finished a repair on my Golf and if those German engineers could hear half of the curses I hurled at them, maybe their next design will put the bolts in places human hands can actually reach

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MyMotorStory_app@reddit

I doubt it, unfortunately. They do only "single use" cars to lease them, make all the possible profit for themselves and dealers. Nothing personal - just marketing strategy.

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zeed88@reddit

Next time crash your car, the front end will be moved easily for your convenience and now just reinstall the parts

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punkassjim@reddit (OP)

Please let me never get in an accident with this car. I paid $380 for that center grille piece without any license plate holes drilled in it, and that was several years ago, before prices went from insane to get-the-fuck-outta-here. The front and rear bumpers and my taillights are unobtainium at this point as well.

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124Enjoyer@reddit

VW guys in the US need a special sort of dedication, I respect it!

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MyNamesMikeD75@reddit

Change a what?

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Str8Six91@reddit

The dealership had to remove the entire front of my wife’s Audi just to replace the thermostat— the labor charge was ridiculous. The irony was that I had just changed the tstat in my daughter’s 20-year-old Explorer the week before. That cost me $20 in parts and maybe 20 minutes of my time.

Today’s cars are not built for ease of maintenance.

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Agitated-Lobster-204@reddit

I get to change the drier and suction line on my daughters 2008 escape this week. Now hmmmmm, maybe I hire someone.

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RIF_Internet_Goon@reddit

Yup that VAG will get you...

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HungryYeastStarter@reddit

I wish these posts were coming out BEFORE I bought a VW.

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punkassjim@reddit (OP)

What model/year? I might have insight to lend.

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HungryYeastStarter@reddit

2012 Sportswagen w/ 2.0 TDI

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radix2@reddit

Sobs in Audi B5 S4...

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ScrapYard101@reddit

Welcome to working on vw.

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samdtho@reddit

The VR6 is a great engine until you have to literally do anything to it where it is a total ass.

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NickSabbath666@reddit

The crack pipe went bad on my 97 Passat so I sold it.

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punkassjim@reddit (OP)

I've been surprised at how much I've been able to do on this car in the past three years, and this is the first time I've had to enter "service position."

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saves313@reddit

In this case its just because its an R32. They have a bespoke grille that makes pulling the bumper off a pain. A normal mk5 is much easier.

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punkassjim@reddit (OP)

It's really not much different for a base model Jetta. Same for my kid's Golf R. This is a PQ35 problem, they all need the bumper and rad support removed to get to the receiver drier.