Well that made a fun afternoon.

[Grumpy]

Ac condenser fan motor went south on my truck, had to remove battery, fuse and breaker panel, disconnect all the freon lines, and remove 3 shrouds and condenser to get at the stinkin motor. Just finished it, $200 in parts and a whole lot of aggravation. Would not pay to put me in a room with one of the engineers that designed this crap, I would have to kill him.

[FloridaValkRyder]

Sorry for your agony Bill.  I sympathize with you though. Some of the ways these vehicles are designed make them a true bear to work on. Glad you got it fixed. Just think how much you saved by doing it yourself though! 

[Jess from VA]

Yeah, I'd like to punch the guy who decided to put batteries down low thru a fender well knockout.  There are accessible +/- terminals on top, but you cannot access the battery itself at all without a bunch of disassembly and laying on the ground taking 17 screws out of the fender knockout panel.  Being able to quickly access a vehicle battery is one of single most usual maintenance items on a car.

Of course, the first time I needed a new battery (Napa's best for the application), it wasn't until it was all installed that I discovered it was a bad battery.  What a PITA.  Oh, but the practice was invaluable.  

Pulling the entire Dakota dash panel/steering wheel for a few dollar heater coil is also worthy of a public flogging.  I told her to just wear warmer clothes..... but you know how that worked out.

[Grumpy]

I think the worst one I ever did was to change the evaporator in the Dodge mini van my wife had, had to remove the entire dash, steering column etc. 2 days just to change it.  I guess I cannot bitch too much, first repair I have had on the truck in 130,000 miles.

[John Schmidt]

I had a heater core go bad in a Chrysler 5th Ave., so before I started I got a couple estimates. No way, Jose! So I started to pull it apart with the car parked in our front yard. What a PITA that was....half the dash, all the junk up under the dash, disconnect everything and make sure you drained the coolant. I spent three days standing on my head R&R that fool thing. I'm with you on the design aspect and how to repair something. Finally got it in place and gave it a good test before replacing everything. Never again, I'd sell the car first.

[Valkahuna]

I think the worst one I ever did was to change the evaporator in the Dodge mini van my wife had, had to remove the entire dash, steering column etc. 2 days just to change it.  I guess I cannot bitch too much, first repair I have had on the truck in 130,000 miles.

seems to me the common denominator for these things are "Chrysler Products"