Replacing Front Wiper Linkage

[103west43rd]

The front wipers on my 2010 slowed down to a crawl. I removed the wiper arms (you need a puller) and the upper cowl panel grilles to find out the issue. One of the grommets on one side of the linkage had split and the linkage was binding. The motor was still good ( I stopped using the wipers before the extra strain on the motor caused it any damage) so I intended to just replace the linkage and first priced a replacement on eBay. I then went to my Ford dealer for their price. The price from Ford was cheaper then eBay. Ford sells just the linkage or a motor and linkage assembly. The weird thing is, the motor and linkage was cheaper then just the linkage! Of course I bought the motor and linkage.
Replacing the motor and linkage became an adventure. To remove them you need to remove both upper cowl panel grilles AND the lower cowl panel which can be called the firewall right behind the engine. To remove the firewall, you need to remove the brake master cylinder/AC purge valves/battery junction box, all attached to the firewall. Factory time is 1.5 hours, good luck making that time!

[Fifty150]

On my ex-girlfriend's (redacted Chrysler product), I had to drain and remove the washer fluid & radiator overflow reservoirs, in order to change the spark plugs.  This same vehicle also had a spin on filter inside of the transmission case, which of course, required dropping the pan to get to the filter.  The oil drain plug was located on the side of the engine oil pan, 1/2" up from the bottom.....as if you were going to tip the vehicle 90 degrees on it's side, to get the last quart of oil out.  A dealership tech told me that he used a hand pump to fully drain the oil pan.  Otherwise, there would always be a quart of old oil mixed with the new oil.  You can see how that could lead to problems in the long run.