Originally Posted by notiones

I decided to flush it myself and Murphy's law decided to poop on my head. I have made it no further than draining the radiator, removing the t-stat, and draining the passenger side of the block. Apparently the Ford dealership stripped off the heads of the screws holding the t-sat housing down when they changed the last t-stat. I did manage to get them out, but somehow lost two. I eventually found one after an hours search, but never the other. The drain plug on the driver's side refuses to come out and now has a piece of 1/4 drive extension stuck in it that I can't get out. It's now late enough in the day that by the time I go to town to buy a replacement bolt it will be dark. So now I have to call in sick to work tomorrow and with no sick days (we don't get sick days) I'll have to eat a days pay. Maybe I should have let Ford do it.

I've been working on cars since I was 13 and this has to be the absolute worst experience of my life. There is no way I could possibly convey the level of frustration today has brought me. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.

On reflection I think I was wise to do this myself even considering how horrible it has been as our Ford dealership would have just pi*sed me off by not doing the job right the first time. And just for the record, of my 10 or 12 trips to the dealer for service, not one was completed to my satisfaction. I must be one picky sob or they always put the idiots on my cars.