If your a good mechanic, its perfectly fine. It was designed to be compact. Deal.

 

Seriously... every car has parts that are a PITA to get out. No car is designed to be easy to work on. They are designed to go together easily at the factory depending on how they are assembled, or things are placed according to necessity based on the design of the car. Granted they made huge improvements from the C4's to the C5's, but the C4 design basically didn't change much for about 15 years either. It is a front engine V8 sports car with double wishbone front suspension. There is only so much room for stuff and obviously they had to make some compromises.

Every car has parts that look like they were designed by a moron too. My roommates 2000 bmw 325ci is a great car... but the door trim is totally retarded and keeps coming off and I had to order some special epoxy to use on it 'cause the factory glue is notorious for not holding. And the design of the oil filter housing is retarded too. It doesn't have a notch for the O-ring to fit into so even when you torque the cap to the factory spec the O-ring pops out and it leaks oil down the front of the engine. Only way I could get it to not leak was put a big hose clamp around the O-ring before torquing the cap. It's a stupid design, but basically no car is perfect.

 

Uhh..yes there is a notch for the O-ring. It fits in that little indent, which you know its for because its wider than the threads to screw it on


I've never had trouble with it. Maybe the cap is fucked up.

 

lol, yeah I think I could figure out what the groove is for if it was there... there's no groove on his. It's just threads, then a flat spot right up to the lip. No matter what I tried the O-ring won't go inside the housing. It just smashes up against the edge then pops out. But anyway... I solved the problem. Maybe in the future I can find him a cap from a different year that has the groove and will fit his.