From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishtake/go to (great) pains to do somethingtake/go to (great) pains to do something (also take pains with/over something)CAREFUL to make a special effort to do something He’s taken great pains to improve his image. → pain
Examples from the Corpus
take/go to (great) pains to do something• Mr Lendrem has gone to great pains to establish one thing: that all of his preconceptions concerning bird behaviour are true.• However, composers often go to great pains to keep to true intervals. 