Vehicle repair rant

[pontiac428]

I think UD is right. Big automakers, particularly domestic ones, are losing money left and right (because they can't sell good cars instead). They can make a profit by forcing you to change your oil at the dealer. They can deny selling parts unless through the dealer. Some big business friendly lawmakers have been keen to side with their big money. I haven't been following closely, because it sounds like another predictable case of greed during a time of greed and strife, but it's a thing, and if it interests you, you'll find it on the web.

 

[Ulma Doctor]

I guess pulling the intake to replace a starter may not be as bad as hiving to pull the engine, or body as some others are.

that has to be the stupidest placement for a starter i have seen
they are trying to make every repair a major event

 

[pontiac428]

Could you imagine dragging your tool box out to the line to work on a Mercedes-Benz V8 without knowing that the starter was under the intake manifold? That sounds like good hazing fun for the new guy.

 

[Ulma Doctor]

Could you imagine dragging your tool box out to the line to work on a Mercedes-Benz V8 without knowing that the starter was under the intake manifold? That sounds like good hazing fun for the new guy.

for hazing, we used to send the new guy out for :
Rope Magnets
Board Stretchers
Muffler Bearings
Blinker Fluid
Air Cooled Engine Antifreeze
Right Angle Drill Bits
Snipe Bag and Snipe Lure ( for the soon to follow Snipe Hunt after a few pints )

 

[pontiac428]

In the Army, we had our own flavor:
Bucket of propwash
Box of grid squares
Chem light batteries
Vehicle exhaust sample (my favorite)
Ask around for where to find a PRC-E8
Come back with an ID-10T
I'm sure I'm forgetting a million of them... But it starts to make sense why power tools are not allowed in an Army motorpool.

 

[pdentrem]

Bag of steam
Can of compression

 

[addertooth]

I have ran across a few "unremovable parts without yanking the engine". I always think the engineers who designed those cars were a bit dim. Even so, in one of the examples above (a hose that is a mixture of rubber hose and hard line), I would simply cut the rubber, remove the two pieces, then cut the new hose in the same place, and butt-splice and clamp the rubber hose back together. The worst (car) I ever had to deal with was the innocuous 1980 Chevy Monza. To replace the starter, the manual specified pulling the engine. There was a way to do it without pulling the engine, as it was only the exhaust manifold that actually made the critical blockage. Dropping an exhaust manifold was much easier than yanking the engine. Replacing the Distributer cap on the same car required you to disconnect the fuel line, throttle linkage, and removing the intake manifold to have the clearance to lift the cap high enough to get off.

 

[Nogoingback]

Or a lot of the new parts have to be programed to work with the computer.

I have a 10 year old Mini Cooper that finally needed a battery last year. I learned that a battery replacement requires
reprogramming a computer so the alternator will play nicely with it. Unbelievable!

 

[Nogoingback]

I have ran across a few "unremovable parts without yanking the engine". I always think the engineers who designed those cars were a bit dim. Even so, in one of the examples above (a hose that is a mixture of rubber hose and hard line), I would simply cut the rubber, remove the two pieces, then cut the new hose in the same place, and butt-splice and clamp the rubber hose back together. The worst (car) I ever had to deal with was the innocuous 1980 Chevy Monza. To replace the starter, the manual specified pulling the engine. There was a way to do it without pulling the engine, as it was only the exhaust manifold that actually made the critical blockage. Dropping an exhaust manifold was much easier than yanking the engine. Replacing the Distributer cap on the same car required you to disconnect the fuel line, throttle linkage, and removing the intake manifold to have the clearance to lift the cap high enough to get off.

I suspect that ease of disassembly isn't even on the priority list for those engineers. Because new cars have so much more stuf under the hood than they used to, just cramming everything in is probably difficult. And of course job number one is make it cheaply, and so it goes together at the factory easily.

 

[addertooth]

NoGoingBack,
I agree with what you said on their priorities.
Some brands and models are easier. Some brands I will not buy, as I turn a wrench on my own cars (assuming I have the tools). I still pay an alignment shop to do suspension alignments.