Most everyone that's ever attempted to repair a car would like to choke the life out of whoever designed their engine. All those feelings of rage came back this weekend, when I helped replace an egr valve on my son's 2009 Dodge 1500 truck. It was on the backside of the engine, squeezed between the block and the firewall. Almost completely hidden from sight and reach. It took five hours of blood, sweat and a thousand curse words to change a part that only had 4 bolts. Then we went to replace the temperature coolant sensor. Aside from the metal rod in the center, this was an all plastic part, screwed into the manifold. I turned the wrench and the sensor broke in half, leaving half of it stuck in the manifold. I finally managed to get enough of it out to install the new metal sensor.
Its bad enough that idiots put parts on where they're nearly impossible to access but damn, a plastic part screwed into a super hot manifold? How much money could they have saved on that? I would gladly pay extra for a metal part. Ok, I feel better now, rant is over.

Could be worse, the shop manual says I have to raise the whole cab to get to the EGR cooler and valve.

Much better than paying somebody to do it but a pain in the ass for sure.

I have a 2020 Dodge Charger. Been great so far.
Except:
The drivers door, when opened, swings out so far that you cant reach it when seated in the driver seat. You have to lean way out of the car to grab the door.
Smart engineering, right there.

Change a headlight bulb on a Caddy CTS

With a Toyota Previa, you have to remove the drivers seat and pull up the carpet to change the spark plugs.

In better news:

With the Cadillac Northstar, you can change the water pump in eight minutes and only have two sockets in hand.

In a Pontiac Sunbird, the thermostat can be found under a removable cap.

I remember working on my first car - a big Chevy with a small 8-cylinder engine. If you couldn't see what you wanted to work on, you could just about hop under the hood and walk around to look for it.

Now I drive a minivan. It's just as long as the Chevy was, weighs just as much, has the same horsepower (out of a 6- rather than an 8-banger), and doesn't get any better mileage. It is, however, a pain to work on, and it's as ugly as sin.

You've come a long way, baby.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
Change a headlight bulb on a Caddy CTS

What the actual fuck?!

A long series of designers, engineers, and management at Cadillac signed off on that?

Mom's car, 2017 Chevy Cruze. Some size large asshat of an engineer put the battery under the floor of the trunk, just aft of the back seat.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
Change a headlight bulb on a Caddy CTS

I had to loosen the front bumper to change the headlights on my daughter's old 2008 Buick LaCrosse. And that's just to make room so her tiny hands can get to it. I'd have to remove the bumper if I wanted to get my hand back there.

Everybody loves their second generation Toyota Tundras, but curiously, nobody seems to mention having to take off a giant skid plate with multiple bolts (that will eventually get stripped) to change the oil filter, which is also a cartridge. And if you need to replace the steering rack, you have to remove the entire engine first. And wait until your Ford V6 (now being phased out, but still in plenty of Tauruses, Edges, Explorers, etc.) needs a water pump. It will cost you around $1600.

quote:

Originally posted by Chowser:

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
Change a headlight bulb on a Caddy CTS

I had to loosen the front bumper to change the headlights on my daughter's old 2008 Buick LaCrosse. And that's just to make room so her tiny hands can get to it. I'd have to remove the bumper if I wanted to get my hand back there.

My 12 Malibu (same platform) is the same. Want to upgrade & reaim the headlights but don't want to remove the bumper.

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:
And wait until your Ford V6 (now being phased out, but still in plenty of Tauruses, Edges, Explorers, etc.) needs a water pump. It will cost you around $1600.

We have a 13 Flex with the NA V6 (Cyclone), trouble free so far, luckily.
125k on it & the wife's due for an upgrade once we get out of the weeds a bit.

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:
And wait until your Ford V6 (now being phased out, but still in plenty of Tauruses, Edges, Explorers, etc.) needs a water pump. It will cost you around $1600.

We have a 13 Flex with the NA V6 (Cyclone), trouble free so far, luckily.
125k on it & the wife's due for an upgrade once we get out of the weeds a bit.

Is that the one Ford made with the water pump INSIDE the engine? I was told when the water pump leaks it dilutes the oil and causes major troubles.
.

The engineers and designers do this on purpose to discourage the owners from doing the repairs themselves because of the true pain in the ass to actually do the work and if you should try if you do not have some specific tool to remove the part and end up breaking something and can not get the job done or burying parts under other parts to make replacing some parts very time consuming then the owner will bring it back to the dealer for repairs and a hefty repair bill. Bottom line is money. IIRC years ago a story about the Ford Pinto would have cost many many times more than the actual cost if it was built part for part by purchasing the parts thru the dealer parts dept of a dealership. .............................. A friend had a Ford Probe and had to have the outside passenger body fender and inside fender well removed to be able to remove and replace the engine starter motor. ..............drill sgt.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: drill sgt,

2009 Ford Flex.... water pump goes out... shop manual says it takes 15 hours to replace.... Yep, have to pull the engine and take the top half off to get to the pump which is internal. $1900 for a $30 part.

quote:

Originally posted by OKCGene:

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:
And wait until your Ford V6 (now being phased out, but still in plenty of Tauruses, Edges, Explorers, etc.) needs a water pump. It will cost you around $1600.

We have a 13 Flex with the NA V6 (Cyclone), trouble free so far, luckily.
125k on it & the wife's due for an upgrade once we get out of the weeds a bit.

Is that the one Ford made with the water pump INSIDE the engine? I was told when the water pump leaks it dilutes the oil and causes major troubles.
.

Must not be the only one, because the Coyote 5.0 has the water pump inside the block as well.

I feel lucky, The EGR valve on my 05 Ram with the 5.7 is right in front. Takes about 30 minutes from opening the hood to closing it.

GM's LT1 Opti Spark wasn't a great engineering idea. Put an electronic ignition under a water pump, down by the crank in the area of road salt, snow, water...

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
I have a 2020 Dodge Charger. Been great so far.
Except:
The drivers door, when opened, swings out so far that you cant reach it when seated in the driver seat. You have to lean way out of the car to grab the door.
Smart engineering, right there.

My F150 drivers side door was a similar PITA. It had 'stops' built in, where the door naturally stopped when opening. First stop was about a foot wide. Utterly useless. The other stop was ALL THE WAY FREAKIN' OPEN. Meaning, if I parked in my garage or had ANY vehicle parked next to me, the door had an automatic tendency to ding into whatever was parked next to me. Of course, there was no stop to allow an average human being egress and/or entry.

My 2009 Jetta had a $.25 bulb in the mirrors that indicated which turn signal was on. Fine. Until the passenger side bulb burned out. The dealership wanted $135 to replace the ENTIRE passenger side mirror. I googled it, and youtube had a video on how to change it, but it involved removing the mirror from the backing. Now, I just KNEW I would either shatter the mirror outright trying to remove it, or it would fall off since I would need to re-apply glue to put it back on and it wouldn't stick. I HATED that VW, and forever swore off all VWs for the rest of my life.

I agree that they do this crap on purpose in order to generate more income for service departments.

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:
Everybody loves their second generation Toyota Tundras, but curiously, nobody seems to mention having to take off a giant skid plate with multiple bolts (that will eventually get stripped) to change the oil filter, which is also a cartridge.

My 2018 Titan has a big skidplate that covers up the oil pan and the filter . I think it's got at least 6 bolts . That's what convinced me to let the dealer do the oil changes . Not enough room under there to fight that battle .