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Poor car design
I do most of my car maintenance DIY and the bane of my life is poor design. An example was trying to switch an alternator today. The mounting bolt was right up against the inner wing, making it virtually impossible to get a spanner in. Other way round it would have been easy.
I keep encountering this, bloody stupid design decisions that make life harder than it should be. One of the classic ones is the Mondeo bonnet release, normal car cable release inside under dash.
Not good enough for Ford, they put a lock behind the badge on the grill. Right where the weather can get it, sieze it up and prevent you from opening the bonnet without destroying the grill. Brilliant.
Sorry I just had to rant, but surely making cars easy to fix means easier dealer services and cheaper running costs? You would think cars companies would put a little more thought into it.
I keep encountering this, bloody stupid design decisions that make life harder than it should be. One of the classic ones is the Mondeo bonnet release, normal car cable release inside under dash.
Not good enough for Ford, they put a lock behind the badge on the grill. Right where the weather can get it, sieze it up and prevent you from opening the bonnet without destroying the grill. Brilliant.
Sorry I just had to rant, but surely making cars easy to fix means easier dealer services and cheaper running costs? You would think cars companies would put a little more thought into it.
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I've got a theory that many years ago, a production engineer for a major car manufacturer found out that his missus was playing away with a mechanic. Ever since then, production engineers have been trying to get their revenge...
Seriously, things like seized locks are down to one thing only - lack of preventative maintenance. If that bonnet lock had been used and lubricated regularly, it'd not have seized. After all, it gets used every week to check fluid levels... right? Quick squirt of spray grease every six months or so...0 -
I've got a theory that many years ago, a production engineer for a major car manufacturer found out that his missus was playing away with a mechanic. Ever since then, production engineers have been trying to get their revenge...
Seriously, things like seized locks are down to one thing only - lack of preventative maintenance. If that bonnet lock had been used and lubricated regularly, it'd not have seized. After all, it gets used every week to check fluid levels... right? Quick squirt of spray grease every six months or so...
Not much good when a relative has a non-starting Mondeo, and you can't open the bonnet. Besides it is an issue that shouldn't exist, the old style mechanism doesn't need regular maintenance.
Another example was the mount for an electric window. To remove it, you had to undo a screw. Commonsense says you have to screw facing out. Not in this case, it was facing towards the door skin.0 -
I have a feeling that it is down to the fact that most modern cars are fwd rather than rwd. Thus, you have the engine and gearbox running across the engine bay rather than front-to-back.
Add to this, shortening the distance between the front and back of the engine bay saves on materials, which in turn, makes the car cheaper to make, and you end-up with mechanics swearing about how hard it is to undertake a simple task.Never Knowingly Understood.
Member #1 of £1,000 challenge - £13.74/ £1000 (that's 1.374%)
3-6 month EF £0/£3600 (that's 0 days worth)0 -
Not much good when a relative has a non-starting Mondeo, and you can't open the bonnet. Besides it is an issue that shouldn't exist, the old style mechanism doesn't need regular maintenance.
Another example was the mount for an electric window. To remove it, you had to undo a screw. Commonsense says you have to screw facing out. Not in this case, it was facing towards the door skin.
To be fair, I've seen quite a few cars that the cable mechanism has seized on as well after not being used much and not being maintained.
I've got a similar mechanism on my transit as the mondeo and thus far atleast not had an issue with it.0 -
I do most of my car maintenance DIY and the bane of my life is poor design. An example was trying to switch an alternator today. The mounting bolt was right up against the inner wing, making it virtually impossible to get a spanner in. Other way round it would have been easy.
This has always been the case.
In The Real Olden Days the Morris minor had the pivot bolt for the brake pedal fitted so that you couldn't remove it because it hit the chassis. You had to saw it into pieces to get it out, then fit a new one from the other side.
My current car needs the entire front suspension dropping off to change the anti-roll bar rubbers, that any fule would kno wear out regularly.
Cars are designed to be easy to build rather than maintain.I want to go back to The Olden Days, when every single thing that I can think of was better.....
(except air quality and Medical Science
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Modern cars are not designed for end user maintenance. It's just not a priority for the manufacturers.
I was watching an old episode of Wheeler Dealers earlier. The lads were doing up a Citroen DS - an old car, but one with a reputation for technical complexity. There were a number of features on the car to aid end user maintenance, some of which were beautifully simple... but did lead to exposed bolt heads on the outside of the bodywork. People don't want that these days.0 -
The bonnet lock on the MK3 Mondeo uses a plastic tube. Over time that goes brittle and breaks.
No mention of the N/S bottom arm bolt thats inserted from the top at the factory and cannot be removed without dropping the subframe.
Usual trick is cut it off and fit a new one upside down.
Plenty of cars with some great idea's, and some really stupid ones.Censorship Reigns Supreme in Troll City...0 -
I do most of my car maintenance DIY and the bane of my life is poor design. An example was trying to switch an alternator today. The mounting bolt was right up against the inner wing, making it virtually impossible to get a spanner in. Other way round it would have been easy.
I keep encountering this, bloody stupid design decisions that make life harder than it should be. One of the classic ones is the Mondeo bonnet release, normal car cable release inside under dash.
Not good enough for Ford, they put a lock behind the badge on the grill. Right where the weather can get it, sieze it up and prevent you from opening the bonnet without destroying the grill. Brilliant.
Sorry I just had to rant, but surely making cars easy to fix means easier dealer services and cheaper running costs? You would think cars companies would put a little more thought into it.
Its's a ford mate...... to be expected“People are caught up in an egotistic artificial rat race to display a false image to society. We want the biggest house, fanciest car, and we don't mind paying the sky high mortgage to put up that show. We sacrifice our biggest assets our health and time, We feel happy when we see people look up to us and see how successful we are”
Rat Race0
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