The lowest form of life is.....

[Irish Pennant]

The lowest form of life is...........Automotive Engineer
The most saintliness form of life is.......the shade tree mechanic that can work on modern cars without cursing.






I'm no saint

[IDWITHELD]

Originally Posted by Irish Pennant

The lowest form of life is...........Automotive Engineer
The most saintliness form of life is.......the shade tree mechanic that can work on modern cars without cursing.






I'm no saint

I sense a story here.
Fess up.

:lurk:

[crazy_frog]

:lurk:

[Tilla]

Actually any engineer is the lowest form of life.

[drhall99]

Beer induced post?

[Ryan Pultz]

Sounds like someone is going to be having fun with a wrench lol rp

[Irish Pennant]

No BIP (Beer induced post). Just doing a simple job like changing out the thermostat on my wife's van. To get to 2 bolts you have to remove 10. Then when you finally get enough stuff removed and you have the clearance to put on a socket wrench then the standard length socket is too short and the long socket is too tall. So I had to grind a 1/2 inch off the length of the long socket so I could wrench on the nut. With just a minimum of forethought, the engineer could have made working on his/her product much easier. So I cursed the engineer and praised the shade tree mechanic that has the patience to do this kind of work without using creative language.

[CATCH AND EAT]

Ah some of the colorful metaphors I here from time to time from my employees regarding this exact same issue. Like rear timing covers on Subaru's. Ya have to remove the timing belt to replace the cover. Or door hinges on Ford Explorers. The top hinge you have to darn near pull the dash out to loosen one bolt. What should be a half hour job now turns into 4 hours.

Oh how those engineers plan this stuff so their dealers look like the only ones that can do the work. But low and behold, industries tend to keep up with them and the Snap-on guy seems to have the right tool at an inflated price to get the job done. Or, you make the tool yourself sometimes when all else fails. We work through these issues colorful metaphors or not.

[ORhunter]

A fellow brought in his Chrysler for a tune-up one day. He'd always taken it to the dealer in the past but gave me the work this time. When I removed the last two plugs on the left bank, it was clear the dealer had never replaced these because they were "too hard." Hummmm, only took me a couple of extra minutes to turn the steering all the way to the right and go through the wheel well to get at 'em.

When you go to a dealer, make sure you get what you pay for.....

[SImudBogger]

A friend of mine is a mechanic for a ford dealership, certified, went to school and everything. He claims that auto companies design cars in a way that some repairs are not possible for the "average joe" to perform in his garage so that way you will HAVE to take your car in to have it serviced. Repair costs (as some of you know) can be outrageous for what seem like very simple things. He thinks they use this as an edditional form of revenue as american car sales have declined over the past 10 years or so. This is his professional opinion, not anyhting he has been trained on.

[Don Becker]

I hate the stuff automotive design engineers do so much, I think I'll take the high road and just stay out of this one Don

[Sweet Melissa]

We have an '80 Chevy PU we call "Old Brown." Ugly as the day is long, but one of the most dependable rigs you could own. When something does go wrong, it is easy to get parts and easy to work on. Unfortunately, at 12 mpg, it makes a horrible commuter vehicle, so we've had to park it for now.

The worst vehicle I ever owned in terms of maintenance was an '84 Honda Accord. One mechanic explained the trouble to me, saying that the engineers kept adding parts trying to fix some design flaws in previous models, until around '86 they finally scratched the whole thing and started over.

[retaliate]

Originally Posted by SImudBogger

A friend of mine is a mechanic for a ford dealership, certified, went to school and everything. He claims that auto companies design cars in a way that some repairs are not possible for the "average joe" to perform in his garage so that way you will HAVE to take your car in to have it serviced. Repair costs (as some of you know) can be outrageous for what seem like very simple things. He thinks they use this as an edditional form of revenue as american car sales have declined over the past 10 years or so. This is his professional opinion, not anyhting he has been trained on.

This is what I've suspected for many years now, ever replace a heater core in a Olds Bravada?, you have to practicually take the Dash completly out to get to it, the Front Brake pads are a pain also, they designed a new Bolt head on the calipers, so you have to go out & buy a new tool to get the job done, & what were they thinking with the front drive line design?, It starting making a noise on the way back from the Coast towing my Boat Home, so I checked it out, & the CV joint was gone, $275, for a rebuilt one...that lost the Boot within 1 1/2 years, & started making a noise again, you can't get a replacement boot, so I made my own Boot out of a Motorcycle innertube, why they need to put a CV joint on a Driveline is beyond me, I guess the good ole cheap u-joints on each end with a spline wasn't making enough money?, So yeah! Irish Pennant, I agree, Automotive Engineers are one of the lowest forms of life...how do they sleep at night?

[motoxaaron03]

Originally Posted by Tilla

Actually any engineer is the lowest form of life.

... hey now ....

[fishkisser]

:lurk:

[Don Becker]

Originally Posted by motoxaaron03

... hey now ....

Yea, I didn't much buy-into that one either. I work with a great bunch of engineers. Don

[motoxaaron03]

Originally Posted by Don Becker

Yea, I didn't much buy-into that one either. I work with a great bunch of engineers. Don

I am an engineer... kinda. I'm not a stamper, but I understand what they go through.

[Tilla]

Replacing glove compartment light.
Step1: Remove engine

[Don Becker]

Originally Posted by Tilla

Replacing glove compartment light.
Step1: Remove engine

'Sorry - - close, but no cigar - - - that's step 2 - - step 1 is always to disconnect the battery cable . Don

[BornToFish360]

Man i got a guy i use who is private mechanic. usally 90% of the time is 50% less than any shop in town. Ase certified and certified in big small medium foreign american cars he pretty much does it all. If you would like info about him let me know. Great great guy to deal with.

Laurence

[Paddlefish]

I deal with a good bunch who handle reconstructs and insurance totals. They can rebuild just about anything, including this half of this car, combined with that half of that car, amazingly quickly.

Handling my daughter's Mazda this week, they had to remove the engine in order to replace the water pump. The owner / boss acquired a new appreciation for his Vietnamese mechanic: "He has really small hands."

I hope the guy's due for a raise.

[69scout]

Lowest Form of Life? I would have say, the guy who works the day shift in my department. He would do nothing all week so he can have the OT on the weekend. What a piece of work....I mean P.O.S.

[crazy_frog]

No BIP (Beer induced post). Just doing a simple job like changing out the thermostat on my wife's van. To get to 2 bolts you have to remove 10. Then when you finally get enough stuff removed and you have the clearance to put on a socket wrench then the standard length socket is too short and the long socket is too tall. So I had to grind a 1/2 inch off the length of the long socket so I could wrench on the nut. With just a minimum of forethought, the engineer could have made working on his/her product much easier. So I cursed the engineer and praised the shade tree mechanic that has the patience to do this kind of work without using creative language.

LOL! Nice fix by grinding down the socket...glad it wasn't me!

I been doing some work on my olds and I have to get real creative to do some things.

[scottishsetter]

Lowest form of life:Three letters...........BMW

[69scout]

Originally Posted by scottishsetter

Lowest form of life:Three letters...........BMW

Bike-Max-Walk??? Just kidding...And I thought German's engineering is top of the line.

[duckboy]

Would be a Virus,

Although some argue that a virus is not really a life form.

[MsOutdrs]

When I was a single gal, MANY YEARS AGO, I noticed my headlight was burned out...on a Honda. So, I figured I could change that, right? Can't be more difficult than changing batteries in a flashlight..I thought! Somewhere I missed the "easy" way, and eventually had the whole headlight assembly laying on the driveway. I think I had to call in the "mechanical engineer"...(whoever my boyfriend was at the time)

It seemed when I was single that when I would take my car in for a small job like an oil change, I would get a call at work...and told they found something incredibly dangerous...that must be fixed immediately and usually cost about 1/2 months salary. I started quizzing the guys at work..who usually told me it was a scam. So..I decided I would just stop taking the car in for simple things like oil changes..I could do it myself.
First time...didn't know that when you took the pit **** thingy out of the oil pan, the oil doesn't stream directly down...it goes at an angle. I had the drip pan placed directly under the oil pan, and 5 qts of oil went all over my garage floor. The second time, I learned...I placed the drip pan where I knew it would catch the oil. It was getting dark and I still had to change the oil filter so had my son get in the car and I started to push it out of the garage so I could see....forgot about the oil pan (which had caught all 5 qts of oil). Stepped on the edge of it...flipped it over...again...5 qts of oil all over the garage floor. I said to heck with it. I just wasn't going to change the oil anymore period. Soon after I remarried, new husband decided to change the oil in my car. Probably had gone 25,000 miles (might be embellshing a bit here but a long time). He said he thought he was going to have to turn the thing over to get the oil out, it was soooooo dirty. That Honda was a great little car...didn't care if it had clean oil or not!!! So...a good, honest mechanic is a priceless commodity when you find one.

[Trick]

I haven't had to replace a thermostat in years. Last one I did, I had to pull off the breather assembly just to see it and I had the same problem you describe. I couldn't get my hands into the cramped space, let alone any tools to speak of. I fought with it for over 2 hours and finally was victorious in my task. But, I couldn't help wondering why a job that used to take me 15 minutes, now takes me 2 hours.

It is getting crazy trying to work on new vehicles....I feel for you.

[bait dunker]

Do you really want to know why cars are designed like they are? An automotive engineer came home and found his wife in bed with a mechanic! Designing cars the way they do is the only way he could "screw" the mechanic back!