If you’ve spun a wrench, turned a screw, or tried to swap parts, at some point you might call into question the method in which the engineer got their credentials. The idiot who didn’t actually build a square room in the house, the software engineer whose work has you beating your forehead on the keyboard, and the most cursed name ever, the clever son of a bitch who designed that damned part on the car that requires a virgin reading the directions, the shining light of a unicorn’s horn and the grace of the Holy Ghost to get out without bashing your knuckles to the point of bleeding out. You wish you could send them to the same level of Hell that the guy who was in charge of spark plug clearance in 4th generation F-bodies was sent to. If every section of skin on your knuckles is composed of scar tissue, if you’ve ever thrown a wrench while screaming obscenities in a tone that would shut Andrew Dice Clay up, or if you’ve ever sent a letter to the manufacturer of your choice addressed to “The Engineer With His Head Up His…”….yeah, this video is for you.
LANGUAGE WARNING! This guys is fighting a BMW that does not want to play nicely. You know the angry mechanic jokes by now. We say those words. Every last one. Find some headphones or wait until it’s safe.
Dude, your link is screwed up again. You gotta remove the time stamp from it as it currently just goes to the end of the video with suggestions like we all just watched it.
While we’re on this note, you guys should probably be checking your grammar and word use on some of these posts.
You think cars are bad , you should work on airplanes.
Forget writing letters , I was asked to visit the factory for a conference (suckers) , the time came for “suggestions to improve maintainability” by the time I reached the end of my,and my co-workes, lists I was invited not to come back.
My list also had a statement from a co-worker who was tasked by the USAF to write T.O.’s (Aircraft Maintenance Manuals) in a nut shell he questioned the education level of the entire engineering staff.
Looking a twenty something “engineer” in the eye while he defends his position to relocate a relay to a shelf and mounting it with 2 nut plates and a single nut and screw with said nut on the BACKSIDE and BOTTOM of an “L” shaped rib that is accessed though a 2″ dia. hole about 4′ away from the nut is an exercise in frustration and near physical restraint.
He asked me out to the factory floor so he could defend his choice of positioning , when I asked why this relay could not be moved 1/2″ forward (there by allowing 3 blind nut plates) he started spewing weight and balance issues. This relay is about the size and weight of a caramel cube. BS.
The factory then canceled those twice a year visits.
We have all been there at one time or another. That’s how I was when changing the sparkplugs on my 1999 GMC Jimmy with a 4.3. What made the video even better was that I think the guy from around the Boston area. Sounded just like me when I still had my accent….
yep.. can relate…my daily has had an ongoing leak issues since I bought it and, after a few temporary repairs, let go big time on the weekend. Its a 98 Falcon with an EFI 302 in it…and its those stupid bloody metal tubes that run between the two manifold halves, specifically at the back where a rubber hose joins on. That hose keeps splitting and leaking, exactly where you have no hope at all of getting to it, seeing it even. Ive done a few dodgy epoxy on the end of a screwdriver type jobs and to fix it properly means taking the top of the manifold off, which means unplugging a bunch of pipes and electrical connections to change out a hose that if it was anywhere else on any other engine would be a 5 minute job. So screw it – made up my own fitting to replace where the pipe bolts into the front of the manifold, going to run a 5 foot length of hose to the fitting at the other end of the engine bay and avoid the stupid metal pipe completely . Why would they go to the trouble of making a thinwall metal pipe, with brackets , fittings and everything else, compared to just using rubber heater hose like every other car out there – anbd THEN burying the bastard thing under a bunch of other components?? insane.
I work on VWs and Audis. If you followed me around for a day with a camera it would put the Winnebago man to same. I’ve always wanted to hold a gun to an engineers head with some car with 130k on it and said “Here you beat the book time mother fucker”
Do you know where the starter is on a 2004 Cadillac? It’s in the lifter valley under the intake!
The real issue is that manufacturers,especially Japan, don’t care about servicing. One of the things that made Japanese cars so cheap is the complete engine, transaxle, and suspension being made as compact as possible and lowering the car on top of it on the production line. These cars were never meant to be serviced. Even the spark plugs on the rear bank of a V6 are damn near impossible to get at.
Got nothing to do with modern engineers design, their goal is cheap. Even Boss Kettering, for those who know who he was knew it when he said “parts left out cost nothing and cause no maintenance problems.”
^ THIS,
My day job used to be as a technician, and in my new job in the insurance industry I sit right next to a former automotive Brake Engineer. We have gone round and round about this issue as my most common expletive for years was F*!%$ing Engineers, to the point I would use it like some people say damn it. He stated that in the automotive world accountants and assembly engineers have more control over how the car is designed than anyone else – make it cheap to put together – they have no F’s to give about servicing it.
I’ve been a professional automotive technician for over 25yrs. and have worked on just about every make out there, (except for the exotics) and I have to say European cars, particularly German cars are the biggest pain in the ass to work on. There used to be an ad bragging about “precision German engineering”…I’m sorry, I’ve seen it and it sucks. That being said, they all have a lot of rediculous engineering blunders.
Couldn’t agree more. After I removed 32 bolts (3 of which were hidden) and dropped the front cross member to replace a six cyl BMW oil pan gasket, that wouldn’t have leaked in the first place if the pan seam was more horizontal when the engine is canted (like a slant 6) instead of having one side constantly holding oil and one side dry. The designer of the Alfa Romeo 33 boxer can also kiss my ass.
As an E36 BMW owner who does most of his own repairs, I’ve got to say this car is the strangest combination of “Why don’t they build it like everyone else?” and “Why doesn’t everybody else build it like this?” For example, the factory jack gets bent if you use it on rough terrain, and the starter location works fine on a Mopar slant six but requires taking out the intake manifold or transmission to change on a BMW. On the other hand, they put the oil filter right on the top front of the motor with absolutely nothing in the way of changing it out.