This whole deal comes down to engineers, ben counters and liars..oops....lawyers. My situation.... My wife's 2016 GMC Terrain had a "Warranty Repair" notice on the windshield wiper linkage which could fail under heavy load. Not a recall that would be taken care of when you took yor car for repair, but a repair... The deal was, the parts would only be replaced AFTER failure!!! Sure as shit, we're cruising down I-5 one afternoon when a huge rainstorm rolled thru. I cranked up the wipers to HI and took the center lane (from the fast lane) and slowed down. The wipers broke! 60 mph with NO Visibility!!! I hope no one was killed in a similar incident. Damned lucky we weren't wrapped up in huge collision!!!! Corporate fucking greed is a large part of the problem......"Screw the customer, protect the stock value!"
That recall is still active, and it’s an inspect and replace as needed type of recall. Meaning even if your wipers are working, you should take it into the dealer and have them inspect them. If any wear is found the transmission arms get replaced. They always have wear though. I don’t do many of that recall anymore but they are out there still. 50/50 come in with wipers not working. Others were sent a nag recall letter. The one that is an engineering blunder is the headlight recall for either the older Terrain or the Acadia. They were determined to be too projected and bright so they mail out stickers that go on the headlights. Part of the envelope they come in, is the template to line it up with.
So, the very first hot rod I built came out of a stone quarry, all cut up and thrown into a pile. I paid $75 and got a good title along with my pickup load of rusty, cut up sheet metal, and a rusted out frame laying on my car trailer. I became the engineer as I built the car. I started with new 2" x 3" tubing, a Valarie subframe, and a rear axle bolted to a pair of leaf springs. This was my very 1st ground up build, what could go wrong? Pictures, or it didn't happen? This was when my son and I was setting the parts up on the original, rotted out frame, with the subframe tack welded into place. As a time frame, this is probably around 1988. After this picture, it took me 3 or 4 years before I gained enough knowledge to built a new frame from scratch. I was working part time at a small welding shop that built mostly small trailers. The owner helped guide me in building the simple ladder frame, that I later welded the body onto. I also welded the roof back on the body at that little welding shop. The car then sat a couple more years. In July 1994 I opened my own welding shop, part time, and I took the sedan there so I had something to do when I wasn't working on a customer's stuff. I thought I had everything pretty well figured out, I was going to make it easy to work on, and since I was building it from scratch myself, I didn't see any reason that would be a problem. It worked out great, until I had to start adding things I hadn't thought of originally. As more and more things, necessary for a drive able ride, were added, some other things grew increasingly more buried under the necessary stuff that had to be added. In the end, I managed to get the car on the road in pretty quick order (June 1995), and we put a lot of miles on the car (77,000 miles in 7 years). So the build came out pretty good, but there were parts that were a royal pain to work on (the entire front sheet metal had to come off the car to change the water pump). Damn engineer! Picture. The same car just before I sold it, after having driven it 77,000 miles. Its easy to blame the engineer when we have to deal with how some stupid thing was done so entirely wrong, or if something didn't work like we think it should, but when you have to design it yourself, you find out things can't always be done the way you think they should work out.
The Service Manager at a local dealership told me bean counters gather data from all waranty parts claims. ( I forgot the exact numbers he said they use, so I will make some up LOL!) Lets say 5% of all steering boxes fail. That’s good. Let’s say less than 1% fail. That’s bad. That means the part is “too good” and engneers are assigned to find a way to literaly make it cheaper. Thus you have a 2020 model year truck where the wipers never fly off and 2021 truck where they do fly off..
Engineers design to performance objectives and cost objectives and process objectives etc., and they're generally good at that; but they also design to some kind of mental construct of what a good design in the circumstances is like, and that is informed by all kinds of assumptions around culture and society and history, and engineers are very often hopeless at that. It is very hard even for artists and philosophers to think past the idioms imposed by chronolatrous modernity: it's way outside engineers' skill-set. So engineers don't need a better reason to perpetuate the hardware version of what Cory Doctorow has called enshittification than the fact that it's Thursday.
The way I see it is, someone or some folks have to die when the wipers fail in a heavy rain storm.... This ain't right....
First of all, let me say this, only because I spent a lot of time in the Marine / Maritime Industry and also as a rigger and heavy hauler, and a machinery mover. "EVERY SALESPERSON, SHOULD HAVE TO GO HELP INSTALL, WHAT THEY SOLD, JUST ONCE! AND EVERY DESIGN ENGINEER, SHOULD HAVE TO GO OUT INTO THE FIELD, AND HELP SERVICE, WHAT THEY DESIGNED JUST ONCE ! " That would be a fucking miracle if those two things ever happened in real life, but sadly the world doesn't work that way! I cant tell you how many times, when moving machinery or bringing a new machine to a place to be installed, and that surprise of the manager when the new machine, wont fit into the space that its supposed to go, because no one measured it first, or they were convinced by the salesperson in New Jersey, that their space allotted for the new machine in Seattle, will fit, because the catalog and the stated dimensions says it will fit, and the manager believed the sales person, who cant be reached because the salesperson is on vacation!
I've been a Chevy guy most of my life, but I have to say that in recent years they have disappointed me quite a lot. They have the engineering ability to do things right............but everything they produce seems to have problems after the purchase. The current fiasco with direct injection and engine failure due to their DOD (Displacement on Demand) has caused many $$$$$$$ problems. My son had to have the lifters replaced (warranty) in his truck and now people are finding that the oiling system is causing a recall on close to a million engines. Often the factory solution is to change oil viscosity and cross your fingers. Also the direct injection doesn't allow fuel to wash the valve and keep carbon from building on them. When it builds up sufficiently, there are expensive repairs needed. I understand that there is a process where walnut shell blasting is being used to clean them on the vehicle, but don't know anything about it. So my son sold his truck (he's had a lot of Chevys and bought a different brand). Wife wants me to buy a new truck, and I told her I'm happy with my 2000 Chevy, and I don't want a new Chevy if I did get one. Yep, the one factor the bean counters don't seem to place value on in their calculations is customer satisfaction and brand loyalty............well, errrr , thats two things, but you get my point.
I am under the assumption that the oil viscosity issues are caused by running thinner oil in the quest for MPG. Ford did it in 2000 with the Mustang 4.6. I had a 99 GT that specced 5w30. The 2000 cars called for 5w20. I happened to know someone who was an engineer on that program, and he stated that he wouldn't ever run 5w20 in a mod motor. They reduced viscosity chasing fuel mileage.
The failure in the 6.2s is due to a defect in the crankshaft bearings. 0w40 was a stop gap. The real warranty is replacement if the engine fails or sets a certain code. Or a pico test fails
The warranty costs are built into the selling price It’s like insurance You pay for the failure before it actually happens
It is wise to buy the extended warranty as there is almost a guarantee you’ll need it these days. In GMs case, with the 5.3l lifter issues and the 6.2L recall due to engine lockup. With all those replacements going in, GM is absolutely hurting. That isn’t even considering the transmissions that have been junk for years… they make an okay product. They are easy to work on but drivetrains are lacking longevity these days. The 2018+ Equinox is probably the best car they make now. The 2025+ is mechanically almost identical while looking totally different. They have different transmissions now and electronics
Yes, that's my understanding with Chevy as well. They also went to aluminum engine blocks to reduce weight and minutely increase mpg. Used to be that we all coveted aluminum engines for our hot rods, but in Chevys newer engines the cylinder liners are very thin and do not have enough material for reboring oversize. Honing them about .010 is all thats possible, so when they wear out, they are pretty much junk. Think maybe that will hurt them in the long run when rodders have to look elsewhere for rebuildable engines. I bought two 6.0 liter rebuildable cast iron engines (2007/2008 and earlier) and keep my eye out for them on Facebook. How much weight and cost would thicker liners have cost Chevy? I have a brand new LS7 block that I bought a long time ago, and they made replaceable liners in them...also thicker. Pinching pennies is already biting them with the recalls, but losing customers loyalty is a long term deficit.
but the non-boreable engines last 300k miles, which the rest of the trucks don't last. They're pretty well designed. We just look at things differently than most people.
How many engines are actually bored and rebuilt now? There’s a reason machine shops are getting harder to find.
Have any of you installed stretch belts? GM used to use them on just the AC compressor but now the main drive belt also is. I just had to do one yesterday. Not my first but you curse the engineers every time.
I'm somewhat surprised no one mentioned the gorila of government-mandated regulations (safety, emissions, lane departure, speed monitoring, distance-sensing cruise control, airbags etc.) which require huge complexity, not existing even 10 years ago. I reckon some cars nowadays have the electronic brainpower of a fighter jet. As for the older cars lasting less, well yes and no. Two things changed since then, lubricant/coolant quality and rust protection. Use modern oils in a freshly rebuilt 50s or 60s engine and it would last 300,000 miles. Rust-proof the car it's in with the stuff which is on the market and it won't rust. Particularly if you do an oil change every year/5000 miles and wash the car regularly top to bottom also in winter. Actually even back then there were guys who changed the oil frequently and sprayed the underside of their cars with oil and their cars lasted. The reason most people did not do this in the US was because cars were so cheap, relatively speaking, so unless you were a miserly weirdo you did not care (where I grew up in the 60s (Israel) cars were expensive so engines got reconditioned more often and bodywork repaired just to keep the car alive as long as possible, and the same applied to many ex-British colonies (e.g., Oz, South Africa). No more, everywhere is the same, drive it until the 1st problems start then pass it on to the next sucker).
You’re not getting 300k miles out of an old engine. The rings simply won’t last that long and the bores will suffer at some point. The engine could be kept running with some maintenance that long. New rings and a ball hone to keep going. Low tension rings were the real advent getting miles out of engines. The golden age of engine longevity is probably 1999-2007 if talking about American V8 engines
Soak wiper blades in 303 Protectant when new and wipe with it at every wash. Original blades are still on my wife’s 2015 Honda Civic coupe, my 2018 Ford F-150, and the replacements from Danchuk on my 1956 Ford for 13 years.
There is a rubber rejuvenator that is designed for printer rollers. Can keep wipers and other things going pretty much indefinitely if you catch them before they rot
Then again, I look under the bonnet of my son's 1988 Holden Commodore, it has two ECUs about 1/4 the size of a cereal box. It dawns on me that there are more electronics in that thing than was used to put a man on the moon... and enough wiring to run a telegraph line between here and Peking. Cheers, Harv
Another factor; just throwing it in: up to c.1933 cars readily disassembled into a small hardware store's worth of useful stuff. It was easy for a car to depreciate until it was worth more as bracketry, offcuts, and doohickeys than as an assembled car.
Huh? I looked it up, and only got lots of links to somebody called that involved with "fur affinity" which sounds fun, but not very car related.
I don't think I've ever encountered the adjective form outside my own usage. It's from chronolatry, meaning literally worship of time, which was coined by the French Roman Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain to describe the way we today ascribe ultimate authority (i.e. divinity) to processes of "history" regarded as inevitable e.g. "It's stood the test of time;" "You can't turn back the clock;" etc. right down to certain theories of design which propose that a designer's first duty is to "reflect the age" and produce stuff which is "of its time". Karl Popper used the term historicism for pretty much the same thing, which could be confusing because the term already had established meanings, some of them nearly opposite, in other fields. Sharing Maritain's theological concerns, C. S. Lewis used chronological snobbery. Maritain's beef with chronolatry is obvious: God can't be subject to "historical appropriateness". For Popper, chronolatry is error; and for Lewis it's a character defect; but I really like the way that for Maritain it's heresy. In my post it was a shorthand way of saying that engineers aren't specifically trained to question the character of "the Future" and so might be prone unthinkingly to incorporate certain assumptions in the way they design things, without for a minute considering that the whole historical thing might be bullshit. We do plastic widgets because of course the Widget of the Future is made of plastic; it's just a matter of designing to the mechanical properties of this kind of plastic — which they do well enough.
Ha ha! Was it Henry Ford that said, "History is bunk"? Philosophy is quite variable to me. Sometimes I'll concentrate really hard to understand the ramblings of a nineteenth century French or German fellow, and eventually figure out that what was explained in a painful, dreary fashion was actually quite clever, sometimes that it's ridiculous or painfully obvious. Yet the engineers who designed the Chevy small block, early Hemi or '32 Ford could have never known they were making something iconic.
They couldn't have known, because what they made were just particularly happy iterations of what a lot of other people were doing at the time. Another thing it's probably worth giving a name is "precarious engineering", I thought this morning upon discovering that the reason the daily's left indicators were going tickitickitickitickitickiticki instead of tick tick tick was the rear bulb being a bit wobbly in its holder. Wiggling it about a bit cured the problem, but not before some mild expletives and care in choosing a route home with the least possible number of left turns. Precarious engineering, I propose, means engineering a thing such that it won't work at all unless it's just so. Something just has to move half a hair's breadth, and it stops doing what it ought: and standardly there's no provision for keeping that something solidly in place. It is usually the result of cheapness, the desire (or imperative) to make stuff in plastic, and the assumption that the end user won't have any tools. There were two instances of precarious engineering in today's indicator. Nothing in the entire exercise required any tools, but if it had the problem might never have arisen in the first place. The plastic taillight cluster is supposed to snap into its plastic lens, but it doesn't reach far enough to engage on both sides once a few years have passed, and so it stays where it is on friction and Divine mercy. The bulb is a normal bayonet affair, and it's loose. The simplest fix would have been to provide some kind of access to the spring behind the central contact. Any other examples?
The Jalopy Journal
