$800 car part

1moretimeagain said:
I’ve come to the conclusion that aside from the gas cap and windshield wipers, no car part is easily accessible.
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Agreed.

An alternator on a 1994 Nissian Sentra took a couple hours to change then another couple hours to tension the belt. Horrible design.

I had a Chrysler minivan, alternator went out, out of state driving home on New Year's day.
Tried for over an hour to figure out how to remove it. I finally got fed up and used a crowbar to bend the bracket out of the way. I got it changed and got the family home.

Looked it up online to find out it was designed to come out the bottom, but the power steering pump had to be removed first.


And I've got plenty more stories.

One good design was the alternator on my Expedition. I could change it in 15 minutes.
 
donbosco said:
I once lived in a house, a notorious student dwelling, in Chapel Hill where there was a "house car." I never used it because I had my own but most of the time two or three of the folks living there would go in on a car, pay around $500 and drive it until it broke. There were a couple in the driveway because that's where they gave up the ghost. A couple more died in other places. They'd figure out how to orchestrate the legalities, at least to some passable level, and just carry on. That was in the late 1980s/early '90s.
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In my early 20's I had a series of $500 cars.

One leaked power steering fluid so bad I designed a reservoir to feed in fluid.
 
I was at a friend's garage once some 15 years or so ago marveling at the fact that he had to take the right front tire and wheel well lining out to recharge the AC on my Ford Focus so he took me make in to show me, I think an El Dorado where you had to pull the head to replace the starter. I felt less put upon but still puzzled.
 
farce© said:
My experience with Mercedes is the opposite. Between my wife and I, we have had six MBs over the past 30 years. I’ve never had any significant issues and just took them in once a year for routine maintenance. I currently drive a 2017 GLC “coupe” which I ordered new spec’ed out exactly as I wanted it. I’ve driven it for 9 years, put 65,000 miles on it and I’ve done the routine annual maintenance, put tires and brakes on it, and that’s it.

I worked for automotive suppliers for years, and called on most of the auto manufacturers and have a pretty good idea of the quality different OEMs demand from their supplier base and how well they manufacture their product. I also spent a good amount of time on the aftermarket side of the business dealing with independent repair shops. While many of those guys truly know their shit and I would absolutely trust them to fix my car, I don’t believe a word they say about the inner workings and decision-making of OEMs. These guys have more conspiracy theories about the motives of OEMs than QAnon has about the deep state.
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I agree with much that you say. And I bet that you are far more dilligent and knowledgable about the virtues and necessity of regular maintenance than about 99% of the population. But when I first talked to that guy in the independent repair shop and he guessed the model and year of my car just from the symptoms I described, that gave him a lot of credibility with me.
 
fourheels said:
I took my 2021 Pilot to the dealer a few weeks ago because I was getting a weird combination of seemingly unrelated codes/errors including transmission, emissions, and blind spot error. Intermittently I couldn't put it in gear due to the error. The car had been left in auxiliary power a couple of days prior so I figured it might have caused a computer glitch or maybe the errors were from a drained battery. After checking the car, the dealership service tech messaged me that based on the codes, the transmission failed and replacement would be $8,000.00!!! I told them that made no sense since it was clearly drivable, had no previous transmission issues and only had 70,000 miles with up to date routine maintenance.

I took it elsewhere for a second opinion. After the second opinion mechanic drove it for 150 miles, he agreed with me that it was just a glitch from the auxiliary power drain. They completed the routine service, saved me over $7,000, and I've had no issues since.
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The second opinion mechanic drove your car 150 miles?
 
Another masterpiece of design:

2014 Ram 1500 V6 Turbo Diesel - The engine came from Italy. A common failure is the crank position sensor. It costs $50 and is basically a thin magnet glued to a piece of metal. If it fails, the engine shuts down pretty much wherever you are. To replace it, they have to drop the transmission to get to the flywheel. $50 part, $2200 labor.
 
Decades ago the Ex had a hand me down Audi
I can remember pulling into a Garage and the front desk guy just saying
"Very sorry, but we will not work on that make and model"
 
MBZ makes some very good engines.
Others not so much. With older German cars especially not only do you isolate the model but which years in the production run

I've had Benzes where it came down to which MONTHS in the year it was produced because of precisely which parts they used in spring vs fall
 
My off campus roommate in college worked for Performance BMW. He said the entire business model was to screw over everybody, but we all know this.

Thankfully I haven't ever stepped foot in one.
 
keywestheel said:
My off campus roommate in college worked for Performance BMW. He said the entire business model was to screw over everybody, but we all know this.

Thankfully I haven't ever stepped foot in one.
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I’ll bite. How is selling a luxury good that comes with a warranty screwing people over?

I’d say Kia/Hyundai selling disposable econo cars for so many years (and maybe still) is worse
 
finesse said:
Twice the fun for twice the price.



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I purchased a '75 LTD for a hundred bucks once, because I wanted the engine. I thought it had a 351 Windsor, turned out it had a 351 Cleveland 4 bolt main. I sold the engine and transmission for $500, the front bench seat for $50, and found $28 in change all around the car. After that I sold the body for scrap and got another $70 after the towing fee.

Made out pretty well on that one.

I've purchased a lot of parts cars and stripped them.
 
fourheels said:
I took my 2021 Pilot to the dealer a few weeks ago because I was getting a weird combination of seemingly unrelated codes/errors including transmission, emissions, and blind spot error. Intermittently I couldn't put it in gear due to the error. The car had been left in auxiliary power a couple of days prior so I figured it might have caused a computer glitch or maybe the errors were from a drained battery. After checking the car, the dealership service tech messaged me that based on the codes, the transmission failed and replacement would be $8,000.00!!! I told them that made no sense since it was clearly drivable, had no previous transmission issues and only had 70,000 miles with up to date routine maintenance.

I took it elsewhere for a second opinion. After the second opinion mechanic drove it for 150 miles, he agreed with me that it was just a glitch from the auxiliary power drain. They completed the routine service, saved me over $7,000, and I've had no issues since.
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My Accura had a similar issue once. I read online and most things seemed to indicate that the trans had failed. I took it to a transmission shop, it was a blown fuse.

Cost me $75 to have it towed for a $30 repair, that I could have done myself, if I could have found the information.
 
UNCatTech said:
I purchased a '75 LTD for a hundred bucks once, because I wanted the engine. I thought it had a 351 Windsor, turned out it had a 351 Cleveland 4 bolt main. I sold the engine and transmission for $500, the front bench seat for $50, and found $28 in change all around the car. After that I sold the body for scrap and got another $70 after the towing fee.

Made out pretty well on that one.

I've purchased a lot of parts cars and stripped them.
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You did but you worked for your money, too. There's some time and effort there. Knowing what you're doing and not buying it to ride takes some of the adventure out of it.
 
ChathamHeel said:
Another masterpiece of design:

2014 Ram 1500 V6 Turbo Diesel - The engine came from Italy. A common failure is the crank position sensor. It costs $50 and is basically a thin magnet glued to a piece of metal. If it fails, the engine shuts down pretty much wherever you are. To replace it, they have to drop the transmission to get to the flywheel. $50 part, $2200 labor.
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Same with a rear crankshaft seal, $2 part, $1000 labor.
 
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