Ridiculous car maintenance

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"Ain't that the truth? I can buy a nice BMW lots cheaper than a new F150 or RAM 1500."
I'm not at all sure I'd even buy domestic newer than 2015-16. I'm just fine with 2004-2010 'technology'.
 
I drive a 19 year old Tundra and a 16 year old Tundra. A couple years ago I had the itch to buy a new truck. I looked into it and decided they were all junk. Too much electronics, emission controls, plastic, water based paint and low profile tires for me. I'll drive the old Tundras until I'm dead.
 
Nothing is either foreign or domestic anymore.. and speaking of automotive nighmares...

2009 Ford Flex... water pump went out at about 80,000 miles... factory manual says it takes 15 hours to replace... you have to pull the engine and remove the top half to get to the internal water pump.

We won't even start with the transmission which still is not right after $6k.
 
huh. Guess I'm behind with 1957 Jeep (1960V6) and 1978 Lincoln Town Car. Neither one has ANY beeps, bleeps or warnings of any kind... not even seat belts or doors. I feel so left out. Forgot my 1953 Ford Golden Jubilee tractor... piece of junk,,, had to change the original tires last year.
 
One of the keys to happily working on new cars is just accepting the fact that you may have to disassemble about half the vehicle
to get to what is a simple fix. A few months ago I bought a 2003 Ford E150 van with several "little things" wrong...it was really cheap.
Now I have absolutely no obvious use for a van so I'm just making the repairs and selling it. It had a bad vacuum accumulator tank,
basically a $30 item but you needed to disassemble all kinds of stuff to access it, one of those can't get there from here deals.
Screw that....tons of easily accessed space under the dash to mount the reservoir and vacuum lines are easily routed, took all of
15-20 minutes. I'm sure Ford had a reason to mount a cheap plastic tank in an inaccessible high heat area, looks to me like they
saved the cost of an extra 14-15 inches of vacuum line. The people I bough the van from said the local Ford dealership quoted
them $1200 to change it, they were charged $150 for the diagnostic check.
 
Watertender said:
I serviced medical equipment for many years. There were so many odd fasteners and fittings that would drive you to drink or need a rubber room.... One company used a pipe fitting that looked like 1/8-27npt but it was 29tpi instead of 27... I am glad that I don't work on that stuff anymore.
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Manufacturers like to put "booby traps" in everything. That means anything you touch self-destructs unless you just happen to know the secret "special procedure" to avoid destruction.
The term is "PLANNED IN OBSOLESCENCE". If a machine or vehicle was designed to last and be serviceable, they would sell less of them because we wouldn't have to replace them so often. But there is another beneficiary to this idea....sure the manufacturers benefits from this, but BANKERS benefit even more. they get to issue the loans out of thin air and keep all the interest for doing nothing.
 
I have owned a couple of 7 series BMWs and they are true money pits. I became friends with a BMW tech who told me that in Germany (he is German), there is very little of the mandatory maintenance compared to the U..S. I think that BMW USA requires it to make work for the dealer
service depts. which is a high profit center for them. I switched to Lexus a number of years ago and have had much less maintenance expense. Although the service writers (they are on commission) always seem to find something they ”recommend” but not required. No Thanks! I currently have a Genesis which is a nice car but not up the standard of the established brands of that type. Seems reliable and oil change can be done anywhere as long as it meets factory specs and you keep record receipts. The service writers use the same tricks as the other so, read your manual and follow “factory requirements“ for service (dealer recommendations are not required) unless you have problems.
 
Kevin said:
You are only supposed to use “special” BMW washer fluid.

This is just crazy for a couple reasons. First, why the need for a sensor at all? Secondly, why not a normal sensor if you must have one? Or even better, change the system to allow for normal windshield washer fluid.
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wash the wiper fluid container out to clean the sensor then use fresh water instead of fluid.
 
My wife had a BMW and the navigation system used to send us on the "tour of rural Ohio" periodically traveling between Michigan and our place in North Carolina. Never figured out why it sent us on that trip and it wasn't every time.

And as a testament to "German efficiency", whenever her maps needed updating I had to set an appointment and leave the car with them all day. They had to connect the car to their computer and let it run for 5 hours to update the maps in her navigation!

On the Lincoln and the Mustang I simply ordered a new "chip" for the Lincoln and a USB drive for the Mustang. On the Lincoln, pop out the old chip and put the new one in. On the Mustang, plug in the USB to the port and let it update - some took 30 minutes to finish and some took an hour. All in my driveway or while driving the car.
 
Kevin said:
I know ya’ll like automotive engineers and cars etc.

I’ve got a 2022 BMW, with 19,000 miles so it’s still under warranty.

But I’m getting the oil changed and for a while now I’ve been getting an error message.

“Low windshield washer fluid.”

Even when I filled it up.

It turns out, BMW has this sensor built into the tank, it isn’t a normal floating sensor. Regular washer fluid has some sort of additive that will gum up the sensor.

You are only supposed to use “special” BMW washer fluid.

This is just crazy for a couple reasons. First, why the need for a sensor at all? Secondly, why not a normal sensor if you must have one? Or even better, change the system to allow for normal windshield washer fluid.

I suppose a German auto engineer would have a good reason for what they did. Maybe?
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Maybe this is why;
1694102458461.png
 
I have the best of both worlds - a "British" car that was actually designed and manufactured in Austria. Oh, and its an EV on top of that. Of course it drives like a dream, accelerates so fast that I've amazed several ICE drivers that thought they had a real fast car, and its the only car that I have actually had beautiful woman ask me what it is and can they get a ride. So, I'll live not having an American Made car now, thanks.

image_6487327.JPG
 
hittman said:
We live in a fairly rural area so there’s not much for “high end” car dealers. No BMW, Volvo, Subaru, Mercedes, etc. unless you don’t mind driving 150 miles or more. Accordingly, there’s almost zero selection for someone local to service anything that isn’t a Chevy, Ford, Ram, Honda, Kia, etc.

One local friend who drives 30,000 or more a year just had to have a Volvo. So, he drove the 100-plus miles to look.
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My son recently picked up a 2006'ish Volvo when he got rebased in New Mexico (USAF). Shortly after getting it the dashboard started throwing a multitude of weird messages and functions (lights, radio, heater etc..
) not working. Turns out it is a common problem with that brand and there are specialty businesses that specialize in fixing, resoldering and whatever else it takes to return normal function. All you have to do is take your dashboard cluster out and send it with a lot of money to one of these businesses. Then have a high dollar OBD Volvo tool to reset everything.
 
Pps1980 said:
I have the best of both worlds - a "British" car that was actually designed and manufactured in Austria. Oh, and its an EV on top of that. Of course it drives like a dream, accelerates so fast that I've amazed several ICE drivers that thought they had a real fast car, and its the only car that I have actually had beautiful woman ask me what it is and can they get a ride. So, I'll live not having an American Made car now, thanks.

View attachment 29280
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Let us know when your power goes out for several days and you cant recharge the battery !
 
Too much stupid crap on these cars. Guess they figure they can rip you off on future repairs by including stuff we don't need like tire sensors. Gimme back my 70 Challenger any day.
 
Papalote said:
Colonalgirl. I work with solar panels. They don't work at night or when it's cloudy.
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I knew that but he was bragging. I heard that the CEO of Ford decided to take their electric pickup on a trip and discovered the mileage wan't very far and that some charging stations only gave you a 40% charge after 40 minutes.
 
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