Do car makers...

[buggi]

... just make things deliberately difficult to fix just so you pay them to do it?

I'm not thick when it comes to cars, my dad was really good at showing us stuff when we were growing up, so i'm not one of them women that won't give it a go. and changing a back brake light has been pretty simple on all of my previous cars. In fact, last time i bought a bulb and did it outside the shop.

so now i have a Ford Streetka. It has a problem with the alternator which is being fixed on Wednesday which is a big job because the b@stard car makers bury the alternator under the engine. typical. so that' gonna cost a bomb.

pulled up last night only for a mate to tell me both my back brake lights were out. lucky for me the middle one was ok (i had just driven down the motorway). i kind of hoped it would be the fuse (although doubtful if the middle one was working). checked it anyway, but no, it was definitely the bulbs. so off i go today to the autospares shop, spent £2 on two bulbs. Goes to my mum and dad's house (on the secret hope my dad would be there and he'd do it but alas they weren't).

so raid their garage for every spanner i could find. Then had to work out how to get the light off. First i had to remove all the side trim from the boot compartment. it was a right b@stard to get off, clipped in really well, was afraid i'd tear it with the force i had to use. Then the nuts were like in an impossible position. i had about one cm leverage on the spanner so it took me ages to get two bolts off! finally get that off and the book says "remove lighting unit". Remove it how for fecks sake? i yanked and pulled and wiggled it and yanked and yanked it until i was afraid to break it. by this time i'm pretty much at the end of my tether. so i ring my mum in a foul mood and she says, go and get a cuppa and we'll be home in a bit. anyway, in the meantime i drove up to kwik fit (knowing that my dad would just yank it too and might break it) only to be told they don't do it because on that car it's too difficult!

so i bring it back and hand it over to my dad, who is pretty good with cars. he yanked and wigged and pulled and yanked and EVENTUALLY it popped off. and what was holding it in? a completely pointless bit thick clip that was not mentioned anywhere in the book. it had absolutely no purpose because the nuts and bolts keep it in place and we decided the only possible purpose is for it to make life so difficult that people take it to Ford and get charged 30 quid to change a £1 pound bulb.

so to change both bulbs actually took me two hours altogether... and an hour of that my dad was on it! and on the second unit we bust the clip by yanking the unit, as there was no other way, but it didn't matter anyway, coz it's completely pointless other than to make people spend money. had to go on my bike for an hour to calm down!

moan over, i feel so much better now!

 

[col]

A few people I know have mentioned something similar, the main reasons given were what you said, as engines are more reliable and less maintenance needed the makers need to get people into garages in other ways, seems pretty plausible going on your description of the useless plastic thing.

 

[buggi]

ps... one of the reasons i was in a foul mood about it was coz i secretly wanted to go out on my bike in the sunshine and this was delaying me... but i couldn't tell my dad that

 

[HLaB]

I liked one program; an old bloke was quoted several thousand pounds to replace a complete unit in his tractor; he ended up getting a custom made spring (about a fiver I think) and fixed it himself.

 

[derall]

"If you can't fix it, you don't own it"

Becoming something of a rallying cry in certain quarters - see the Platform 21 'Repair Manifesto' - because of stuff that you can't get into to repairs, or is excessively complicated.

If it goes wrong and you can't repair it then either you have to pay someone to repair it, or throw it away and buy another. Thus disposable nature drives the economy onward.

Me, I'm pretty hopeless with cars. First car I had (1980 Opel Kadett) had a really simple engine. You could see most component and reach every component easily. Could fix almost all problems myself. That was the last car I understood. Gave up driving in 1995, so I doubt I'd have a chance of understanding modern engines.

 

[very-near]

I've got a Mercedes A class. There is a bit in the engine inlet called a mass air flow sensor. It is what is know as a thermal resistor and as the engine revs up, the air passing over it cools this component and the cars brain calculates how much air is passing into the engine, and how much fuel is needed at any one point in time.

When the mass air flow sensor gets contaminated, it starts to misread, and send the wrong info to the cars brain which makes it stall all the time at junctions when you take your foot off the throttle - burn the starter motor out with loads of starts, and a new one is £1000 as the engine has to be dropped from the car to access it.

Now most manufacturers have this mass air flow sensor as a separate component which costs about £45 to replace. Mercedes in their infinite wisdom decided to have the mass air flow sensor as an integral part of the cars brain (ECU) - and charge £1400 to replace it as the ECU needs to be coded specifically to the car and ignition key in Germany.

Fortunately there is a place in Nottingham who repair this bit and 'only' charge £250

I had to have this done last month and the bill is still smarting

Sympathy with the agro on your Street-Ka. Nearly all these modern cars are the same to work on .

 

[Night Train]

Yep, it is deliberately difficult and special tools are often needed to remove clips without breaking them and access fixings that spanners and sockets can't reach.

I'm a time served motor vehicle mechanic on both cars and trucks but a lot has changed since 1985. I don't even bother with any engine parts on my car due to the need to reset the computer.

Give me a Mk1 Escort or MGB any day.

 

[cisamcgu]

I have a 2002 "standard" Ford KA and I recently found the rear bulbs a complete doddle to replace, all done in 3 minutes. Perhaps, since the Streetka is more of a "luxury" model (luxury being a very relative term when talking about ka's ) Ford presume that the owners of this type of model wouldn't want to get their fingers dirty and would be happy to pay a garage to oblige ?

Just a thought

Andrew

 

[Chrisz]

Spare a thought for a mate of mine with a relatively new 5 series BMW. To change the drivers side lightbulb cost him nearly £400 !!!! He was quoted nearer double that from the main dealer.

They had to remove the front bumper, slam panel, radiator/air con condenser and light unit to change the bulb.

I must confess I felt rather smug knowing I'd managed to do the bulbs on my Jag myself

 

[Globalti]

There's a simple answer: buy one of these; the sidelight and indicator covers unscrew and you can change a bulb in less than a minute.

 

[very-near]

I have a 2002 "standard" Ford KA and I recently found the rear bulbs a complete doddle to replace, all done in 3 minutes. Perhaps, since the Streetka is more of a "luxury" model (luxury being a very relative term when talking about ka's ) Ford presume that the owners of this type of model wouldn't want to get their fingers dirty and would be happy to pay a garage to oblige ?

Just a thought

Andrew

More perhaps that they know they are only going to be bought by women and so stick extra tough tabs on them

 

[fossyant]

My car's rear lights have to be 'popped' off the body to change the bulbs - TBH, with a long socket, removal of the two bolts, then a tug only takes a few minutes.

As for nightmare components, the sat nav unit on mine costs' £2000 and is also responsible for all the audio/climate and computer functions.

There is a fault caused by some glue on a transistor that can stop the unit working - it's a known fault, but can anyone get the manufacturer to 'own up' - erm no..... fortunately, there are a few guys who can do a simple fix.

 

[very-near]

My car's rear lights have to be 'popped' off the body to change the bulbs - TBH, with a long socket, removal of the two bolts, then a tug only takes a few minutes.

As for nightmare components, the sat nav unit on mine costs' £2000 and is also responsible for all the audio/climate and computer functions.

There is a fault caused by some glue on a transistor that can stop the unit working - it's a known fault, but can anyone get the manufacturer to 'own up' - erm no..... fortunately, there are a few guys who can do a simple fix.

I had no idea that satnav was a factory fit option on the Hummer fossy

 

[Mr Pig]

Many cars now, typically Citroen's etc, need to part company with their front bumpers to change the light bulbs! They design the car to be as cheap to produce as possible and to look good.

So if your headlight goes one night you need to get the AA to take you home as it's impossible to change the bulb at the roadside. Ridiculous and I don't think it should be allowed. It should be a legal requirement that all bulbs can be replaced easily, without tools and in a short space of time.

It's a major consideration for me when buying a car, how much of this thing can I fix myself. Every car you buy gets worse, I hate it.

 

[bobbyp]

I seem to remember that in some european countries you must legally carry spare bulbs. If you can;t get them into the car what is the point of making you carry them? Surely making it impossible to change bulbs at the roadside could be made illegal at the European level if it means that people can't comply with legislation in some countries?