Making cars harder to work on yourself

[Chasing Ghosts]

Begin pointless rant

Had a headlight lamp go out on me, on the way home from work Fri... figured no problem... I'll stop at Auto Zone on the way home buy replacement and swap it out in the parking lot.


Wrong answer. There is no access to the lamps via the engine compartment. I have to Turn the Steering wheel in the direction of the blown lamp.... jack side up enough to make it easy to remove the 3 7mm bolts and plastic wheel well push in tabs to get to the lamp to swap it... reverse it to put it all back together... then do the other side.

Why not a simple access hole from the engine compartment like the old days?

End pointless rant

Doug

[Barnacle Bill]

In the early 60's I had a part time job teaching auto mechanics. Now a day I'm lucky if I can find the spark plugs.

[crappiefarmer]

My Mother -in-law has a Nissan car. You have to take the washer fluid reservoir off of hers to get to one of the head lights. My truck motor packs up under the hood so tight that if you have to pull the motor, the hood comes off and the grill and front braces have to be taken out and the motor has to be brought out through the front of the truck. You can't see daylight under the motor when looking down through it. You can't find nothing and if You do find it, You sure as he77 can't get to it.CF

[crappie 11]

Now a day I'm lucky if I can find the spark plugs.[/QUOTE]

That's because they don't have spark plugs no more.

[Boscoe]

Now a day I'm lucky if I can find the spark plugs.

That's because they don't have spark plugs no more.[/QUOTE]
You think that's funny, he remembers when cars had cranks

[speKzilla]

On the bright side all new auto technologies remove the temptation to fool with it.Turn it over to the engine analyzers and pour yourself a drink. Remember it's only money.

[Clear Solution]

Lol, I was checking out the wife's work car a few weeks ago. I changed the oil, topped off the coolant and winder wiper juice and trans. Fluid. All went well except the tranny part, I know I stared at that stupid engine for 25 minutes trying to find the hole to put some trans fluid in- turns out you add it into the dipstick tube(which itself it somewhat obscured).
The other kicker was the air bag light, I bought it to help a friend out, but it's a good little car. Anyways the air bag light was on, and its ALMOST impossible to get a inspection sticker, so I took it to the shop to get whatever it was fixed. Appearantly the service writer knew I didn't speak engine-ese and pretty much tried to bully me into spending $800 on a $1000 car. Needless to say, it did not happen. I was changing a fuse for the power mirrors and while looking thru the manual I notice the one with the airbag label was empty. I put a $2 fuse in and the airbag light went out. So for a change being a cheapskate paid off for me.