The old 70's Opel Manta took the cake for me. You cannot pull the engine, you must drop it, which involves removing the rack & pinion VERY CAREFULLY which is "not recommended". I junked it. No one rescued it.
All Detroit ball joints that I've ever replaced. All hot riveted. But when I had some replaced on my Dakota on recall, the dealer's new ones had bolts and nuts. Curious how that's not good enough for production but it's better for the recall.
99 Ford Taurus starter solenoid wire was permanently wired into the harness. To replace it the aftermarket part had a splicing kit. I suppose Ford thought they were so good they never needed replacing? Or maybe it was just a disposable car.
Originally Posted By: larryinnewyork
Wow. All very interesting.
With all the labor & frustration, another good reason to buy OEM parts.
Figuring that OEM very well could last longer than after-market parts.
I'll never try and save $10.00 with (some) after-market parts only to do the job a second time.
That's a baffling philosophy. If the OEM parts were so fabulous, they wouldn't need replacing! There's any number of "problem solver" parts that only exist because the originals were so badly designed.
Dakota/Durango window elevators, for example. Replace them all and you'll be doing it again at the same interval thereafter, because they never improved the design. Put in an aftermarket and kiss that problem goodbye.
Just about everybody's sway bar end links. If they used polyeurethane like the aftermarket, we wouldn't be replacing them every 75-85K miles/8 years. Yes, there are soft polyeurethane bushings, no NVH sacrifices need be made.
Those ball joints I mentioned? You can get new ones with zerk fittings. OEM, none. That's supposed to be better? Same with U-Joints.
All Detroit ball joints that I've ever replaced. All hot riveted. But when I had some replaced on my Dakota on recall, the dealer's new ones had bolts and nuts. Curious how that's not good enough for production but it's better for the recall.
99 Ford Taurus starter solenoid wire was permanently wired into the harness. To replace it the aftermarket part had a splicing kit. I suppose Ford thought they were so good they never needed replacing? Or maybe it was just a disposable car.
Originally Posted By: larryinnewyork
Wow. All very interesting.
With all the labor & frustration, another good reason to buy OEM parts.
Figuring that OEM very well could last longer than after-market parts.
I'll never try and save $10.00 with (some) after-market parts only to do the job a second time.
That's a baffling philosophy. If the OEM parts were so fabulous, they wouldn't need replacing! There's any number of "problem solver" parts that only exist because the originals were so badly designed.
Dakota/Durango window elevators, for example. Replace them all and you'll be doing it again at the same interval thereafter, because they never improved the design. Put in an aftermarket and kiss that problem goodbye.
Just about everybody's sway bar end links. If they used polyeurethane like the aftermarket, we wouldn't be replacing them every 75-85K miles/8 years. Yes, there are soft polyeurethane bushings, no NVH sacrifices need be made.
Those ball joints I mentioned? You can get new ones with zerk fittings. OEM, none. That's supposed to be better? Same with U-Joints.