Stupidest Designs.......

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Crown Victoria, Mercury Grand Marquis and Marauder rear window regulators. Mounted with rivets. Also window glass is riveted to the lift plate. Very nerve wracking drilling rivets out that mount glass. And metal chips everywhere. Then you have to find proper bolts, nuts, flat washers and lock washers to go back together with it all.
 
Replacement rivets & tooling is readily available for this type of work. Knocking out the center pin on the old rivets before drilling them makes it pretty easy!
 
Originally Posted by littleant
1990's i believe Cadillac starter under intake manifold.


Northstar, One of the easiest starters to replace as well.....It's the Toyota UZ V8 engines (Also under the intake) that are labor intensive.

The top bolt behind the solenoid on Ford 3 Bolt starters can be fun!
 
Originally Posted by 69Torino
Crown Victoria, Mercury Grand Marquis and Marauder rear window regulators. Mounted with rivets. Also window glass is riveted to the lift plate. Very nerve wracking drilling rivets out that mount glass. And metal chips everywhere. Then you have to find proper bolts, nuts, flat washers and lock washers to go back together with it all.


The Panthers are throwbacks, but Ford used rivets for window regulators for decades. I replaced the driver's one on the 1977 Cougar (the replacement came from a Torino)-pretty easy job, actually. Drilled out the rivets, installed the replacement with short bolts & nuts.
 
Just changed the oil on my mom's 2011 Honda Fit 1.5L. The oil fill hole is way too close to the cowl, in fact it is basically under the cowl, so it's very hard to get to. It also has a plastic screen about an inch inside the fill hole so the opening is not deep enough to allow most funnels to sit in the hole. I service several vehicles for family/friends of all makes, and this is the dumbest oil fill design I've seen. On the contrary, the drain plug and filter are super easy to get to and make for very little mess.
crazy.gif
 
1985-1992 VW golf/Jetta that had door sill channel water into car if it went through door. The doors required a plastic sheathing to be glued into place which came undone.
 
Chrysler products with batteries in the fenderwell
Had to take off the wheel and part of the fenderwell to change.

Also gm products where they put the windshield washer reservoir directly over the top of the battery.
 
my wife had the misfortune of having her alternator go out while on a road trip with the kids to Tennessee this summer. Luckily it died in their hotel parking lot. On the 3.6L Chrysler 200 it comes out the bottom and you have to remove some stuff to get to it. Also the battery is in the fenderwell. So dumb. A simple repair on any other car (usually) ended up costing $1100. She was stuck though and had to pay it.
 
Two come to mind. GM's 2.5 Iron Duke with the micarta camshaft gear. Self destructs after 100,000 miles or so and leaves you stranded. Non-interference engine, but on a FWD car the engine has to come out to replace it after you've had it towed. Been there, done that.

Ex wife's 2005 Subaru Legacy had a colossal failure in the design of the cabin air filter. The back of the glovebox popped out to get access, but somehow they screwed up royally in lining up the filter housing with the slot in the glovebox. If you elected to change the cabin filter, which I had to after a mouse got in and made a nest out of it, the only way to change it involved taking most of the dashboard apart, starting with the center console, and finally the whole glovebox had to be removed. Subaru's official fix was to cut a new hole in the back of the glovebox, and cover it with black tape. That sounded much better than the 4 hours I spent doing it the other way.
 
Originally Posted by Dave Sherman
Subaru's official fix was to cut a new hole in the back of the glovebox, and cover it with black tape. That sounded much better than the 4 hours I spent doing it the other way.


I wonder how many people cut out sections and tape back up to fix HVAC issues in cars. Like blend door related things.
 
Originally Posted by Dave Sherman
Ex wife's 2005 Subaru Legacy had a colossal failure in the design of the cabin air filter. The back of the glovebox popped out to get access, but somehow they screwed up royally in lining up the filter housing with the slot in the glovebox. If you elected to change the cabin filter, which I had to after a mouse got in and made a nest out of it, the only way to change it involved taking most of the dashboard apart, starting with the center console, and finally the whole glovebox had to be removed. Subaru's official fix was to cut a new hole in the back of the glovebox, and cover it with black tape. That sounded much better than the 4 hours I spent doing it the other way.
Several late model Nissan products have the cabin air filter mounted next to the driver's side footwell behind the center console and requires disassembly of a number of under dash items, including removal of the gas pedal assembly, to get it out. Then there are the vehicles that have the cabin air filter under the hood, necessitating disassembly and removal of the cowl. In addition to your Subaru, both of these other designs are also stupid.
 
The stupidest design award imo is the Ford automatic transmission that has no dipstick,no drain plug,no fill plug,and can only be serviced by the dealership.
 
Originally Posted by aquariuscsm
The stupidest design award imo is the Ford automatic transmission that has no dipstick,no drain plug,no fill plug,and can only be serviced by the dealership.



Just wondering what transmission this is
 
The over use of electronics in everything made nowadays. Either in the automotive world or the aircraft world, even with simple appliances like refrigerators, furnaces etc. when they break its aways the crazy black box electronics, and if that box is no longer available, you get to replace the broke appliance.
Another thing overhead cams, yeah maybe for a race car that will be rebuilt after every race. But not for average joe street car, just extra junk to wear out like snaky timing chains and belts, and the extra guide pulleys or plastic chain guides etc.
I suppose none of this is stupid but just well planned engineering. No one will make any $ on something that never fails.
 
Originally Posted by Exhaustgases
The over use of electronics in everything made nowadays. Either in the automotive world or the aircraft world, even with simple appliances like refrigerators, furnaces etc. when they break its aways the crazy black box electronics, and if that box is no longer available, you get to replace the broke appliance.
Another thing overhead cams, yeah maybe for a race car that will be rebuilt after every race. But not for average joe street car, just extra junk to wear out like snaky timing chains and belts, and the extra guide pulleys or plastic chain guides etc.
I suppose none of this is stupid but just well planned engineering. No one will make any $ on something that never fails.


Plenty of OHC engines live long, healthy lives with no issues.
 
I remember when Toyota CORONA's had issues with timing chains. That would have been in the 60's. In any case, a lot of mfrs end up using simplex chains.. and they are rather long. Direct Injection can tend to put soot in the oil... and those carbon particles are particularly hard on timing chains... so best have reasonably frequent oil change intervals.

Re modern-day engine design (or the opposite) - in the case of my Moto Guzzi motorcycle... it has OHV design... pushrods, rockers, etc... and the timing chain is very short - and is a duplex chain. Very long-lived.... and that is on a bike.

In my view, there is absolutely nothing wrong with OHV / pushrods.... for the RPM's that most people drive... even in small cars. If you want to rev it up, and still want decent component life, then probably DOHC is the way to go.
 
Originally Posted by aquariuscsm
The stupidest design award imo is the Ford automatic transmission that has no dipstick,no drain plug,no fill plug,and can only be serviced by the dealership.


Yeah, they would be a PITA to change transmission fluid... but I highly suspect that there is a fill-plug. As for the drain plug... it would likely have a weir-tube... and so, you need to have the A/T at a certain temp... and the vehicle very level.... to be able to achieve the correct ATF level. The weir-tube JUST dribbles a bit when the A/T is at the right temp (range) and the fluid level is correct.

This is increasingly common on vehicles these days.

I agree... a PITA.
 
Originally Posted by zzyzzx
Originally Posted by Dave Sherman
Subaru's official fix was to cut a new hole in the back of the glovebox, and cover it with black tape. That sounded much better than the 4 hours I spent doing it the other way.


I wonder how many people cut out sections and tape back up to fix HVAC issues in cars. Like blend door related things.


Son in law has a 2002 Dakota... Blend door has gone south. Time to use a small drill for a borescope (to determine WHERE to use the hole-saw... to allow access to the blend door actuator). Apparently NO ONE wants to do the 12 hour job required to access same re dash removal. I don't blame the techs..
 
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