Lokasenna -> RE: Japanese A/C Research Accleration thread (2/23/2017 10:16:13 PM)
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ORIGINAL: Lokasenna quote:
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ORIGINAL: Canoerebel A few days ago, my auto-minded son told me about Mercedes going through a massive redesign of one of its vehicles in the mid 1980s. The changes included lights (green, yellow, red) that indicated the oil level (state of the art stuff, at the time). After changing the oil, a mechanic then had to flip a switch to reset the light to "green." The engineers put that switch somewhere behind the engine. In order to get access to it, the auto repair guy had to loosen the engine mount and move the engine, thus making a simple oil change incredibly expensive. Germany engineering is fabulous (I hear, though I've never owned a state-of-the-art German vehicle, airplane or tank), but sometimes the littlest things.... Sometimes I think the designs must be a way of making sure the dealerships can charge huge amounts for labour and thus keep their loyalty to Mercedes (or whatever manufacturer). I remember having a tail light go out (can't remember which car model though), and the only non-destructive way to change it required removal of body panels to expose the back of the tail light module, which then had to be totally removed before you could get to the bulb! And of course every auto maker has their own proprietary bulbs! It's a plot, I say! [:@] It definitely is... on the luxury lines. Buy a Ford or a Chevy and it's not that way. Cadillac, BMW, and Mercedes have always been that way. Not always - years ago a tail lamp bulb burned out on my 2001 BMW 330i. The dash display showed the location of the bad bulb and the owners handbook showed how to reach the bulb from inside the trunk/boot (an access panel that unscrewed with a coin). The operation took ten minutes and a $2 bulb from the local Pep Boys. This was a major contrast with replacing a front daytime running lamp on my 1998 Camaro - the bulb wasn't expensive but it took an hour to figure out a way to get a socket wrench to the back of the light from underneath the front air dam, with the help of a handheld mirror and a flashlight. Well that's a nice handbook [;)]. These days, I use the internet. My cars are 1997 and 2001. There isn't a nice handbook for them, but Google usually has something.
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