Working On Old Cars Vs. New Cars, Which Do You Prefer (muscle car, SUV)
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1982 Lincoln 4 door continental with all factory options including Ford CB radio.
37,000 original miles and garaged kept with the full set of factory service manuals.
The Digital Instrument Cluster went out and the elderly owner spent $800 at Lincoln only to learn the Dealer could not fix it and my search at the time was not yielding options... so no way to know how fast, how much gas, etc...
The family offered me the car for 2k and I passed... just don't need another project yet it still had the leather smell... and was flawless gold metallic...
That last sentence brings to mind our Maytag gas kitchen stove. When it was less than a year old, and still under warranty, the control module (computer) failed. The clock quit working, and the DSI quit, and the oven would not light. The top burners could be lit with a match, but that is all that worked.
Simple fix, right? Just replace the computer.
Well, no...
Maytag ordered the computers "as needed". If they planned on building 100 gas ranges, they ordered 100 computers. There were no spares to support ranges that were already built.
Therefore, Maytag told the dealer to give us a new range and take the old one back.
I really expect today's vehicles to encounter similar problems as years go by. Many of the modules are (or used to be) sealed in epoxy. They are simply not repairable! In twenty or 30 years, when the electronic boxes are no longer available, the vehicle will be junk, good for display only. There will be very few "vintage" daily drivers.
I have a 1973 Jensen Healey. The engine is a Lotus 907 which was also used in the Lotus Eclat and one other car with very limited production. I do not think the carbureators were used in anything else produced in quantity, many other parts were not used on any other car. Many of the parts are not interchangeable with any other car. They only made the Jensen e very small numbers for four years. (really two years and two half years). They had a plastic fuel T between the carburetors that something in unleaded gas caused to dissolve, so most of them burned up. There are something like 2500 of them left in the USA and only a few more elsewhere. Still, parts are readily available. There is a company in Arizona that specializes in Jensen parts. The get various parts made in small runs and then sell them. There are also various individuals who make parts. For example, there is a guy in Sweden who makes JH gas tanks and sells them on E-bay.
Point is, if the cars are even a little but popular, someone will come along and make replacement computer modules or rebuild them. Yes, that may be impossible for us old carburetor re-builder types, but not for today's tech savvy young people. I expect someone will come along who can make them. Just like someone came along who knows how to make JH gas tanks.
I always thought it would be fun if an automaker sold a car that advertised easy maintenance. Like a swing away front clip/radiator assy, quick disconnects on the fluid lines, quick release pins for engine mounts, casters built onto the engine block so you can set the engine on the floor and roll it around, etc.
Then I realized that's a terrible marketing scheme. The first question customers would ask is "how often are you expecting this thing to break down?"
Actually Subaru cars do seem to be well thought out for maintenance, at least early 90's models. On my 92 Legacy, you do indeed swing up the calipers after removing just one bolt. If you can get away with a "pad slap" a brake job is maybe an hour if you are using a floor jack, 4 guys using a lift could probably do it in 15 minutes easy.
C-4 Corvettes do feature a swing-up front "doghouse". I have never owned or worked on them, but, it looks like engine access is quite good as soon as that "hood" goes up. The way it swings forward, I don't think you can blow it open even at "See God" speeds.
I wish more heater cores were like older Detroit pickups - you can do the deed from under the hood, instead of taking the front license plate off, disassemble the car going backwards till you discover the heater core, "reassembly is the reverse of disassembly". Two full working weeks later, hey, you are done!
1982 Lincoln 4 door continental with all factory options including Ford CB radio.
37,000 original miles and garaged kept with the full set of factory service manuals.
The Digital Instrument Cluster went out and the elderly owner spent $800 at Lincoln only to learn the Dealer could not fix it and my search at the time was not yielding options... so no way to know how fast, how much gas, etc...
The family offered me the car for 2k and I passed... just don't need another project yet it still had the leather smell... and was flawless gold metallic...
Surely if it was just the cluster, you could just get one from a yard, right? Could be that an analog cluster from a same year Crown Vic might work or could be made to work. I have seen this type problem be a small fuse (mostly on radios) that you have to pull the component from the dash to find that fuse. I have seen dealer "techs" who were oblivious enough to not pick up on such.
Failing that, you could just leave the factory cluster unplugged, remove it, and build up a "hot rod" cluster with VDO or similar gauges. Auto Restorer has an article about putting a GPS speedometer into an MGB, you could do that for a speedo.
That said, I can understand "not needing another project"!
That last sentence brings to mind our Maytag gas kitchen stove. When it was less than a year old, and still under warranty, the control module (computer) failed. The clock quit working, and the DSI quit, and the oven would not light. The top burners could be lit with a match, but that is all that worked.
Simple fix, right? Just replace the computer.
Well, no...
Maytag ordered the computers "as needed". If they planned on building 100 gas ranges, they ordered 100 computers. There were no spares to support ranges that were already built.
Therefore, Maytag told the dealer to give us a new range and take the old one back.
I really expect today's vehicles to encounter similar problems as years go by. Many of the modules are (or used to be) sealed in epoxy. They are simply not repairable! In twenty or 30 years, when the electronic boxes are no longer available, the vehicle will be junk, good for display only. There will be very few "vintage" daily drivers.
That was my thought exactly about all these computerized cars. One day they're just going to be a pile of junk because some stupid module went bad and there's no more of them out there, or the old dealer only software needed to program them is no longer accessible.
I worry about this with my Saturn, as I intend on keeping it as long as possible, as long as I don't wreck it. My old Chevy truck OTOH I know that parts will always be available because for the most part it's simple mechanical parts. The only module on my truck is the ignition module in the HEI distributor (would've came with points in 76, but someone swapped it at some point).
1982 Lincoln 4 door continental with all factory options including Ford CB radio.
37,000 original miles and garaged kept with the full set of factory service manuals.
The Digital Instrument Cluster went out and the elderly owner spent $800 at Lincoln only to learn the Dealer could not fix it and my search at the time was not yielding options... so no way to know how fast, how much gas, etc...
The family offered me the car for 2k and I passed... just don't need another project yet it still had the leather smell... and was flawless gold metallic...
There are websites online offering cluster repairs, including digital ones. Never used one before, but the service is out there if you're willing to search. I'm guessing you're talking pre-internet days here.
I wish more heater cores were like older Detroit pickups - you can do the deed from under the hood, instead of taking the front license plate off, disassemble the car going backwards till you discover the heater core, "reassembly is the reverse of disassembly". Two full working weeks later, hey, you are done!
Having replaced the heater core in my 76 Chevy (which took maybe an hour) and replaced a heater core in various never vehicles, I can totally agree with you on that. No pulling the entire dash to remove the HVAC housing, slips right out after you unhook everything and unbolt it from the firewall. Not all newer vehicles require pulling the entire dash, but the vast majority of them do.
Also love how easy the blower motor is to change. Open the hood and it's right there on the passenger side by the fender, and all the bolts are easily accessible, so it's a 10 minute job. Did a blower motor on some kind of newer Asian car (think it was a Kia) and I had to pull the entire dash because the blower motor was right in the center of the dash (Engineers should be forced to be techs for a couple years before becoming an engineer so they won't do retarded stuff like this.)
Having replaced the heater core in my 76 Chevy (which took maybe an hour) and replaced a heater core in various never vehicles, I can totally agree with you on that. No pulling the entire dash to remove the HVAC housing, slips right out after you unhook everything and unbolt it from the firewall. Not all newer vehicles require pulling the entire dash, but the vast majority of them do.
Also love how easy the blower motor is to change. Open the hood and it's right there on the passenger side by the fender, and all the bolts are easily accessible, so it's a 10 minute job. Did a blower motor on some kind of newer Asian car (think it was a Kia) and I had to pull the entire dash because the blower motor was right in the center of the dash (Engineers should be forced to be techs for a couple years before becoming an engineer so they won't do retarded stuff like this.)
Yup, if the heater core on my 88 or 94 Taurus fails, I'll be driving something else. Both those require AC emptying and complete dash removal. The heater core on my T-Bird is up on top under the hood and takes two hose clamps and four 1/4-20 bolts. 20 minutes tops.
Yup, if the heater core on my 88 or 94 Taurus fails, I'll be driving something else. Both those require AC emptying and complete dash removal.
Personally I wouldn't go that far, but I know most people aren't attached to their vehicles as much as I am. But I'll never turn down the chance to try something new, even if I cuss all along the way! I enjoy new challenges and find it's best to walk away for awhile if frustration really starts to get to me.
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