Those #+%^ engineers!

[Oaktree]

I think that same guy worked for Kioti for a spell too, at least during the design of the LK series. Not gonna go out in single-digit temperatures to take a picture, but I'll give the razzie award to the genius who put the PTO lever, the range selector and the 4WD levers all right where you will catch a pants cuff on them getting on/off the tractor.

How about the old VW bugs? They sat so low to the ground that it was guaranteed you'd whack your head on either the hood or trunk lids while working on them.

Blend door actuators is one of my favorites. I’ve replaced three in my lifetime. There are difficult to get at. On a car that used to be my daughters, a Chevy Impala, roughly a 2010, I spent about 15 minutes taking one bolt out and about the same amount of time putting it back in. The other two bolts were easy. The problem is the gears in these things are so cheap.

Heater cores too. While I've had a couple vehicles where they were reasonably accessible (60s/70s Chrysler A-bodies, mid-80s Ford Escort), most seem to require major dash disassembly to get at.

 

[FullMetalBucket]

Love my 24 zr1 Colorado but who ever decided to make the headlights and fog lights an app on the touchscreen is a head shaker. If you put your lights on manual and turn the truck off, you have to start the truck again to shut them off. Then there’s trying to put your fog lights on and accidentally shutting the headlights off in complete darkness while driving. Give me my knob back.


Also push button start. What’s the point of that when you still need a key.

 

[dodge man]

This is me changing the blend door actuator on my Challenger. I can’t blame the engineer for installing them where they are, they have to be located near the doors and heater box. I can blame them for the cheapness of the part.

 

[dstig1]

I get it. BTDT on cars many times. Design is the art of compromise and the engineer has to decide what takes precedence. My mantra when someone says "there is no reason to have done such and such in a design" I respond with Every design choice was made for a reason. Now it may not be a GOOD reason or one you agree with, but there is a reason.

Vehicles have hundreds of thousand parts and systems. While many of those are common and well understood, some things will be new and might come with some unexpected failure mode that you don't find out about until some time down the road. Lab testing can help but it is never an exact replica of real world conditions. So if you don't expect item A to ever need replacing, then why would you worry about access for repair? Then it turns out to become a problem later on and uh-oh...

Then you get into the fact that there are many teams of engineers working on many systems. So why does the oil filter sit behind a cross member? Structural body team is different than engine team and they either didn't catch it or could not change it for a number of reasons.

 

[bigtiller]

Then you get into the fact that there are many teams of engineers working on many systems. So why does the oil filter sit behind a cross member? Structural body team is different than engine team and they either didn't catch it or could not change it for a number of reasons.

Another reason is that they don't talk to each other.
I have seen it in manufacturing many times.
Another is overlapping tolerances.

 

[dstig1]

Another reason is that they don't talk to each other.

True that. Our products are nowhere near the scale of a vehicle, so most teams have anywhere from 1-5 development/design engineers on them, not hundreds. We do have some products that have electronics and motors in them so that brings in EE's and software folks too, but a lot of our products do not use electricity so it is all mechanical design.

 

[ultrarunner]

I have a collection of 50’s, 60’s and 70’s service manuals that cover from water pump remove and replace to heater cores, etc…

My guess is YouTube is the go to now?

 

[grsthegreat]

I have a collection of 50’s, 60’s and 70’s service manuals that cover from water pump remove and replace to heater cores, etc…

My guess is YouTube is the go to now?

Service manuals. Who needs them when youtube can give you completely wrong answers. Like making ball bearings in your microwave.

 

[newbury]

And another problem is the evolution of the vehicle.
On my 2019 Ford Escape to refill the tranny fluid (every 30K miles) I have to access a virtually in accessible plug on top. Looking at you tube vids in the earlier Escapes it was easy to get to. Then gradually throughout the years more and more hoses got routed to block the access.

 

[steve tym]

Love my 24 zr1 Colorado but who ever decided to make the headlights and fog lights an app on the touchscreen is a head shaker. If you put your lights on manual and turn the truck off, you have to start the truck again to shut them off. Then there’s trying to put your fog lights on and accidentally shutting the headlights off in complete darkness while driving. Give me my knob back.


Also push button start. What’s the point of that when you still need a key.

What's a ZR1 Colorado? I have a ZR-1 Corvette and a ZR2 Colorado, but not a ZR1 Colorado.
The programming engineers for Chevy should go take some lessons from Ford.