Just one example of why I hate modern cars

Sure they have lots of positives, but one of the big negatives is complexity.
Here is what I mean.
The other day my wife backed into a pole in our Acura breaking the passenger side tail light housing and a tail light bulb.
I ordered a new housing and got a new bulb.
Replaced the bulb and made sure it worked.
The Tail Lamp light dash warning stayed on.
I made sure all lights in the rear were working and that the bulb was seated properly.
So, either there is just enough of a voltage difference between the OEM and aftermarket bulb to trigger the dash light, or the lamp sensor is bad.
The housing was $60 used which isn't bad.
The sensor is about $90 and isn't on the side impacted.
So what would be a simple tail light bulb change on an older car is a PITA on a newer one.

I have an OEM bulb on the way in hopes that will fix the issue.

 

I went in to have my 2016 car's oil changed. I take it to the dealer because it is under warranty, and I don't drive it much, so it sees the place twice a year, because that is their minimum by time. It's six years old with less than 24k miles. I was told that the mfgr has a time interval of 7 years on spark plug replacement. I have a '70 Chevy truck that has maybe 5000 miles since I tuned it up, and that's got to be 10 years. Runs like a champ. They mean to tell me that I'm going to need plugs (and coil packs too, probably) at that low a mileage? Crazy. I'm going to buy another old vehicle that costs less than ~$600 for a freaking tune-up. Crazy. I can do that kind of work on an old sled.

 

Ouch. That is crazy.

 

Howabout having to remove the entire front bumper cover to replace headlights? WTH is that all about..

 

That too. Hate it.
And transverse mounted engines.

 

When I found out the lights on my 2019 Regal TourX cost as much as they did ($1,100/side headlights, $450/side tail lights), I set out to find used ones. Found a full set of tail lights for $100, still no luck with the headlights. Of course, this virtually guarantees I'll never need them.

 

Didn’t someone here need to teflash a computer onna Ford truck after a bulb change?
Patrick

 

It’s not just the new cars.

I remember giving a guy a quote to replace the water pump on a 1980 Cadillac. The factory had every bracket imaginable attached to the pump.

The quote was for 20 hours plus the part, and some of the repair books showed more time then that.

It was absolutely insane.
Duane

 

My wife’s 2020 Toyota Highlander has 19 buttons on the steering wheel! And if you want to adjust the bass or treble on the stereo you have to go through 3-4 screens on the touch screen.
My ‘97 Silverado has zero buttons on the steering wheel and I can adjust the bass & treble by turning knobs, by feel, without taking my eyes off the road.

 

Remember '66 and up V8 F**ds, with all those 10" long bolts going through all the ancillary equipment, the water pump, and then into the block? Gad, I hated doing water pumps on them.

 

Funny you mention that.
I had a next door neighbor that used to be an autobody repair man and he hated Cadillacs.
Said they made things way more complicated than necessary.
Finally he either refused to work on them or gave sky high quotes in the hopes they would go elsewhere.

So after a few days of driving the Brake Lamp light went off on its own.
This is after more bulbs were ordered of course.

As I have yet to finish the tranny rebuild on my F100 and get it running, it sounds like I am in for some fun then.
Maybe I will do the water pump after all seeing as how the previous owner pulled the core support.

 

Today I started a valve cover replacement on the 08 Lucerne. This requires the Alt to be removed and the tensioner assembly which the Alt mounts to. For some reason they thought it would be a great idea to route coolant to the heater core through this assembly as well. There there is a support which holds up the engine cover. That is held on with 2 13MM nuts that are below the valve cover and between the engine and firewall. Ya cant see them, Use the force Luke. One of those nuts is partially covered by a heat shield over the ex manifold. Going to do everything that might possibly need replacement while Im in there and also flush out the heater core. Letting it sit over night with CLR in it.

 

My wife’s non-profit had a 2011 Ford Edge Sport donated to them. Of course, the water pump had leaked and destroyed the engine. We knew this before we took it. The Edge looked great! Nice paint, beautiful leather interior with all the bells & whistles.
We looked into having a rebuilt engine put in it and got quotes from $5000 to $9000. Running, it would have had a book value of $11000-$12000. The board members said no so my wife put it on Facebook Marketplace “as-is”. She got about 10-15 responses in the first 30 minutes. I told my wife just start with the first guy and go from there.
He showed up first thing in the morning with a truck, trailer and cash. Sold it to him for $2800.

 

Resons like this are why so many people are buying older more simple cars to work on as daily drivers. Good friend of mine has a old C/10 longbed that he has driven for years and years. SBC is easy to get parts for and easy to work on. He always gets people wanting to buy it and its just a beater. I have looked for a Shortbed one as a beater for a long time just to have a run around truck.

 

Often times the dash light won’t go out until the engine is successfully started and ran a certain number of times without the code popping up.

 

It was driven quite a bit over the last few days after the fix.
Multiple trips, long trips, etc.

 

I did exactly that. In the 1990’s I semi-restored a 72 Olds 442 fastback and used it as my daily driver for at least 3 years.

After that car I built a 71 Stratomist Blue GSX look-a-like and drive it as a daily driver for another couple of years. (That was until I had to sell it to buy my real one.)

I have often thought of doing it again, by getting a nice clean body from out west and having at it.

Maybe once I retire.
Duane

 

All those years I spent working on cars helped me develop eyes in the ends of my fingers. That must be the "FORCE". And you're smart to replace every part around it while you're in there. I remember MANY years ago I put a freeze plug in a car with a 6-cylinder that required pulling the intake manifold. I put the plug in like the boss said. Two weeks later, it came back with another one leaking. I was a young kid, and wasn't that experienced.