Show Me Examples of Poor Design

I can't really show you, but the Sync3 software on my 2017 and 2021 Super Duty sucks.

     First, why doesn't the audio sytem startup with your  last source? If I shut the truck off listening to SiriusXM, it starts back up on the FM band.

     Second, why don't the rear-view cameras stay on their previous setting while backing up to a trailer? I tow bumper-pull and gooseneck trailers with my SuperDuty trucks and I have to set the rear-view cameras EVERY time I shift into reverse. For example, if I am backing up to a trailer, I zoom in for the last few feet, but, if I pull forward to line up, I have to go back to the zoomed view. If it's a gooseneck/5th wheel, I have to select the bed camera, instead of the tailgate camera, every time I shift into reverse. Zooming in for the last few feet gets reset if I shift into drive.

Stupid.

Should I post a selfie? 

In reply to Scotty Con Queso :

I was thinking along similar lines

Let's talk phone browsers.

Here are three screenshots of a certain website.

All looks good, right?

now, if the browser would show page titles, I would have seen some important information.  Let's go to tab view...

maschinenbau said:

LT1 ignition placement directly below a water pump, both with shaft seals...

People rag on these motors all the time, but there is nothing inherently wrong with the distributor placement as all electrical components on the engine should be adequately insulated and weatherproof. The benefit of driving the distributor from the front of a cam is that it is always indexed to the timing set/cam dowel pin. Putting it at the old school location would require distributor clocking which sounds like a nightmare in an f-car chassis where the motor is shoved behind the strut towers and under the cowl.

The later vented-style Optis are a lot more reliable than the earlier ones, but the distributor cap gaskets are still terrible and should be replaced periodically (cap/rotor is preventative maintenance). Most of the issues with these cars are due to their junky GM water pumps blowing up <100k. Coolant getting into a distributor with shriveled seals is just collateral damage.

In reply to Catmaigne :

Distributors, though, cannot be weather sealed, or they will stop working.  The air inside the cap gets ionized and causes rapid wear and corrosion.  The later "vented" caps are not vented any more than the earlier ones, they are just sealed better with dedicated vent hoses that are routed to the engine in such a way that there is positive airflow through the cap.

An old racer told me that caps and rotors last a lot longer if you drill a 1/2" hole in them, and sure enough he was right.  Probably a bad idea on an Optispark, though.

The annoying part about the whole business is that there was a perfectly good way of running distributorless ignition already in GM inventory.  Two of them, if you count the ZR1.

I had an LT1 engine start having ignition-related issues - yup, a leaking water pump dripping into the distributor. Though bought new, it forever soured me on all things Chevy, as that was only one of its many, many failures.

A water pump is going to fail, sooner or later. It's always a bad idea to put it above the ignition.

All the manufacturer cares about is getting it out of warranty so the pump only has to be "good enough".

Everyone loves to hate on the Pinto even though the same basic design carried into the Fox Mustang. Nobody seems to think about where the fuel tank is in a VW Beetle (the original one).

I'll submit the wheezing, underpowered abomination that is the PRV V6.

90 degrees so it's out of balance. OHC with not enough travel in the chain tensioners to accomodate having to machine the head. Wet liner motor so you need to replace the o-rings when the sleeve sticks to the gasket and comes up a little. OHC engine but the cams have to slide out of the back of the head so Volvo guys drill holes in the firewall for service. Bad oil passages in the Volvo version so it eats camshafts.

At least it Bosch fuel injection.

That engine is so bad that pulling into a Volvo service shop with a noisy cam makes all the techs laugh a little.

The Swedes build good engines. The French got into the wine early on design day.

Why does every car ever built have weld-on rear quarter panels when every other body part excluding the roof is bolt on? Why isn't the rear quarter panel bolt on over an internal structure just like the front fenders???

In reply to VolvoHeretic :

Checkers have bolted rear quarters. 

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

I'm aware that the ozone needs to go somewhere. By weatherproof, I was alluding to intrusion into the distributor cap from outside of the engine, i.e. through the cap gasket. This is where 99% of problems arise. If excessive moisture and contaminants are getting into the vented-style cap through the throttle body elbow and intake manifold hoses, then you have much bigger problems. You shouldn't take your Roadmaster mudbogging.

I am not entirely certain what the thought process was in switching from the LT5's conventional hall sensor arrangement to the dual channel optical type, but my guess is that they did it for better RPM resolution as the Opti offers a much higher frequency signal (1 pulse per 2 deg of crankshaft rotation). This was probably overkill, hence the downgrade to 24x and 58x systems later on.

In reply to ShawnG :

Merkurs have welded on front fenders.

VolvoHeretic said:

Why does every car ever built have weld-on rear quarter panels when every other body part excluding the roof is bolt on? Why isn't the rear quarter panel bolt on over an internal structure just like the front fenders???

You want a Rover P6 chassis. There's a stressed floorpan/ tub and 19 bolt on panels.  Every body panel bolts on including the outer rockers, roof, etc. IIRC, the Citroen DS was the same way. 

5th gear shift fork in a "World Class" T5 transmission. Note how the curved relief on the outside lines up with abrupt change from curve to straight on the inside. One overaggressive shift away from fracturing in two.

In reply to Catmaigne :

The only time I have personally had issues with Optispark was when I degreased an early LT1 Corvette, in the mid-late 90s.  Instant nostart.

Granted, most distributors do not like being full of water, but it is a lot more difficult to deal with an LT1 cap full of water than, say, an Accord.  Or even a V6 Stratus.  (Distibutor on those was on the rear bank, buried under a bunch of stuff)

I always kinda wondered why they did that.  Their other engines were perfectly happy with a 6+1 crank wheel (or "7X"), the GN had a 3 tooth wheel and a half moon cam sensor, and when they wanted to add misfire detection for OBD-II on the old 7x engines they just stuck a second higher resolution non-missing-tooth wheel on the crank sprocket.

But I guess you have to try a bunch of things before you settle on what works.  I do admire the "58x" wheel that looks at both the rising and falling edge of the teeth to determine crank position almost as soon as the starter starts turning, way more info than just a 60-2 like everyone else uses without any more mechanical complexity.

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

I presume the optical ignition has gone completely now? I haven't seen one for a long time.  I think it was a desire for a quality or quantity of information that just wasn't really needed.

I had a very odd random startup misfire on a Nissan truck, I think, on a 4 cylinder, I think...  The shaft seal leaked oil, and the oil would all run down and make several of the windows on the trigger wheel  opaque.  Get enough revs, the oil would fling off and it would run fine until it sat for a while again.

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

That optical sensors were only ever used in distributors suggests that they were trying to solve/prevent electrical noise issues.  Light is not affected by electromagnetic skuzz.

In reply to flat4_5spd :

Bolted on body panels aside, what the heck is going on with that Rovers front suspension?

In reply to TheRyGuy :

If you think the front suspension looks weird, do a Google image search for the rear suspension.  It is some sort of twist beam de Dion trailing arm thing with inboard brakes.

The steering linkage looks engineered to create as many wear problems as possible.

I work on one Rover 2000, and only because the owner understands certain opinions I have might be considered offensive.  Same with his Saab900.

Go find a diagram of the rear calipers on that pile.  Lord Thundering Jaysus, the team that drew those had never seen a caliper before.  3/4 inch piston pushing on a lever held together with springs and pivots and park brake pushrods and oh E36 M3, just let me die...

VolvoHeretic said:

Why does every car ever built have weld-on rear quarter panels when every other body part excluding the roof is bolt on? Why isn't the rear quarter panel bolt on over an internal structure just like the front fenders???

On a Saturn S series, all body panels are bolt on, including the roof (although it has some sealer as well).

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

Let's talk phone browsers.

Here are three screenshots of a certain website.

All looks good, right?

now, if the browser would show page titles, I would have seen some important information.  Let's go to tab view...

I think that's more of a MSR design flaw than a phone browser design flaw - a website shouldn't put important information in the page title that can't be seen in the actual web page.

Oh boy if we are going to get into website UI...

Forms that don't allow your to tab advance, and force the use of pull downs where you should be able to do keyboard entry.

It's 10x faster for me to type 09021983 on a numbad than it is to grab a mouse and scroll to September, then scroll to 2, then scroll (a disturbing, always increasing, distance) down to 1983.

similarly, UX interfaces that need numbers that don't default to a number pad on smart phones.  Or have a ".com" (and similar) button on email forms.  Or don't have an @ symbol on the main interface.  Basically the UX input options should match the context of the form.

But probably the ultimate in poor interface design is the reply box I am typing in right now on this very website.  When quoting it is such a royal pain in the ass to enter above or below the quote.  Removing some stuff from the quote on a smartphone is a special nightmare as well.

Online food ordering of almost any sort.

Download the app

Create a profile

Add credit card information

Order food

Customize order.

Wait.

So much better than picking up a phone and saying "One large pepperoni pizza to insert address here"