There may be dumber engineering, but you’ll have to convince me

I think the headlights on the 2010ish Malibus are way more of an engineering fail, considering that every single one of them came from the factory with the same exact defect. Basically it takes an hour of so to change the freaking headlight bulb. The BULB. Not the assembly, just the stupid bulb. A coworker of mine had one and said that last time she had it changed cost her  $200. I offered to do it for free in the parking lot on lunch... that is when I realized that doing so would require disassembling half the front end just to remove the assembly to be able to access the bulb. Yeah, not doing that. Fortunately she had a friend That was able to do it for her at her house. 

Knurled. said:

RevRico said:

dropstep said:

einy said:

Yea, op, that designer’s father was the guy who placed the oil filter on the 2003 vintage S10 2.2 liter.  

If you think that engine sucked in an s10 you should try it in the cavalier. The s10 looks like fantastic engineering next too that mess.

It's no fun in a Vue either. According to Haynes and Chilton, there should be room to get a serp belt tool in between the frame rail and the motor. According to this weekends experience, you need to remove a wheel, loosen the motor mounts, lift up the engine, shorten your serp belt tool, and make a custom extension for the HF kit to get the damn belt tensioner out when it stops actually holding tension. 

The 2.2 never came in a VUE.  You are thinking of the Ecotec.

 

A lot of the "why did the engineers put X HERE" bitching is because of inertia.  The oil filter location on the 2.2 made sense when the engine was originally designed for Cavaliers and Berettas with high mounted steering racks and and airy subframe.  After 20 years and chassis evolved, the filter location sucked.

 

Kind of like the Ecotec's oil filter.  Made a ton of sense in the original application.  Then some bonehead decided to stick a direct injection fuel pump over it.  I've also got no idea how "fun" it is to get to it on a Solstice/Sky, especially with the DI turbo engine.  At least the hood opens the correct way so you have a fighting chance of getting to it.

It takes a long extension, but other than that it's easy. Given the size of the Solstice engine bay this is nowhere near the hardest thing to get to.

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

Now hold on a minute, your Miata has a Chevy V6 in it!

edit:  you have a new mazda, my bad

90BuickCentury said:

I think the headlights on the 2010ish Malibus are way more of an engineering fail, considering that every single one of them came from the factory with the same exact defect. Basically it takes an hour of so to change the freaking headlight bulb. The BULB. Not the assembly, just the stupid bulb. A coworker of mine had one and said that last time she had it changed cost her  $200. I offered to do it for free in the parking lot on lunch... that is when I realized that doing so would require disassembling half the front end just to remove the assembly to be able to access the bulb. Yeah, not doing that. Fortunately she had a friend That was able to do it for her at her house. 

Try it on a CTS.  It involves removing the bumper, which is SOP nowadays so not noteworthy in and of itself, but removing the bumper involves unthreading a nut from a captivated stud on an overhung spot on the fender.

It would take a minimal amount of rust to turn "headlight bulb replacement" into "body shop job" after attempting to graunch the nut off the rusty stud twists the fender all to hell.

DrBoost said:

Wally said:

The mount had to come off to do the belt on my 3.1 Malibu.  It still took me, a very slow amateur, all of 40 minutes to change every 100,000 miles or so. In the grand scheme of things it wasn’t that big a worry.  

Doing one every 8 years is very different from the life if a tech. Trust me, when you wrench for a living, the manufacturer keeps cutting book time down, things are very different. 

I'm okay with it.  IIRC Saturn gave 1.5 to replace that mount that I would R&R just to make other jobs faster.

OTOH they also gave 14 hours to remove and reseal a transmission, when in reality it took four if you were slow.  OTOOH the procedure also didn't call for removing the master cylinder so you could pull the trans out the top.  And Saturn kind of no longer exists as a company.

I've generally found that it is easy to beat book time by 50% or so, with exceptions regarding Hyundai/Kia, who seem to pull labor times out of their asses.  I'm "labor compensated" again and I'm finding it easy to destroy my goals while also working in a much more relaxed atmosphere.  Actually have time to read and respond to iATN posts now :)  My favorite was knocking out a Nissan NV200 transmission in 10 hours less than book time the first time I tried, or a MINI clutch in 6 hours less, or maybe an E250 5.4 engine swap also in 6 hours under time... although I did have a lot of practice in replacing E250 engines....

ShawnG said:

Heater core in an S-blazer.

Dash has to come out.

Same for a 97-03 F-series truck.... and they really like to fail frequently.

There were some Caddys back in the early 70s that used a dual sump oil pan on the 472/500.  It looked much like a typical rear sump pan, but with a big hump in the middle to clear the steering.  They put two drain plugs in it; one in the rear sump and one for the front of the pan above the crossmember.  After about 25k, the motor mounts settled in an eighth of an inch or so and you couldn't get the front bolt out.

In reply to Dave M :

In my ecotec to Alfa Romeo spider conversion,I just cut my oil filter mount off  carefully,leaving the 2 passageways, then welded on 2 an8  bungs

Ford 3.5 liter v6 on the Taurus,flex,explorer,Mazda cx9.. when the water pump fails, I drops all the coolent into the slump..good bye engine

Oh,yes.i love my hotted up 2001 Avalon, but rear 3 spark plugs can be a test.

Alfaromeoguy said:

hotted up 2001 Avalon

I know what each of those words mean on their own but they make no sense when used together like that.

Took heads off car port and polish,matched intake and exhaust manifold to head. 3 angle valve seat, and some suspension work. And ecu  programing.

Ford Contour / Probe / Jag X-type with a V6 engine(with or without AWD on the Jag). 100lbs of E36 M3 in a 5lbs bag is the exact phrase used by anyone working on those piles of garbage. Everything lower than the valve covers required the subframe and half of the surrounding components to come off to replace the common wear items(clutch, shifter cables, catalytic converters).

Between the impossible to replace shifter cables to the catalytic converters that you have to remove by pulling the radiator, fans, subframe and shifter cables to get to the bolts. Not to mention the intake gaskets that to replace them required you to buy all the plastic hard lines around the intake manifold in fear of ripping or cracking them. Or how about removing half the front of the car just to replace the clutch on a manual equipped V6 car.

They were the bane of my existence when i worked for ford. Hope to never see one again.

Knurled. said:

DrBoost said:

Wally said:

The mount had to come off to do the belt on my 3.1 Malibu.  It still took me, a very slow amateur, all of 40 minutes to change every 100,000 miles or so. In the grand scheme of things it wasn’t that big a worry.  

Doing one every 8 years is very different from the life if a tech. Trust me, when you wrench for a living, the manufacturer keeps cutting book time down, things are very different. 

I'm okay with it.  IIRC Saturn gave 1.5 to replace that mount that I would R&R just to make other jobs faster.

 

OTOH they also gave 14 hours to remove and reseal a transmission, when in reality it took four if you were slow.  OTOOH the procedure also didn't call for removing the master cylinder so you could pull the trans out the top.  And Saturn kind of no longer exists as a company.

 

I've generally found that it is easy to beat book time by 50% or so, with exceptions regarding Hyundai/Kia, who seem to pull labor times out of their asses.  I'm "labor compensated" again and I'm finding it easy to destroy my goals while also working in a much more relaxed atmosphere.  Actually have time to read and respond to iATN posts now :)  My favorite was knocking out a Nissan NV200 transmission in 10 hours less than book time the first time I tried, or a MINI clutch in 6 hours less, or maybe an E250 5.4 engine swap also in 6 hours under time... although I did have a lot of practice in replacing E250 engines....

Since you’re the only tech I’ve ever heard that can do a job in 1/3 book time, first time, I’ll chalk it up to the internet phenomenon we all know about. The masses say a situation is a certain way, and there’s always the one person that says it’s the complete opposite. There is a massive shortage of technicians right now, and EVERY ex-tech I’ve talked to cites flat rate as his reason for leaving. But those few hundred must be wrong, because jobs that pay 14 actually only takes 4. First time!  By the time you’ve done a few, that’s a 1.2 hour job!  

Geez, nobody has mentioned a PT Cruiser water pump yet? Or a focus water pump that requires a 180^ flip because if a much needed 1/8” of clearance at the frame rail.

As to the OP’s trans pan, it’s good for about 100k, why does it need a drain? I’m going to run the same pan in my Av that came stock on it when I change out my fluid here soon.

Ranger50 said:

As to the OP’s trans pan, it’s good for about 100k, why does it need a drain? I’m going to run the same pan in my Av that came stock on it when I change out my fluid here soon.

Personally I like having a drain on a trans pan for mess reduction.  When I change the fluid and filter, it's nice to be able to drop the already empty pan instead of having to drop a full pan without a lift.  Plus, 100k on trans fluid is almost as bad as lifetime fluid IMO.  I wouldn't take most transmissions past 50k without a fluid change, especially once you consider that you're not changing all of the fluid with a pan drop (typically 1/3 to 1/2 depending on the trans).  

In reply to rslifkin :

That’s why I have a big ole trans drain pan cover for that reason. It’s about 30” square.

In reply to Ranger50 :

That keeps the fluid off the floor, but when the vehicle is only on jackstands, it can be hard to avoid the person removing the pan ending up covered in fluid depending on how full the pan normally is.  

Just FYI on the original post, BMW makes a drain plug that's supposedly interchangeable that is flat headed, and uses a 5mm hex key.  BMW people tend to strip it out, so they replace it with the GM part, but in this case, the flat head might give you just enough room that you can pull the plug without the exhaust getting in the way.

Part number is BMW 24117572622

9004 headlight bulbs. Springy doo-dad clip holding it it? Uh...The fact that manufacturers insist on using this turd designed in the 70s, when there are sinmple,better alternatives is beyond me. 

Appleseed said:

9004 headlight bulbs. Springy doo-dad clip holding it it? Uh...The fact that manufacturers insist on using this turd designed in the 70s, when there are sinmple,better alternatives is beyond me. 

Since when do 9004s use a spring clip?  H4s do, but every 9004 I've seen uses a screw on retainer ring.  9004s are garbage bulbs for other reasons though.  

Read my sig.

In reply to rslifkin :

Woops, thats a 9003. My statement still stands, however. 

Maybe someone here mentioned it already, but I seem to remember that you had to remove the engine mounts to access the forward spark plugs in the V6 Fieros, much as you had to remove part of the firewall to access plugs on the Sunbeam Tiger, but then that was basically an engine swap anyway.

DrBoost said:

Knurled. said:

DrBoost said:

Wally said:

The mount had to come off to do the belt on my 3.1 Malibu.  It still took me, a very slow amateur, all of 40 minutes to change every 100,000 miles or so. In the grand scheme of things it wasn’t that big a worry.  

Doing one every 8 years is very different from the life if a tech. Trust me, when you wrench for a living, the manufacturer keeps cutting book time down, things are very different. 

I'm okay with it.  IIRC Saturn gave 1.5 to replace that mount that I would R&R just to make other jobs faster.

 

OTOH they also gave 14 hours to remove and reseal a transmission, when in reality it took four if you were slow.  OTOOH the procedure also didn't call for removing the master cylinder so you could pull the trans out the top.  And Saturn kind of no longer exists as a company.

 

I've generally found that it is easy to beat book time by 50% or so, with exceptions regarding Hyundai/Kia, who seem to pull labor times out of their asses.  I'm "labor compensated" again and I'm finding it easy to destroy my goals while also working in a much more relaxed atmosphere.  Actually have time to read and respond to iATN posts now :)  My favorite was knocking out a Nissan NV200 transmission in 10 hours less than book time the first time I tried, or a MINI clutch in 6 hours less, or maybe an E250 5.4 engine swap also in 6 hours under time... although I did have a lot of practice in replacing E250 engines....

Since you’re the only tech I’ve ever heard that can do a job in 1/3 book time, first time, I’ll chalk it up to the internet phenomenon we all know about. The masses say a situation is a certain way, and there’s always the one person that says it’s the complete opposite. There is a massive shortage of technicians right now, and EVERY ex-tech I’ve talked to cites flat rate as his reason for leaving. But those few hundred must be wrong, because jobs that pay 14 actually only takes 4. First time!  By the time you’ve done a few, that’s a 1.2 hour job!  

FWIW, I did a 4.5 hour intake manifold in 50 minutes today.  I was annoyed, I used to be able to do them in 40.

I do still dislike flat rate.  I left my last job in part because they switched to a flat rate system.  It sucked because my income was then 100% due to factors entirely beyond my control.  At my last job, I had a $200 paycheck, followed by a $500 paycheck, followed by another $200 paycheck, because no work was coming in.  That's every two weeks.  The reason I was given was "it's not fair to pay you to do nothing."  Yeah?  Do you also tell the electric company, the bank holding the loan for the property, etc. that it was a slow month, can we only give you 20%?  Can I tell my landlord, my bank, my credit union, that it was a slow month, can I only give you 20%?  Hell no.  A lack of work coming in is not something I can change, all I can do is what is put in front of me, and THAT is the responsibility of the people selling work and the people marketing the business to potential clients.

Flat rate works at the dealership level because there is guaranteed work coming in thanks to warranty and new-car owners bringing their car back to the dealer.  You don't have days like at the indies where you might have .5 labor hour the whole damn day.

I'm now paid hourly with my hourly rate adjusted by productivity.  So if it sucks, I can still pay bills, but if it's awesome, then I reap some of the benefits.  I kicked myself an extra $3 an hour this week due to productivity.  (I think I knocked out 15 labor hours today all by itself)