Pining For The Good Old Days - Automotive Repair

[Ole Anderson]

Ah, the good old cars needed repairs much more so than the new ones. Now it is not unheard of for your car to go 100k without needing much more than an oil change and brakes. My '68 Opal needed two exhaust systems before I sold it with 42,000 miles. I would much rather deal with a code than a buggy carburetor that you can never to quite fix for more than a few thousand miles.

[Glenn Clabo]

Just to prove a point...
http://kottke.org/16/01/a-small-2009...n-a-crash-test

[Brian Elfert]

My parents had a 1977 Ford LTD II. The engine blew at around 90,000 miles. My father put a junkyard engine in it and it started to die on the freeway at 105,000 miles so he got rid of it.

Last two cars my parents got rid of they had for 14 and 15 years.

[Jason Roehl]

Along with what Art said, I've done some work on my high-mileage, computer-controlled, modern cars. Read the codes, replace the parts and you're done. No fiddling with gummed-up carburetors or fouled points and plugs, or breaking out the timing light on a regular basis. Better mileage, better longevity, better reliability, better comfort, quieter, more powerful, more nimble, lower emissions, etc. Economy cars of today can run with the sports cars of yesteryear--and outlast them.

[Terry Hatfield]

Plus I'm really, really spoiled to remote start and heated seats and steering wheel.

[Matthew Brawley]

The biggest issue with the new cars is when you replace a part that a computer has to relearn and you still have to go to a dealer for them to hook the diagnostic computer to it and update the software.

[Jason Roehl]

Plus I'm really, really spoiled to remote start and heated seats and steering wheel.

I discovered recently that I have voice-activated remote start on my '03 E250 van. Sadly, it only works under certain conditions. "Hey! One of you boys go out and start my van!"

[Jeff Monson]

I remember the good old days too. It was rare for a car to have 75,000 miles on it without needing an engine rebuild. Automatic transmissions were unreliable and manual transmissions required clutch and pressure replacement on a random schedule. Ten year old cars were either junk or existed in private collections and in museums. Most vehicles had to have some type of repair like a coil replacement or carburetor rebuild done at least once a year. Fuel economy was 13 mpg in a new pickup truck with a lame slant six engine. Outer body rust through was inevitable after just a few New England winters with salt on the roads. It took a modified big block 454 cid engine to make 375 horsepower. Spark plugs and points had to be changed every 15 or 20 thousand miles. Tires typically lasted 20,000 miles. There was no such thing as pollution control. Yes, I remember those days really well and I would hate to go back.

I'm with Art, vehicles are so much more reliable today, its apples to bowling balls. I work on cars for a living, yes they are tighter and harder to get to certain components....but you adapt and learn new ways to deal with it, just like any other industry IMO. Not to mention, when it gets below zero, today's cars start.....consistently.

[Jim Laumann]

Learned to drive on mid-late '60's vehicles in the early '70s. Devilish-ly hard to start in the winter once the temps went below zero. Now days - can't think of the last time I had issues with a car not starting in the winter....

Jim

[Steve Peterson]

I remember the good old days too. It was rare for a car to have 75,000 miles on it without needing an engine rebuild. Automatic transmissions were unreliable and manual transmissions required clutch and pressure replacement on a random schedule. Ten year old cars were either junk or existed in private collections and in museums. Most vehicles had to have some type of repair like a coil replacement or carburetor rebuild done at least once a year. Fuel economy was 13 mpg in a new pickup truck with a lame slant six engine. Outer body rust through was inevitable after just a few New England winters with salt on the roads. It took a modified big block 454 cid engine to make 375 horsepower. Spark plugs and points had to be changed every 15 or 20 thousand miles. Tires typically lasted 20,000 miles. There was no such thing as pollution control. Yes, I remember those days really well and I would hate to go back.

I agree with Art. I have a 1999 BMW 323i with 180K miles. There are no points to adjust and spark plugs last 100K miles with modern electronic ignition. The timing chain is not even recommended to be replaced.

The oil filter is at the top of the engine where it is easy to get to. Brakes and rotors can be replaced in 1.5 hours even with my 9 year old son helping. It has been in the shop 2 or 3 times for stuff that I can't do at home.

Cars are significantly more reliable today. Even if it does break down, cell phones bring a tow truck quickly and there is no need to walk to find help. I feel much safer if I were to get in an accident. I don't want to go back to the good old days.

Steve

[Brian Henderson]

I agree with Art. I have a 1999 BMW 323i with 180K miles. There are no points to adjust and spark plugs last 100K miles with modern electronic ignition. The timing chain is not even recommended to be replaced.

The oil filter is at the top of the engine where it is easy to get to. Brakes and rotors can be replaced in 1.5 hours even with my 9 year old son helping. It has been in the shop 2 or 3 times for stuff that I can't do at home.

Cars are significantly more reliable today. Even if it does break down, cell phones bring a tow truck quickly and there is no need to walk to find help. I feel much safer if I were to get in an accident. I don't want to go back to the good old days.

Steve

I agree. The only time my cars have been in the shop has been for things that I simply cannot do and even then, it's not all that expensive. The only thing I do these days is brakes and watch the consumables and even there, so much is sealed that it never needs replacing. There's no way I'd ever want to go back to the not-so-good old days.

[Roger Feeley]

When I watch cars getting more and more complicated, I'm reminded of what a music history professor once told me. He said that you can tell the end of a major period in music because the compositions get more complicated. Baroque became Rococco and then Classical came along with a different style and changed the world. I wonder if technology is following that model. Sometimes I yearn for my old '66 Chevy Bel-Air where I could climb into the engine compartment and stand next to that straight 6. I look into the engine compartment of my Nissan XTerra and I can't even see the ground, let alone stand in there. Then I look at electric cars: Battery, controller, motor. Right back to simple. Could it be that the electric car signals the beginning of a new 'period' in transportation? I certainly hope so.

I remember hearing Bruce Babbitt, a former Secretary of the Interior speak at the National Press Club about 20 years ago. He made a remarkable statement which I will try to paraphrase.

"A car manufactured today running at highway speed produces less pollution than a pre-1979 car does parked with the engine off."

So all that complication has value. But I don't think there is a whole lot more we can to make improvements. It's time for the new tech to take over and a new period to begin.

[Chris Padilla]

Hey, we all have access to the grand ole INTERNET. These days, one can find a blurb, write-up, discussion or YouTube video on just about anything. And most of us handy with wood are handy in general and with a little guidance, can fix just about anything. I did all sorts of fixes and maintenance on my 2001 BMW 530i and while it was a bit more complicated than my 1990 Toyota pick-up or my 1969 Pontiac Firebird, it really wasn't any less work with a bit of WWW help.

During Thanksgiving, our old trusty Maytag front loading washing machine's spin cycle decided to not spin. A few minutes of WWW searching yielded the problem and a few more minutes found the solution. A couple days later I was my wife's hero fixing it and it cost me about $30 in parts and some wait time. (The problem was the door latching mechanism failed and when it fails, the washing machine will not spin because it thinks the door is open)

[Jim Koepke]

Hey, we all have access to the grand ole INTERNET. These days, one can find a blurb, write-up, discussion or YouTube video on just about anything. And most of us handy with wood are handy in general and with a little guidance, can fix just about anything. I did all sorts of fixes and maintenance on my 2001 BMW 530i and while it was a bit more complicated than my 1990 Toyota pick-up or my 1969 Pontiac Firebird, it really wasn't any less work with a bit of WWW help.

Yes, there was a YouTube video on how to drop my gas tank. It may have been possible for me to clear out an area in my shop to have a solid surface to put the car up in the air enough to drop the fuel tank and replace the fuel pump myself. More of a pain than I wanted to tackle. Outside the shop, everything is uneven dirt.

jtk

[Jason Roehl]

During Thanksgiving, our old trusty Maytag front loading washing machine's spin cycle decided to not spin. A few minutes of WWW searching yielded the problem and a few more minutes found the solution. A couple days later I was my wife's hero fixing it and it cost me about $30 in parts and some wait time. (The problem was the door latching mechanism failed and when it fails, the washing machine will not spin because it thinks the door is open)

We have a combo machine, and that dumb door latch has failed so many times it's not funny. My wife and son have even started rebuilding the old latches we have laying around. There's a weak electrical joint, that my son solders back together to get the latch back up and running. Never mind the number of thermal limiters I've replaced in the dryer, the ball and socket joint, the drum/door seal, etc. I wish the stupid thing would just die so I had a good excuse to buy standalone units, but after almost 15 years, it's still going, and the replacement parts have been too cheap to pass up the quick repairs (which I can almost do blindfolded now).