Why are the engine bays on late 90's onwards cars designed by retards (RANT!)

Iamzod

Iamzod

Iamzod

Soldato
Joined
7 Dec 2002
Posts
4,090
Location
UK
As a few of you may know i recently bought a Pug 406 for running around in and for work, cambelt snaps on way home so after much debating what to do with the car it's decided to strip cylinder head down & rebuild it.

It's just taken the best part of 2 days free time to seperate the bloody exhaust manifold from the downpipe so that we could get the head off due to the bolts being in the most stupid place ever AND rusted solid, and the fact that they put one end in a recess you cant get a ring spanner into but cant get a socket into it either as theres no space for one!

ARGH!

Why not have one end in a hexagon shaped hole rather than a round one so you dont have to get two arms down the back of the engine block which is about 2 inches from the bulkhead!!!?!?!

My dad just spent a good hour under the car with half a saw blade gradually cutting the bolt off.

I'd start on the haynes manuals too which tell you to take out bolts that dont exist but that would double the post length! :mad:

Still, should be back on the road within a week for less than £100 repair costs, not bad for a snapped cam belt :D
 
Muffin` said:
Sorry for slight OT, did it bend the vlaves in the process?
Click to expand...

Yep, can see 4 intake valves bent, am expecting at least 4 exhaust valves bent too when the head is finally lifted off tomorrow, then need to sort the head out & put it all back together again over the nice 4-Day weekend.

Theres always the slight chance of some piston damage i guess in which case the car is finished, but from what i've read it's unlikely & the intake valves appear only very slightly bent.

No doubt it's going to be an absolute **** to put back together again.
 
Same thing happened to my car share guys 406, engine was totally ruined and not worth the effort, but good luck. :) :p
 
Pug said:
french cars - labour charges were always expensive for a reason.
Click to expand...

lol, i have had the pleasure of seeing behind the scenes at more than a few pug dealers....

Labour should be no more expensive than anywhere else, the problem is that they take hours for simple jobs. Maybe its the same at all garages but i only ever did work for pug, and they seemed to take the pee big time almost without exception.
 
I will take my hat of to renault on the design of the 19. It might well have a super tite wikid bonnet vent but any water that gets in drains straight onto the exhaust manifold and the bolts securing it to the head, congrats well done on that one :rolleyes:
 
Pete19s said:
I will take my hat of to renault on the design of the 19. It might well have a super tite wikid bonnet vent but any water that gets in drains straight onto the exhaust manifold and the bolts securing it to the head, congrats well done on that one :rolleyes:
Click to expand...


There is a cure for that tho. . mean's fitting non-standard parts.
 
Pete19s said:
I will take my hat of to renault on the design of the 19. It might well have a super tite wikid bonnet vent but any water that gets in drains straight onto the exhaust manifold and the bolts securing it to the head, congrats well done on that one :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

It's called a rain catcher, i have one on my clio and it doesnt drip on the manifold at all!
 
I'm confused.
Why does the OP possibly think that his car was designed for personal maintenance, as against very expensive, manufacturer possible only with garage tools?


Ref the Renault 19. A friend of mine had a 16v some time back. He hated it so much that when the cat once set fire to the grass underneath that he simply left the car where it was. I did ask about the fire extinguisher that I knew he kept in the boot. His comment was "Why? I'd rather it burns for the insurance".
 
It's French cars.

Girlfriends old 306... The pathetic little catch that holds the metal bonnet arm thing up managed to break (hardly surprising). Guess where the arm swings when that snaps? Right into the alternator / power steering belt.

Noice
 
Mr_Sukebe said:
I'm confused.
Why does the OP possibly think that his car was designed for personal maintenance, as against very expensive, manufacturer possible only with garage tools?
Click to expand...

I dont, i was just really pee'd off and wanted to call them retards :D.

More work done today, including having to remove the drivers side inner arch to get to parts and having to take the engine off of one of it's mounts to get to something else.

It's getting silly now really, it's starting to look like the only thing gonna be left in there is the bit's that need fixing!!

Good job these 406's have a big boot as it's got half the engine in it now, heh.
 
Iamzod said:
that they put one end in a recess you cant get a ring spanner into but cant get a socket into it either as theres no space for one!
Click to expand...

You are using the wrong tool for the job. Try a swan neck spanner, or maybe a cranked spanner. Starter motor change on the Volvo requires a cranked spanner, it's not just French cars.
 
Lopéz said:
You are using the wrong tool for the job. Try a swan neck spanner, or maybe a cranked spanner. Starter motor change on the Volvo requires a cranked spanner, it's not just French cars.
Click to expand...

See, we've also got a Volvo 940 Estate & thats fairly easy to work on.

Have no chance of getting a cranked spanner to the parts we needed, it dont matter now anyway as we've cut them off :D

My dad is an ex HGV mechanic & he says this job is the most annoying he's ever done on a vehicle, he said earlier if he knew it was gonna be so much of a pain in the arse he would have just dropped it off at work & let them scrap it rather than tow the car home, but we've got too far now.
 
I feel your pain. Changing the downpipe on my 106 diesel round the back of the engine was one of the most tedious jobs I have ever done on a car. Had to take both inlet and exhaust manifolds along with a lot of other parts just to get to the bolts.

Thank **** the exhaust manifolds on TU petrols are on the front of the engine, the amount of times I've had to change them!
 
My biggest bugbear is headlight bulbs, I am sure some manufacturers deliberately make it impossible to change headlight bulbs :mad:

That and stick oil filters in inaccessible places.
 
Iamzod said:
As a few of you may know i recently bought a Pug 406 for running around in and for work, cambelt snaps on way home so after much debating what to do with the car it's decided to strip cylinder head down & rebuild it.

It's just taken the best part of 2 days free time to seperate the bloody exhaust manifold from the downpipe so that we could get the head off due to the bolts being in the most stupid place ever AND rusted solid, and the fact that they put one end in a recess you cant get a ring spanner into but cant get a socket into it either as theres no space for one!

ARGH!

Why not have one end in a hexagon shaped hole rather than a round one so you dont have to get two arms down the back of the engine block which is about 2 inches from the bulkhead!!!?!?!

My dad just spent a good hour under the car with half a saw blade gradually cutting the bolt off.

I'd start on the haynes manuals too which tell you to take out bolts that dont exist but that would double the post length! :mad:

Still, should be back on the road within a week for less than £100 repair costs, not bad for a snapped cam belt :D
Click to expand...

lol, I changed the plugs on the cerb the other day and had to get the wife to take some of the plug caps off as my big beefy hands wouldn't fit into the poxy space. It seems to be a TVR mechanic you need to have dainty, ladylike hands :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom