The Reverend Bluejeans Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 The caliper carrier bolts are wedged right up against the rear beam casting, which means to remove the discs the hub must come off. Removing the hub inevitably means the cheap, fragile wheel bearings are destroyed Fuck me! That's the kind of shit I'm talking about. twosmoke300 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talbot Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 That Panda design will have been due to one Engineer being given the task of using an off-the-shelf caliper, and being told how much space is available, and a completely different Engineer designing the axle and the bearing/hub location. As is so often the case, if it was just one design Engineer designing the entire assembly, working without restrictions or policies, it would all be far better designed. ... Like how 1960's / 1970's Mercs were. Designed by Engineers. The accountants simply had to work out how much they had to charge the customer to make a profit. alf892 and Asimo 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy18s Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 The new Subaru Ascent...Is it being praised for being Subarus's biggest car yet?Maybe everyone is applauding it's brand new 2.4 Boxer engine?NopeIt's all about the Nineteen cup holders it comes with....!Who the feck decided it needed 19 cup holders.? The Reverend Bluejeans, Exiled_Tat_Gatherer and Barry Cade 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tadhg Tiogar Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 .......!Who the feck decided it needed 19 cup holders.?Someone who needed somewhere to drop their mobile phone after the police spotted them using it whilst driving? The Reverend Bluejeans 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talbot Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 Who the feck decided it needed 19 cup holders.? Someone who can never be without their McCostafortunestarbucks Coffee, a McBurgerkindonalds Milkshake or a McGiantslurpee6tonnesofsugar Coke. I suspect very much that it might be aimed at the motoring market in the Colonies. John F and The Reverend Bluejeans 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Reverend Bluejeans Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 Someone who can never be without their McCostafortunestarbucks Coffee, a McBurgerkindonalds Milkshake or a McGiantslurpee6tonnesofsugar Coke. I suspect very much that it might be aimed at the motoring market in the Colonies. Or St.Albans. alcyonecorporation, Pillock and Tadhg Tiogar 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alcyonecorporation Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 The new Subaru Ascent... Is it being praised for being Subarus's biggest car yet? Maybe everyone is applauding it's brand new 2.4 Boxer engine? Nope It's all about the Nineteen cup holders it comes with....! Who the feck decided it needed 19 cup holders.? And I thought the Tribeca was shit. My eyes are soiled. Dave_Q and Lacquer Peel 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeR Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 Or the old Fiat 500 designed to live on neglect , not even a water cooled engine , possibly a radio , now look ! . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omegod Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 Xantia clutch pedal, plastic clip breaks and you can't replace the fucker easily as the bolt head is next to the brake pedal, this then needs a fucking prybar taking to it get enough clearance to get the bolt out, on LHD Xantias it's all fucking dreamy though A bit of consideration in putting the twatting bolt in the opposite way would have been dandy on RHD Barry Cade 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tamworthbay Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 When I studied Design Technology alongside my teaching degree, our lecturer instilled the theory of KISS - keep it simple, shitface.I can only assume that car designers have been taking the piss out of this idea for the last 10-15 years. Headlamp bulbs should take a couple of minutes to change, not a couple of fecking hours. Etc.CAD- computer aided dystopia - packaging is a cunt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twosmoke300 Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 Xantia clutch pedal, plastic clip breaks and you can't replace the fucker easily as the bolt head is next to the brake pedal, this then needs a fucking prybar taking to it get enough clearance to get the bolt out, on LHD Xantias it's all fucking dreamy though A bit of consideration in putting the twatting bolt in the opposite way would have been dandy on RHDTo be fair the plastic clip breaks cos the clutch is fucked and bloody heavy Talbot 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbz2079 Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 A bit of consideration in putting the twatting bolt in the opposite way would have been dandy on RHD Been there done that, several times. No one is going to convince me that Fiat don't know exactly what is involved in changing those rear pads on the Panda.They just hope that by the time it needs them it's out of warranty.So basically the don't care. Fiat were always seen as clever in the slick design of their cars, it reality it has always been how cheap can we make this, how can we make itquicker to assemble on the line. All this is nothing new, lots of late 80's small Fiats had something that failed on the steering column can't remember what, but it meant a whole newcolumn to fix but that one part would make the whole car scrap due to it's cost.Also as it was a common fault they were very unobtainium second hand. I'm loving the idea of ECU controlled oil and coolant pumps, WCPGW there!Honest mate it was running great till a broken wire totally wrecked the engine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbz2079 Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 To be fair the plastic clip breaks cos the clutch is fucked and bloody heavy On that very subject.1.9 TZD BX with millions of miles on it snapped it's clutch cable.I used to run a BX so I knew changing this cable was not easy, bad access and clips bolted in hard to reach places. Anyway the cable was changed over two nights after work with much swearing and skint knuckles.First press of the clutch pedal the new cable snapped, " BRIDGED" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 No one is going to convince me that Fiat don't know exactly what is involved in changing those rear pads on the Panda.They just hope that by the time it needs them it's out of warranty.So basically the don't care. No need to touch that bolt to change the pads, and in my experience, Panda rear discs last forever as the car is so light, just run with the handbrake on a bit for a few hundred yards every now and again to wipe the surface rust off.. Renners used to have discs with built in bearings which cost a bit to change. You know what pisses me off more than anything else? Aluminium and steel being used together. The problems that brings as "modern" cars get older. Just wait until they need a suspension overhaul or wheel bearings, and put your big hammers and oxy away as that is asking for trouble. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
New POD Posted February 23, 2018 Author Share Posted February 23, 2018 torx has a better mechanical fix / mate than a hex - that;s the entire reason for 'fancy' fittings since forever ... ironically of course hex was an attempt to improve on square or just flattened heads I know this to be true. But in the past I have had to find a way to automate both internal and external hex fasteners, and found it was possible if not particularly elegant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave_Q Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 It's all for commonisation though innit. New POD, would have thought you would know this as its your line of work isn't it? Presumably someone somewhere in Opel has done themselves a 6 sigma project to either commonise all sump plugs, or find the best one and apply to all platforms. Having the tooling, pick bins etc on a station to do more than 1 kind of fastening is a cost, proliferation is bad times for assembly lines. Also, if you manage to get everything using the same sump plug you can probably save $0.005 per vehicle for buying a larger quantity. Someone somewhere has worked this out to be a saving of X million dollars to the company and got a big pat on the back and a chairman's award for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeR Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 just remembered my old Mk4 strada , it used to like snapping clutch cables ,due to the RHS conversion the clutch wire would go thro the bulkhead and around a small pulley , then across to the bell housing , the wire would snap at the pulley , so they changed the pulley into a bigger pulley ...... and it still snapped .so they then come up with a quadrant which worked !!! , it got to the stage where I could change the cable in half an hour or drive with out a clutch sold the car with the spare clutch cable in the boot The Reverend Bluejeans 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeR Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 " Also, if you manage to get everything using the same sump plug you can probably save $0.005 per vehicle for buying a larger quantity" my last job was the rationalisation of electronic parts , engineers would just raise new part requests for projects for parts on the market as opposed to looking throu what the company already bought and had coded ,!!!it paid to try and buy lots of the same or similar part from the same supplier so we got good prices and support , especially if allocation was enforced , and the supplier them selves wanted to get onboard new projects to keep the dosh flowing , it just amazes me how electronic car parts all seem to be custom deigned with one project in mind , whilst the running gear seems to share a lot of parts .. as you say another car , another design of sump plug ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martc Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 Someone who can never be without their McCostafortunestarbucks Coffee, a McBurgerkindonalds Milkshake or a McGiantslurpee6tonnesofsugar Coke. I suspect very much that it might be aimed at the motoring market in the Colonies. The big holder for the KFC bucket is probably redundant now. Could be replaced by three smaller holders to up the total count. alcyonecorporation 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alcyonecorporation Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 The big holder for the KFC bucket is probably redundant now. Could be replaced by three smaller holders to up the total count. "No more chicken corpses, ah ah ah!" "More space for the family to go the obesity clinic, bleh!" "This Picasso is fucked, blame Alucard!" *[stops channelling Transylvanian John F]* John F 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobthebeard Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 "No more chicken corpses, ah ah ah!""More space for the family to go the obesity clinic, bleh!""This Picasso is fucked, blame Alucard!"*[stops channelling Transylvanian John F]* You are two savvy AICMFP! Edit John F and alcyonecorporation 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John F Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 "No more chicken corpses, ah ah ah!" "More space for the family to go the obesity clinic, bleh!" "This Picasso is fucked, blame Alucard!" *[stops channelling Transylvanian John F]* I've nothing against chicken corpses tbh... alcyonecorporation 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alcyonecorporation Posted February 24, 2018 Share Posted February 24, 2018 I have never sold a car! I keep them until they are no longer viable to run, much to my wife's displeasure! Sent from my SM-J320FN using TapatalkEntirely fair. Comment rescinded Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
New POD Posted February 28, 2018 Author Share Posted February 28, 2018 Someone somewhere has worked this out to be a saving of X million dollars to the company and got a big pat on the back and a chairman's award for it. Nah, they never get the Chairman's award. His award goes to someone, and American called Brad, Or Buddy, Or Todd, who outsources relief valve poppets to a Chinese shower of shite, which subsequently results in First pass Yeild on the Automated test rigs in the UK going from 98% to 50%, whilst simultaneously blaming the engineer who put the test rigs in, and refusing to accept that just achieving the tolerance clearly isn't good enough, and maybe the actual design drawing isn't good enough, because the tolerances are actually too loose, but was masked by the fact the the UK supplier was making them to a much tighter spec than the tolerance allowed.Oh yes, you Yanky, gun toting, crimpalean suit wearing Purchasing "Professional*", you saved $Fuckloads on paper, but caused New POD to have a fucking nightmare 5 weeks where all he did was experiment after fucking experiment to find the fucking cause, and even when presented with the facts refused to accept there was actually a problem. FFS we used 1000 of these things a shift and how many did you have measured before changing supplier ? 5 Fucking 5. It was at this point I may have had a breakdown and spent some time, lying on the back seat of a Calibre crying. The same Calibre that threw a Rod through the block the day before my summer holiday as if to say "Ah fuck you, you know nothing - twat" Asimo and garethj 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niffleman Posted February 28, 2018 Share Posted February 28, 2018 My younger brother works for JLR, and doesn't drive one. He tells me that some of the problems in design engineering are caused by:1) An obsession with weight saving which is unhealthy. They are given unbelievably tight weight targets for all new designs and that is a key driver in decision making.2) Very tight time restrictions for the launch of new vehicles which can mean that unsuitable designs from previous products are recycled into new applications.3) Surprisingly frequent changes in first tier partner suppliers and a relationship which is not always as mutually helpful as it should be.4) A very clear message in the organisation that the target lifespan of products is a maximum of 7 years or 100,000 miles. Beyond that, there is no expectation for them to be in use.These restrictions will almost inevitably lead to problems for owners who want to keep vehicles running or carry out maintenance themselves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
New POD Posted February 28, 2018 Author Share Posted February 28, 2018 My younger brother works for JLR, 4) A very clear message in the organisation that the target lifespan of products is a maximum of 7 years or 100,000 miles. Beyond that, there is no expectation for them to be in use. Back in the 90's I got talking to the Chief Design Engineer at Lucas Car braking, and he reckoned that "The Japanese" had an obsession with NO defects or failures in the first 3 years whereas USA and Europe had a target of try and achieve a design life of 100K with minimal failures. He said that invariably the Japanese target meant that often life expectancy was higher, because to be sure of no failures in the first 3 years they needed to make sure it was more robust. I guess that in 20 Years Car manufacturers just got more cynical, world wide. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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