yet another black eye for the 2,4 ecotec

[MCompact]

Originally Posted by dishdude

There are a handful of people that for whatever reason have decided they don't like a particular make of vehicle and for some reason feel the need to spam the board with irrelevant threads, posts and commentary that they have no firsthand knowledge of. It's getting old.


Precisely; and they are almost always motivated by jealousy and/or the sour grapes mindset. I particularly liked the imbecile who expounded about the problems with one particular marque who, when asked about the basis of his opinion, proudly remarked that "some guy at work" owned one and that he had actually ridden in another one.

 

[Colt45ws]

Originally Posted by dishdude
Originally Posted by Imp4
Originally Posted by dishdude
Do you have any first hand experience or just brand bashing from something you saw online?

I have always wondered about this question.
It is asked based on the premise that only an owner of said vehicle is worthy of discussing a topic.
It is a completely ridiculous notion and a bunch of high browed elitism.



There are a handful of people that for whatever reason have decided they don't like a particular make of vehicle and for some reason feel the need to spam the board with irrelevant threads, posts and commentary that they have no firsthand knowledge of. It's getting old.

Posting a link to a YT video, which I thought was against the rules here in the first place, with no comment is obvious pot stirring.

 

[R1jake]

Originally Posted by caprice_2nv
Personally, before I ever buy anything that cost me a bunch of money I try to do lots of research online first. I also have a lot of people that ask me for advice on car purchases because I'm "the car guy that they know". This is one of the places I do research. If you read enough online, see enough YouTube videos you can establish trends. So personally I have no problem seeing threads discussing issues with an engine, to help decide whether or not it is worth taking a risk on.


I do as well ever since my 00 Toyota celica purchase. I am a serious Toyota fan and bought a 00 celica gt that burned a quart of oil every 100 miles or so. Never again, it was a well known oil ring issue. Since then I've saved myself from a few possible bad purchases. Most recent a sweet deal on a 2012 Ford Focus with the dct transmission and a Nissan cvt as well.
Currently looking for another winter beater, preferably a Matrix/vibe, Yaris, echo or something Toyota I hope.

 

[caprice_2nv]

Originally Posted by R1jake

Originally Posted by caprice_2nv
Personally, before I ever buy anything that cost me a bunch of money I try to do lots of research online first. I also have a lot of people that ask me for advice on car purchases because I'm "the car guy that they know". This is one of the places I do research. If you read enough online, see enough YouTube videos you can establish trends. So personally I have no problem seeing threads discussing issues with an engine, to help decide whether or not it is worth taking a risk on.


I do as well ever since my 00 Toyota celica purchase. I am a serious Toyota fan and bought a 00 celica gt that burned a quart of oil every 100 miles or so. Never again, it was a well known oil ring issue. Since then I've saved myself from a few possible bad purchases. Most recent a sweet deal on a 2012 Ford Focus with the dct transmission and a Nissan cvt as well.
Currently looking for another winter beater, preferably a Matrix/vibe, Yaris, echo or something Toyota I hope.


Personally if I was buying a cheap beater to replace my 83 Caprice the only thing more modern I think could hold up as well would be a mid 2000s Corolla or matrix/vibe with an automatic (the manuals seem to have issues) or late 90s Camry (lots still driving around here with minimal rust visible on them). Would have to be a boring 4 cylinder automatic though. Would prefer a manual but then I'd be better off with a different car for reliability.

 

[super20dan]

yes I have first hand experience with this pos from gm. my nextdoor neighbor who has blind alligence to gm bought a 2010 and did no research. my neighbor knows I am execellent with cars and expects me to help him out with every little problem with all his cars. he bought it brand new. at 27k the first timming chain went. then it started using oil like they all do. to makes matters worse he NEVER checks the oil and ran it down to 3 and even 4 quarts low several times. he,s an idiot but lets move on. at 60k the second chain started making noise. his wife knocked on the door and said it was running bad and several dash lights were on. I pulled the dipstick-nothing- took 4 quarts. I explained the best thing was to trade it in asap. for once the took my advice but bought a jeep cheroke with the 8speed trans. again did NO research. cant fix stupid and I got lucky as he moved . when it came to buy a car for his daughter. he picked a 2008 dodge charger 2.7. again no research. well shortly the water pump started leaking and you can guess the rest. a also find this form to be an execellent place to learn more about cars and am glad people share their misfortunes so others can avoid bad cars and desighns.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted by super20dan
yes I have first hand experience with this pos from gm. my nextdoor neighbor who has blind alligence to gm bought a 2010 and did no research. my neighbor knows I am execellent with cars and expects me to help him out with every little problem with all his cars. he bought it brand new. at 27k the first timming chain went. then it started using oil like they all do. to makes matters worse he NEVER checks the oil and ran it down to 3 and even 4 quarts low several times. he,s an idiot but lets move on. at 60k the second chain started making noise. his wife knocked on the door and said it was running bad and several dash lights were on. I pulled the dipstick-nothing- took 4 quarts. I explained the best thing was to trade it in asap.


Let's roll this back a second here. So you've got a guy who habitually runs a car out of oil, but somehow this is the engine's fault that it experiences issues from this? And you are hanging your hat on this as "proof positive" that the engine in question is junk?

Originally Posted by super20dan
for once the took my advice but bought a jeep cheroke with the 8speed trans.


No he didn't. The KL Jeep Cherokee has the ZF 9spd,

Originally Posted by super20dan
again did NO research. cant fix stupid and I got lucky as he moved .


Apparently you didn't sufficiently research the vehicles you are railing agains here either...

Originally Posted by super20dan
when it came to buy a car for his daughter. he picked a 2008 dodge charger 2.7. again no research.

Agreed on that one, that's a bonehead move, the 2.7L was a pile.

Originally Posted by super20dan
well shortly the water pump started leaking and you can guess the rest.

No surprise there unfortunately.

Originally Posted by super20dan
a also find this form to be an execellent place to learn more about cars and am glad people share their misfortunes so others can avoid bad cars and desighns.

Agreed, but we need to be careful about drawing broad conclusions from an extremely narrow sample size as well. An example is the KL Jeep mentioned above. While both FCA and Honda had some teething issues with that transmission initially, I believe it's been fully sorted at this point. That's not to be confused with the excellent ZF 8HP used in the LX cars, trucks, Grand Cherokee and Durango.

This incarnation of the Ecotec may in fact be junk, but I'd be hard pressed to draw that conclusion from the data you've shared, which reeks of owner abuse and neglect rather than a problematic and failure prone design.

 

[caprice_2nv]

Originally Posted by super20dan
yes I have first hand experience with this pos from gm. my nextdoor neighbor who has blind alligence to gm bought a 2010 and did no research. my neighbor knows I am execellent with cars and expects me to help him out with every little problem with all his cars. he bought it brand new. at 27k the first timming chain went. then it started using oil like they all do. to makes matters worse he NEVER checks the oil and ran it down to 3 and even 4 quarts low several times. he,s an idiot but lets move on. at 60k the second chain started making noise. his wife knocked on the door and said it was running bad and several dash lights were on. I pulled the dipstick-nothing- took 4 quarts. I explained the best thing was to trade it in asap. for once the took my advice but bought a jeep cheroke with the 8speed trans. again did NO research. cant fix stupid and I got lucky as he moved . when it came to buy a car for his daughter. he picked a 2008 dodge charger 2.7. again no research. well shortly the water pump started leaking and you can guess the rest. a also find this form to be an execellent place to learn more about cars and am glad people share their misfortunes so others can avoid bad cars and desighns.


Yeah, those are all vehicles I would not buy. All it takes is a bit of research.

 

[super20dan]

yes my bad -his 2016 Cherokee has the zf 9 speed. he has told me it never shifts to 9 so it may as well be a 8 speed.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted by super20dan
yes my bad -his 2016 Cherokee has the zf 9 speed. he has told me it never shifts to 9 so it may as well be a 8 speed.


9th may be quite steep and the pots may be geared high too. Both our RAM and GC with the 8spd have pretty low gears in the diffs so they get in 8th regularly.

 

[dishdude]

Originally Posted by OVERKILL
Originally Posted by super20dan
yes my bad -his 2016 Cherokee has the zf 9 speed. he has told me it never shifts to 9 so it may as well be a 8 speed.


9th may be quite steep and the pots may be geared high too. Both our RAM and GC with the 8spd have pretty low gears in the diffs so they get in 8th regularly.


Interesting. Now what about your neighbor's cars? Let's bash 'em

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted by dishdude
Originally Posted by OVERKILL
Originally Posted by super20dan
yes my bad -his 2016 Cherokee has the zf 9 speed. he has told me it never shifts to 9 so it may as well be a 8 speed.


9th may be quite steep and the pots may be geared high too. Both our RAM and GC with the 8spd have pretty low gears in the diffs so they get in 8th regularly.


Interesting. Now what about your neighbor's cars? Let's bash 'em

hahahah

 

[HemiBenny]

Originally Posted by super20dan
yes my bad -his 2016 Cherokee has the zf 9 speed. he has told me it never shifts to 9 so it may as well be a 8 speed.


Our '15 Chrysler goes into 9th and stays there regularly on the interstate when it's flat and moves down into 8th or even 7th depending on the grade change when climbing a hill. In town it stays in 7th or lower.

 

[supton]

Originally Posted by super20dan
yes my bad -his 2016 Cherokee has the zf 9 speed. he has told me it never shifts to 9 so it may as well be a 8 speed.

It's got gears to spare.

It's hardly surprising. Gotta figure, if top gear was deep enough to climb a hill, then it's too short on flat ground. Let alone going down a hill (that doesn't need engine braking). Once we got past 4 speeds or so, it only makes sense that a transmission is going to be "always shifting", ya know, like a CVT does, constantly varying engine speed to match power need.

It grinds our gears though as we wish for torquey engines that never need to downshift and have power to spare... but in reality, small engines with wide & flat torque curves can hit high horsepower while making mpg when not under load.