Stupidest Designs.......

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So many to choose from....off the bat I am going w a liquid cooled alternator. Thanks Cadillac.
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Originally Posted by ToadU
So many to choose from....off the bat I am going w a liquid cooled alternator. Thanks Cadillac.
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A buddy of mine was selling his BMW 750i, and I considered buying it. He related how he had to replace the liquid cooled alternator and it was a very expensive repair- over $2000. The car was in great shape otherwise, but had a rear main seal leak. I was serious considering it but he encouraged me not to buy it, as it was a money pit. It had close to 200k miles on it and he was looking for around $10-11k. A BMW mechanic finally bought it, but it took him a while to sell.
 
I have changed a few 3800 oil pan gasket. I hate doing them. The don't leave any room to get at some of the fasteners.

I don't like where any modern heater core is.
 
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Minor thing but gen7 and gen8 Accord headlight bulb changes require going through the wheel well and opening up the fender liner
 
Drain plug on a (I forgot what year) Kia minivan transmission. Yay for a drain plug, stupid that they put it right over a non-removable frame member so you can't actually get it out.
 
EGR tube/port-inlet on the 3.5L engine Dodge used in the ‘05-10 LXs.

Once unhooked from the intake plenum, it would never seal back completely upon reinstallation of plenum. Plus, given the fact that the engines used Speed Density/MAP fueling, the inevitable vacuum leak at the EGR inlet could go unidentified for weeks.

I swear that design was the product of some drunken monkey detoxing off of benzodiazepines and in the middle of a seizure episode.
 
The internal water-pump on 3.5L/3.7L Ford Cyclone engines. Fantastic engines until the water pump gets a leak. Expensive and time consuming job at the least, for FWD applications. Total engine failure if you don't catch it in time and it gels your lube and seizes the engine.
 
There are those engines where you have to remove the intake manifold to replace the starter. Toyota and Honda come to mind.

Vehicles where you have to pull the dash to replace the heater core or HVAC doors and actuators.
 
Dumbest design from a maintenance standpoint? V6 powered GMT330 trucks. All of them.

They are actually ok vehicles, but when there is a repair to be made, they always leave you scratching your head asking yourself "why'd they do it like that?". Truck as a whole is such a basic design whether it be the powertrain or chassis, but it's poorly assembled.
 
Any awkward placed ol filter. AKA Honda back of engine.
Why are there so many different sized oil filters?

Sealed transmissions with lifetime fluid. Please...
 
Originally Posted by zzyzzx
There are those engines where you have to remove the intake manifold to replace the starter. Toyota and Honda come to mind.

.

I think the NorthStar is like that too.
 
J Body 2.2 ohv with 3T40. Ignition coils are located on bottom rear of the block & firewall. J Bodies with 4T40E had more clearance. 1998 & newer coils were relocated on the side of the valve cover.
 
Does it have to be a stupid automotive design? Because I'd like to nominate the Mercruiser 3.7 liter 4 cyl (the "470") engine from the marine world. It was (and is) still being used to some degree in the automotive world by some diehard enthusiasts, so I'l throw it out there.

Ford 460 V8 driver side cast iron head, mounted to a home baked Mercruiser open deck aluminum block, fitted with a woefully inadequate 3 inch heat exchanger to keep it all cool, in an application where engines are routinely thrashed at or near full throttle a big chunk of their life. Can you say "blown head gasket"? This engine would eat head gaskets at a temperature that many automotive engines idle at in the dead of winter on the north pole.

To add insult to injury, the water pump was similar to the latest Ford abomination, and was nothing more than an impeller bolted to the front of the camshaft, separating the cooling water from the crankcse with two small seals the size of your pinky. Why? Because no belts required, thats why. There was a weep hole between the seals, but that void was filled from the factory with grease, and over time that grease would harden and plug up the hole, so when the water seal went bad, the antifreeze would plow past the second (oil) seal and dump into the crank, taking out the rod and main bearings, the cam, and the now lack of water overheated the engine and your wallet in the process, because now your cam, bearings, crank, and rods are wiped out, your head gasket is shot, and you may need to machine the block flat again as well depending how hot it got.

To add further insult to an already expensive injury, the alternator was nothing more than thin permanent magnets glued to the inside of the crank vibration damper, which spun around the block mounted copper wire coil, producing nonstop voltage proportionate to the rpm. Why? No belts (again), thats why. Similar to a lot of outboards, just woefully worse. The current was routed to the voltage regulator bolted to the side of the block, which was a water cooled potted carbon resistor that burned off unneeded amperage as necessary. These things burned up quicker than the Hindenburg (and your battery as well), on a regular basis to the tune of $200+, and thats in 1980's dollars. Most people just clipped the wires and spent an afternoon in a junkyard pulling every alternator bracket they can find, and adapting a GM 10Si marinized one-wire alternator, and calling it a day (the crank damper was grooved for a belt, for applications that needed one to run the power steering pump). Or spending $400 on an aftermarket prefab kit that did the same thing.

Later models had a 4 inch heat exchanger and a better head gasket, which helped greatly to keep it cool and mitigate the head gasket issue, and the aftermarket kept the alternator issue at bay, but the water pump remained a weak point until the bitter end.

In the hands of the right person, a 'car guy' or someone who was hyper-diligent on maintenance, they were a lightweight, fuel sipping torquey monster that with minimal tweaking and a quadrajet in place of the 2 bbl were pumping well north of 200 HP, which was pretty impressive for an 80's era four cylinder. It pulled my little boat like a beast. But the horrible alternator, equally horrible water pump, and fragile head gasket situation sealed their doom and Mercruiser mercifully pulled the plug on this animal after about 10 years or so and let the simple, trusty and durable GM 4.3 V6 fill the void. Want a cheap boat? Find one for sale that has a "Mercruiser 3.7" or "Mercruiser 470" engine. The seller will probably give it to you, throw a few hundreds at you in the process, and tap dance happily back to his house as you pull away with it.

A number of these engines found their way into sprint cars, Model A's, kit cars and various other car projects, because like I said in the right hands they can be a lot of power in a small package, they are easily modified, and parts are still pretty easy to get, but you have to treat them with kid gloves unless you really like rebuilding engines. As far as stupid designs, this one is a collection of them mixed into one big absolute turd of an engine.

Wasnt there a Ford or GM truck back in the 60's or 70's that ran the windshield wipers off a hydraulic motor powered by the power steering pump? Cant remember where I saw that or what make it was, but that would be my first runner up.
 
Originally Posted by quint
Wasnt there a Ford or GM truck back in the 60's or 70's that ran the windshield wipers off a hydraulic motor powered by the power steering pump? Cant remember where I saw that or what make it was, but that would be my first runner up.
Yep. Trico manufactured the entire wiper system and they were used by Ford and GMC. Ford used them in mid 60s Thunderbirds and Lincoln Continentals. GMC used them in motorhomes, COE trucks, and commercial vans through the mid 70s.
 
Originally Posted by wag123
Originally Posted by quint
Wasnt there a Ford or GM truck back in the 60's or 70's that ran the windshield wipers off a hydraulic motor powered by the power steering pump? Cant remember where I saw that or what make it was, but that would be my first runner up.
Yep. Trico manufactured the entire wiper system and they were used by Ford and GMC. Ford used them in mid 60s Thunderbirds and Lincoln Continentals. GMC used them in motorhomes, COE trucks, and commercial vans through the mid 70s.


KISS. Keep it simple stupid. Always the best way. That's why for wipers I like having mine powered by a miniaturized nuclear reactor. I tow the cooling tower via a hitch on a trailer. Really simple.
 
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New-fangled headlamps that blind other drivers on low beam. There's got to be a better way to see at night.
Also, plastic everything. Lord help us.
 
Originally Posted by DGXR
New-fangled headlamps that blind other drivers on low beam. There's got to be a better way to see at night.
Also, plastic everything. Lord help us.



True ^^^^
 
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