Feb. 15 Weekly Open Thread

My apologies for not providing an open thread last week--but here's this week's receptacle for all of our automotive wit, wisdom, and general tomfoolery.

--Chris H.

Comments

[Anthony Cagle on February 15, 2010 at 07:27 AM]

I'm going to take the Spousal Unit's 1997 Honda Civic in for minor servicing. So far, the most work it's needed was replacing a bad O2 sensor and that was like 7 years ago. Talk about reliable.

Putting in a new headlight was challenging though. With my old Mustang, you undo a couple of screws, disconnect the old one, reconnect the new one, put the screws back in, done. The Honda took me like an hour to figure it out and then I never did get it reseated properly. I think if I ever get another car, I'm finding myself in that uncomfortable realm of not knowing whether to get a real old one that I have some hope of figuring out how to fix at least some things myself, or getting a brand new one that won't need a lot of fixing, but I wouldn't know what I was doing if it did.

[That Car Guy on February 15, 2010 at 07:42 AM]

Seems some of the internet buzz last week was the four-hour job to change a headlight in a Prius. You have to remove the front bumper, headlight assembly, and the engine. OK, you don't have to remove the engine.

But the Prius owners are getting together about faulty headlights that just don't work, even talking a class-action affair. Here's some of them:

http://www.hybridcars.com/forums/replacing-headlight-bulb-t910.html

[...m... on February 15, 2010 at 10:51 AM]

...new beetle headlamps are just as onerous to access, heck, even my 1981 mercury capri taillamps were built into sealed assemblies which i had to drill out and refabricate by hand, but you didn't see any of us filing class-action lawsuits...

...the big internet buzz i read last week mostly involved toyota owners being pansies...

[...m... on February 15, 2010 at 10:57 AM]

...ah, here we go, links to a few of the rants i rounded up over the weekend, just as reassurance that i'm not being deliberately inflammatory...

http://jalopnik.com/5464315/beige-bites-back-is-toyota-paying-the-price-for-building-dull-cars
http://blog.caranddriver.com/prius-next-up-for-recall-hysteria-could-corolla-be-next-editorial/
http://jalopnik.com/5470420/car-and-driver-joins-jalopnik-crusade-against-beige

[David Colborne on February 15, 2010 at 11:10 AM]

Hey, give Toyota credit - their cars are unstoppable!

Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week. Try the veal!

As for headlights, I've had to replace bulbs on a few occasions. On an '89 Cougar, it went well until the plastic clips on the bulb housing went, causing it to just rattle around in its little plastic bubble. That was unpleasant. The '93 Dakota, meanwhile, still used the old-school integrated bulb-housing unit (the same kind the NHTSA required to abuse '70s European car styling), which required removing the plastic grill cover, but was otherwise unremarkable. I had a friend of mine that was trying to replace the bulbs on his Tempo and was fiddling with his screwdriver - when I showed him they could be removed via a hand-turnable plastic housing, he was ecstatic.

It just depends on the car. Most of them aren't too bad, at least from what I've seen; then again, I've never worked on a Honda.

As for cars in general... y'know, it depends on the age, but I've had better luck with mid-'90s and later cars than I have with '70s and '80s cars. For example, I don't know why an early '90s Tempo has METAL pipes, much less why you have to remove them to get to the water pump, but they're there and they are definitely in the way. Mid '90s Dodge and VW, on the other hand - no problem, though VW parts are fiendishly difficult to get sometimes. I've also noticed that the ability to work on a modern (post-1980) car seems to be inversely proportional to the number of cylinders it has, especially if it's front wheel drive. In fact, in the future, I might just look for cars that come with two engine sizes and get the smaller one - you'd be amazed how much room an engine bay can have when it's big enough for a V-6 but is only holding a lowly 4-banger.

I've also found that, paradoxically enough, domestic automakers are worse than imports about keeping their cars self-maintainable (i.e. not making it a royal pain in the arse to get to anything, not burying everything in several layers of plastic and poorly placed wiring, not requiring bizarre tools - I'm looking at you, Ford "oil sender socket"). Looking under the hood of a modern Corolla is a revelation - it's clean, it's sensible, and everything is moderately accessible. Looking under the hood of a Cobalt, on the other hand, reminds me why I don't buy Chevy.

[Chris Mallow on February 15, 2010 at 01:59 PM]

Funny you should mention light replacement. Within the past several weeks I've done a few light replacements. First, a headlight bulb on my '86 Bronco. Simple and quick: remove the piece of fascia around the bulb, unscrew the bulb retainer, unplug the bulb, then plug in the new bulb and reverse the process. Not bad, about 5 minutes' work.

Then a couple of weeks ago I replaced my sister-in-law's blinker on her 2004 Civic. This seemed simple enough from the description in the manual, but it entailed undoing a couple of body clips (both of which broke and couldn't be reused) to partially release the plastic under-fender cover, then pulling back said cover enough to reach forward into the fender and undo the light socket BNC-connector-style. The hardest part was getting my hand in to reach the socket so I could undo it. Only about 30 minutes for the whole job, but not as simple as it could (and should) be. However, that's still pretty simple by today's standards, since very little on modern vehicles seems to be designed for quick/cheap/simple replacement or repair.

[Bill T. on February 15, 2010 at 02:57 PM]

Ah, the perpetual headlight considerations. Many moons ago, when I first started driving, I was plagued by more than my share of broken headlights. If I remember correctly, I replaced those of others also. When an odd pebble thrown by another car would hit the sealed beam, it took but a moment as the atmosphere entered the vacuum and the filament died. The next step was rather easy. Go to a parts store, or K Mart, where headlights were often on sale. Several times I was able to get one, either double filament, for the low and high beams,or single filament for the high beam for $2.00 - $3.00. The biggest problem was to loosen the headlight rim, which was often held in place by overtightened (or rusted) screws. Usually the rusted screw(s) ended up needing replacement. This is not the case today. Currently I have a '94 Jeep Grand Cherokee, which could use a new headlight. One of the mounting points in back of the light unit is broken, and the light can move by itself, throwing the beams off. To correct this, as far as I can tell, the grille must be removed and that might be just the start of the operation. When it gets warmer outside, I should try it.

[Tommy's Dad on February 15, 2010 at 08:18 PM]

I've got a bigger problem than headlights on my mind (although on that topic, I think the only times I've had to replace a headlight was on our 89 Nissan pickup and my 92 Topaz, and it wasn't really hard even for me either time). Right now, I've got a rust problem that I need some advice on from more knowledgeable minds than my own (which means, everyone else here).

http://spokane.craigslist.org/cto/1598715149.html

So, this is what I'm looking at right now in my used car search. It would fit my needs for light utility, the kid has an actual backseat he can ride in (unlike an extended-cab small pickup), probably would do good on fuel, and with the manual transmission and height it might actually be kinda interesting to drive, not to mention it would be damn near invincible in what snow we get around here. The price is a little high, but it's got a lot of goodies, it's had a lot of work done on it, and it's somewhat unique. Plus, the seller seems open to negotiation on price. Cool.

What's got me worried is the additional pics of the underside that he just sent me. The engine and the gas tank look fine, but everywhere else...there is rust, and to my untrained eye, there seems like a lot of it. Now, if he hadn't sent me these pics I probably would never have noticed or known about it, so I'm assuming a pretty healthy measure of honesty on his part that he's showing me what's going on under there. What I can't really figure though, is if this is a problem I can easily/cheaply deal with or if this should be a potential deal-breaker. Where I live doesn't really have any rust problems, they don't salt the roads and our summers are just hot and dry. But, I'm also wary of getting into something that is going to have major suspension decay in the next few months or years.

Obviously it's going to be a little harder to give definite advice without the actual pics to see what's going on, so anyone that's interested let me know here so I can send them along- it's a rather large zip file, and I don't really have time to host 'em anywhere. But if anyone has general thoughts, ideas, experience, or opinions, by all means share and I will listen.

[That Car Guy on February 15, 2010 at 08:48 PM]

Tommy's Dad: When in doubt, take the car in for an evaluation. Some money spent there should answer your questions by a professional who can look the whole car over.

[Chris Meirose on February 15, 2010 at 09:16 PM]

I've done the headlights on my wife's nearly identical 96 Civic. They suck. But once you learn how to operate the clip on the back of the lights (without actually ever being able to see it) you greatly reduce the time it takes. And there is a direct correlation between time it takes to replace a bulb and frustration for the job. The mechanic at your local Honda dealer can probably do the job in 5 minutes. Of course that'll still run you $110, but that's a story for a different time...

[Rob the Audi Guy on February 16, 2010 at 12:20 AM]

Tommy: The car is fine. Sometimes flash makes things look rustier than they really are. Something that "new", will be fine. It's galvanized. It should last another 7-10 years, easy.

[Tommy's Dad on February 16, 2010 at 01:50 AM]

Thank you Rob and That Car Guy! Very helpful information.

[Chris Hafner on February 16, 2010 at 09:50 AM]

I can identify on the headlight replacement front - as with the Civic mentioned above, my Accord requires me to undo the fender lining (requiring me to break the plastic clips, peel back that lining, extend my whole arm up to the headlight, and disconnect, remove, insert, and reconnect without actually seeing what I'm doing. What a nightmare - relatively speaking, of course.

[Steaming Pile on February 16, 2010 at 10:04 AM]

I have problems with components that are supposed to take punishment by definition - bumpers, for example - but can't anymore because some nimrod decided the car would look way cooler if they were PAINTED. Take your run of the mill 80s sh1tbocks. These usually had either chrome bumpers with rubber trim, or black plastic bumper covers. Either of these could take a reasonably slight hit from a shopping cart or somebody else's run of the mill 80s sh1tbocks.

Now the bumper has been painted the same color as the rest of the car, and not only that, requires "plasticizers" in order to properly adhere to whatever they make those things out of nowadays. So not only is this a means of keeping (presumably dealer-run) body shops busy, it costs more to paint a bumper that oughtn't ever require such babying because plastic != metal. All because your dog is overly curious about what you have in your trunk.

[Chris Hafner on February 17, 2010 at 12:14 PM]

Spotted on Craigslist by occasional Car Lust contributor Bernard Bolisig this morning - a fairly sweet-looking old Celica that is apparently in need of some THC.
http://seattle.craigslist.org/tac/cto/1604987446.html

[Chris Hafner on February 17, 2010 at 01:48 PM]

On the subject of used cars - another member of my team just sent me this site, which is completely within Car Lust's wheelhouse- cars for a grand:
http://www.carsforagrand.com/

It is what it sounds like - a listing of cars for sale for less than $1000. I'm planning on spending some quality personal time with this site in the next few days ...

[That Car Guy on February 17, 2010 at 06:48 PM]

Uh, Chris, is that TLC? LOL