Engineers need to try their own work

[ENCORE50A]

Headed to town for a couple things, one being a tailgate seal. Nope. Not a single auto place carries it. Ok, Amazon does

I get my running around in town completed and head for home. I get to about 5mi from the house and the dash on my truck lights up in ORANGE. Tells me I'm loosing air in the left rear tire. So I pull off the side of the road and across a blacktopped driveway, where there was two ways in. Sure as heck, that left rear was flat.

Ok, here's where a guy can get an attitude with engineers........................
Trying to get the jack and equipment out to change the tire was at minimum a pain in the ask. Who the heck designed that? The manual was just about worthless, so I winged it pretty good anyway. However, getting that spare down, unhooked and out from under the truck wasn't easy either. What a PITA!
After about an hour of screwing around changing the tire, I was finally ready to turn around and head back to town for a tire repair.

The engineers that designed the system, evidently have never had to use it!

Pulled into the tire shop, which was just slightly busy. I was told about 45min to an hour. That I could deal with, no problem. The guy finally went out and pulled my truck in the bay for the repair. He immediately found the culprit that flattened the tire. Looked just like the inside of an ink pen. So off the guy goes to do the repair.

WAIT! He comes back and talks with me and the manager. Seems these new wheels are tire killers .... IF ..... one has a flat. He told me in most cases, people don't get enough warning and also don't get stopped fast enough. The wheel just eats the inside of the tire right down to the threads. With just hitting 4,000 miles, the tire was destroyed. Great. Well I need a new tire now, so they had to order it, and it'll be there tomorrow. I'm supposed to show up sometime around 2:00pm or a little later.

Oh the best part...................... The new tire only costs $388.00 Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

 

[deermanok]

I feel ya, my brother. My wife got a piece of plastic in a tire recently. It was in the treads, so a plug fixed that but ya, everything is way too expensive this days.

 

[retrieverman]

@ENCORE50A
I feel your pain!!! I have to keep tires on 3 trucks, my wife‘s car, my daughter’s car, 10 trailers, and 2 tractors, and tires aren’t the same quality as they were 15-20 years ago.

 

[fishhawk2700]

Headed to town for a couple things, one being a tailgate seal. Nope. Not a single auto place carries it. Ok, Amazon does

I get my running around in town completed and head for home. I get to about 5mi from the house and the dash on my truck lights up in ORANGE. Tells me I'm loosing air in the left rear tire. So I pull off the side of the road and across a blacktopped driveway, where there was two ways in. Sure as heck, that left rear was flat.

Ok, here's where a guy can get an attitude with engineers........................
Trying to get the jack and equipment out to change the tire was at minimum a pain in the ask. Who the heck designed that? The manual was just about worthless, so I winged it pretty good anyway. However, getting that spare down, unhooked and out from under the truck wasn't easy either. What a PITA!
After about an hour of screwing around changing the tire, I was finally ready to turn around and head back to town for a tire repair.

The engineers that designed the system, evidently have never had to use it!

Pulled into the tire shop, which was just slightly busy. I was told about 45min to an hour. That I could deal with, no problem. The guy finally went out and pulled my truck in the bay for the repair. He immediately found the culprit that flattened the tire. Looked just like the inside of an ink pen. So off the guy goes to do the repair.

WAIT! He comes back and talks with me and the manager. Seems these new wheels are tire killers .... IF ..... one has a flat. He told me in most cases, people don't get enough warning and also don't get stopped fast enough. The wheel just eats the inside of the tire right down to the threads. With just hitting 4,000 miles, the tire was destroyed. Great. Well I need a new tire now, so they had to order it, and it'll be there tomorrow. I'm supposed to show up sometime around 2:00pm or a little later.

Oh the best part...................... The new tire only costs $388.00 Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Engineered to piss ya off. George, I don't even screw around with factory jack/spare. I have a tire change kit in both my p/u trucks. I keep my spare in the bed with a bottle jack and the rest of the stuff I need for a change. If I'm pulling the boat or the TT I carry a 1/2" battery impact driver. You should be glad it didn't happen in the middle of winter.

 

[ENCORE50A]

Engineered to piss ya off. George, I don't even screw around with factory jack/spare. I have a tire change kit in both my p/u trucks. I keep my spare in the bed with a bottle jack and the rest of the stuff I need for a change. If I'm pulling the boat or the TT I carry a 1/2" battery impact driver. You should be glad it didn't happen in the middle of winter.

Next time, I'll call for service. Not going through that again at my age and health.

 

[Fyrstyk]

My wife had a flat on one of her Subaru tires. the set had only 10k miles on them. the tire guy said he could not replace the one tire, the whole set had to be changed due to some stupid traction control thing. My wife, not knowing any better) just said OK. $1050.00 later she now has 4 new tires on the car. Second set in 1 1/2 years. What a rip off.

 

[Clairebear]

I let CAA or AAA change them

 

[snapbang]

I have a friend who draws lines for one or the other auto companies. (CAD Operator/designer) I get all over his rear all the time about who designed that thing. Believe me there is nothing about the question that is polite and is usually foul. He says they design it then some big wig comes by and says do this, this, this, this, and walks away. I figure the guy probably has a chauffeur and never drives his own car. Much less change a tire or put gas in it.

You know, the guy who thought it would be smart to put the gas tank on the passengers side. Now the gas station is all disorganized. Now if you run out of gas (with millions driving it will happen) you get to stand next to traffic to try to fill it. genius

How about the new tech where you can sit in the seat and the vehicle will stay between the lines all by itself. How many will spend more time texting and kill themselves or others? Genius.

 

[GBG]

Thirty years ago, I was preaching that if auto engineers were forced to work a 2nd shift as mechanics and electronic technicians repairing what they designed during their day shift, vehicles would last longer, be more reliable and easier to work on.

 

[GBG]

Sorry but I've just remembered something I've got to share. In the mid 1960's my old man worked as a draftsman in the engineering department for Arvin Industries. They supplied mufflers and exhaust systems to the Detroit auto manufacturers.

One day a machinist came into the Eng. Dept. walked up to my old man's spotlessly clean, well-lit drafting table and asked, "Are you Mr. G. ? My old man said," Yes". Then the machinist held out and dropped a handful of oil-soaked pieces of scrap metal and cutting chips - right in the center of a full-size blueprint that was still being worked on.

My old man said, "What's this?" The machinist answered, "That's the 1-inch hole you wanted drilled through the center of a piece of 3/4 inch wide flat bar", and then he walked out. It never happened again.

 

[snapbang]

Priceless story GBG

 

[GREENSWYLDE]

Had THREE Subbies 2.5 Outbacks Two over 200mls before sold or EXXD.. Third, a 2.5 Twincam Turbo was KNICKED at 196000 Ms. Never had Tyre problems. Just CROSS OVER change back to front every few hundred K. As for the 10 K problem , GO see the tyre man and while telling what you think of him get the other half to put a roofing nail under all his wheels and laugh all the way to another agent. Mitsi L300 now done 138odd and NOT Selling. Too good to be true!! O.D.

 

[Waxxy]

Just a hint, before calling Triple A you get a quicker response by calling the local sheriff for aid, that has been my exsperience, they are in closer contact with the towing and repair outfits. My thoughts on engineers are the same, What works on paper does not always work out in the real world. Sometimes I state I wish I could get my hands on the guy who designed this thing. And I mean it.

 

[earlwb]

I remember many years ago a engineer at a company I was working at had a bunch of problems with his expensive fancy BMW car. When the time came he needed to get new tires on it. But it had some kind of super special custom BMW wheels on it. That was on top of it using special tires too. Only the BMW car dealer had the special tools needed to replace the tires with.

You guessed it, they actually ruined three of the four wheels trying to mount the new tires. The tire guy used the wrong tire machine. Worse was the dealer somehow turned it around to be his fault. He had to retain a lawyer to sue them over it. After a year and a half they came to a settlement where they replaced the custom BMW wheels and tires with regular ones.

Later he tried to sell me the car. All I had to do was just take over the payments. I turned him down as the monthly payment was almost more than I made in a month.

 

[earlwb]

I really liked my Subaru Outback. But it had problems. The idiot engineer put the catalytic converter under and just inches away from the right front CVC joint and rubber boot. About every ten thousand miles the rubber boot would start leaking and spraying oil all over the place. The heat from the red hot converter would cook the boot. Not exactly cheap to replace the boot either. I swear every time they did the fuel injector cleaning scam the catalytic converter would go bad. Fortunately the warranty covered it. But it takes forever for the converter to cool down enough to replace it. Then when I first bought it they talked me into getting the nitrogen in the tires instead of just using plain air at a premium of course. That lasted until the second oil change when they started using air again. The final straw was the car dealer moved twice. The last time almost 50 miles away and on a freeway under a multi-year reconstruction phase where it was in permanent traffic jam mode. Even at 2 AM the lanes were jammed with traffic. I then switched brands to something a lot more close to where I live.

 

[sam-arkie]

I was born and raised in a feed mill and dairy equipment business in Arkansas, we handled 3 or 4 different brands of milking equipment, milk tanks and milk cooling equipment. One of those companies, Paul Mueller Company based in Springfield, Missouri, had lots of dairy farms close to their headquarters and plant. They had a rule, service work within so many miles of the plant was performed with the help and presence of engineers at a company. You know what? You could actually access and work on their equipment a lot better than the other company's stuff.

 

[Butch58]

I worked as a mechanic in the late 70’s and 80’s. I worked on everything. The worst designs I saw was from Audi on the 100LS. The front disc brakes were inboard next to the transmission. You always knew when someone had to change the pads. Loud hard core cursing and wrenches being thrown across the shop. But the worst was the main wiring harness was routed right by the exhaust manifold. You guessed it. Melted wiring harness. The complete vehicle would have to be rewired and all electrical components replaced. I always rerouted it to avoid this stupid design. Luckily none caught on fire from this moronic design, none that I know of anyway.