DIY Oil Changes

[Dustydog]

Why are manufacturers designing new vehicles in such a way as to make it virtually impossible for the home mechanic to do anything. I thought my Kia Sorento oil filter was hard enough to reach but the Kia Carens takes the biscuit. You need "twizzle" arms.

Seems to me the engine designers don't talk to the chassis designers!

Cheers

Dustdyog

 

[WatsonJohnG]

When I lived in Germany I had a VW Variant 1600 estate and I belonged to ADAC (AA equivalent)

They ran an article on servicing the Variant and the spark plugs are so difficult to reach on each side of the engine and divided by the carburettots that they concluded that you needed the hands of a lady's doctor!!

 

[stu658]

it's all about money Dustydog, i know what you mean though, there seems to be covers underneath and cover on top to remove before you even begin to undo anything. My son is a Kia technician and he curses them everyday with all the special tools at his dispossal, i can understand how you feel!!

 

[WatsonJohnG]

The Nissan X Trail has a plastic cover under the engine held on by mushroom shaped plastic plugs with a centre push in locking plug

Some of mine are mising following a service but my dealer had no spares available and they are bigger than normal

 

[Dustydog]

To grease the propshafts ujs you have to partially remove the props just to get the grease gun on the nipples!

Cheers

Dustydog

 

[Steve L]

Having worked in the motor industry in design and development of chassis components, I can concurr that there is a distinct lack of consideration to servicing, when initial construction takes place.

On the assembly line the engine and gearbox will often arrive with drive shafts and suspension struts already assembled. As the assembly takes place in open air environment with near 100% accessability, they process technicians don't have to consider difficulty of access. Then the whole shabang is jacked up under the body shell with only half a dozen or so mounting points to do up.

From a process technicians point of view (one of my titles)to make the assembly process cost effective you have to aim for each attatchment process to take the same average time +/- 5% per person in the sub assembly team, so that no paid operator is stood idle for more than 6 seconds per minit.

All of this equates to after market servicing being the second consideration as these days the manufacturer takes care to design the life expectancy of parts to just beyond their warrantee period. What this unfortunately means is that you the customer end up footing the cost of extended service times because the mechanic has to unbolt so much ancilary bits to get to the part they require to exchange.

I was trained as what I call a proper engineer. By that I mean an engineer who can make or repair any part of a car rather than the job that our so called technicians do today. Today's spanner weilder does just that bolt off bung it and bolt on the new part, often termed a sealed unit.

I've been amusing myself for a few days tinkering with an early 1950's British Anzanni outboard motor that hadn't run for years. Working with no manual or technical data slowed me a little but after a full strip down clean and re assembly, I now have a fully functional running motor.

So realy DIY servicing is a lot like that. You don't cost the time spent or factor in fiddling to achieve the cost saving and for me the satisfaction of being able understand my vehicles better.

ATB steve L.

 

[Jaydug]

We have four family cars all of which I look after myself. On two of them - the oldest ones - I can do an oil and filter change in about 15 minutes. On my C5 HDI, even after fifteen minutes I haven't got the undertray off. But the oil change is the easy bit. Try changing a sidelight bulb. It's off with the front bumper and out with the headlamp. Madness!!!

 

[Garfield]

I am beginning to really hate modern cars and their manufacturers!, now that the makers have been forced by market pressure to make body and mechanicals last longer they have filled the cars with electronics to make the cars uneconomical to repair when they fail long before they should.

My all time favourite car was a 1989 Golf GTI, basic fuel injection that gave power and up to 50mpg but none of the pointless cr*p like electric windows, power steering, central locking, parking sensors etc etc just a basic car that, if looked after would be economical to keep on the road indefinitely.

All of the fancy engine management systems that are required to meet emissions targets are a pointless waste of time as they are too expensive to replace when they fail and the vehicle is scrapped before it's time, creating pollution in the scrapping process and pollution in the manufacture of a new vehicle. The current scrappage sceme has absolutely no benefit to the environment, it is purely to prop up the car industry.

 

[MikeJE]

And for example Kia Sedona headlight bulbs. Since I have fairly chunky hands requires - nearside bulb loosen and move battery first; offside remove windscreen washer bottle first. Or am I missing something here?

 

[Dustydog]

Steve

The Sorento oil filter has to be manipulated through a double bend to clear the main chassis girder. This results in one pint of black old oil running down my arm, all over the chassis and drive shafts and the driveway!

I agree the satisfaction of doing it yourself is very rewarding. The local Kia dealer wants

 

[seth1]

Considering how many modern vehicles are around,my opinion is they ar,nt bad.I would also say modern engine management is not a waste of time.Its made life a hell of alot easier for manufactures especally with the adoption of controller area networks,its made it alot easier to make one engine" fit all "

as the same communication language is being used as an industry standard with regards to ECU communication(two types in actual fact).

Throttle cables are a thing of the past,allowing far greater control over engine features and parameters,the main advantage is their far safer,and show could be faults in advance thus giving people chance to rectify before a total failure.

As for hard to access service points,how many people have access to proper facilities?ie two post lifts.

 

[tug100]

This is one of the reasons that I am in no rush to change my tug. I serviced it this weekend - new oil, oil filter, cleaned the air filter and changed the fuel filter.

Total cost about

 

[Dustydog]

Martin

What we need is some of those vets long rubber glove that go up to your armpit!

Whose oil did you use?

I had to buy 10 litres of 5W / 30 part synthetic as the Sorie takes 9. I used Halfords own diesel stuff which cost

 

[tug100]

Hi Dusty

Sorry for delay - just been surfin in Cornwall. Back today.

The oil I used was Valvoline 10w-40 Semi Synthetic.

I have always used semi synth, I called in at Halfords and after seeing the price of their own brand oil I went to my local motor factors who have quite a choice from

 

[otherclive]

I agree that Halfords oil prices are expensive, even for teir own lable products. I use the local farmers shops ( like Countrywide) which stock branded oils at far less than Halfords. I run my cars on Total Quartz 9000 which is fully synthetic and comes out at around