A Venting Thread!!!! FORD SUCKS!!!

[CatatonicBug]

Volkswagens.... yep, a nice, uncomplicated, cheap to fix car.

But those 'recommended' valve adjustments at every oil change could get old, as well as the Bus driving directions if traveling at speeds above 50 mph; 45 minutes of driving, then 15 minutes stopped for engine cooling (not kidding; that was in the owners manual for my ex's '68 bus). I'm sure that owners not paying attention to that was the reason you almost always saw used buses advertised with 'fresh rebuilt' motors... And they are a bit of a chinese puzzle; you VILL put it together in proper order, nein? Stuff won't fit if you don't....

Yeah... I'm not a fan of the Supers or the Buses. I DO like the Things though. That would be my ultimate fun car. Unfortunately, all I've ever found are rust buckets.

[motoman]

Not goin' there Steve.........HBT and all, but at times seems engineers and reality do clash......

[crazy steve]

Yeah... I'm not a fan of the Supers or the Buses. I DO like the Things though. That would be my ultimate fun car. Unfortunately, all I've ever found are rust buckets.

Well, I won't say I'm a huge fan of Beetles, but wanting an inexpensive convertible (yeah, like those words go together ) to drag around behind the motor home, I found that a bug was the only cheap small car that wouldn't fold in half if you cut off the top; the sedan and convert floorpans are basically indentical. And I did have to do some extensive rust repair; between that and the body mods, I used a 10lb roll of wire-feed wire on it. But the doors still work...

The '71 is more Beetle than Super, as it still has the flat windshield/dash. It does have that funky 'fresh air' intake, but I removed all that (had to fill something like 16 holes in the dash after removing!). The strut front suspension is an improvement over the torsion bar but more expensive to fix. Still have to rewire it for towing (VW used a left/right lighting setup instead of front/rear), but the weight is now low enough that I don't need to tie the brakes to the MH. With the added ground clearance from the weight loss and a set of snow tires, I figure it will have a bit of 'off-road' capabilty.

[rover]

%$#& Ford

The last decent ford engine was a flat head V8--------that is until you had to re-adjust the valve lash. I hate every bolt on a Ford.

[crazy steve]

The last decent ford engine was a flat head V8--------that is until you had to re-adjust the valve lash. I hate every bolt on a Ford.

Everybody has different 'luck' with different brands; in my case, every GM product except one that I owned suffered catastrophic engine failure, the exact opposite of my Ford experience. My current ride (a LT1-powered Jag) has me 'knocking wood' on a regular basis...

[dpotter58]

This is how a v-6 Passat looks when you change the alternator

[DGXSER]

Yeah even VW has gone off the deep end!!!

This is by far not my first problem like this. I had an 88 Toyota truck and it took me ten minutes to get the starter off the engine and then two hours to get it off the truck only after removing the solenoid from the starter. So, another 20 min job that took 3 hours.

I just have never hear do such insanity as needing to drain the flipping coolant from the engine to change starter. Especially when it is such a long repetitive process to refill the bloody thing. That turned into another 3 hour process of filling the overflow, getting the engine to temp to open the thermostat, let it cool, refill overflow....repeat......repeat....repeat.....repea t!! What ever happened to a radiator cap you can pull, fill the thing up. Run it once to let the thermostat open and then top it off and be done.

[Rasputin]

Duh. Cant sell them so you have to make money servicing them. The whole issue is that the manufacturers have to make sure you and I can not service or rebuild them. They lose so much money that way!

[Pat Kelly]

And people scoff at my 68 F100 with 240 ci straight six. Top-loader 4 speed with granny low. It smokes and rattles a bit but still going strong and easy to work on. I can remove the starter from the top or bottom, either way works. I could probably remove it with the truck running.

[dpotter58]

And people scoff at my 68 F100 with 240 ci straight six. Top-loader 4 speed with granny low. It smokes and rattles a bit but still going strong and easy to work on. I can remove the starter from the top or bottom, either way works. I could probably remove it with the truck running.

I have always had ford 100/150/250 s forever. When I was young and felt like I needed POWER I had big block 390s or 460s. My best move was going to the straight 6 300s. My '03 has the v 6 and it sucks...

[DGXSER]

On the brighter side of things, last night I changed the serpentine belt on my F150 witht he 5.4L V8. Entire process took less than 30 minutes. And a good deal of it was spent getting my daughter out to the garage, who is now driving it more than not, so she could push the ratchet to loosen the tensioner while I put the belt over the alternator pulley with both hands.

MY brother had a Dodge Dakota which had an inline 4 in it. Now that thing was worthless. Barely got out of its own way and even then, they still had one spark plug shoved in behind the AC compressor!!

[cywelchjr]

Yeah, changing the belt on my Camaro takes a 1/2 inch drive ratchet, and pretty much one other hand (the hard part is getting it routed right).

However, my 2003 Malibu requires removing one motor mount to change the belt. At least they actually made it easy to get the motor mount out for that. Now I haven't changed the plugs yet, I'm only 10k over when I was supposed to change them at 100k, but I think I have to disassemble a bunch of stuff to change the back 3 (the front 3 are pretty easy).

I did have the water pump go out and it was easy, but the spark plugs seem less than easy, although only needed every 100,000 miles.

[xs11jack]

I bought a 91 Dodge Spirit new. It had the v-6 and 4 spd tranny. The tranny quit just before the warranty went out. After that, no repairs until I sold it at 200K miles. At that time the valve stem seals were starting to leak a bit. I drove the car from St. Louis area to Mpls about 4 times a year, and one a year to New Orleans once a year. Thats why in 9 yrs it had the 200K on it. On the freeway it always averaged 33 mpg. Around town about 28 mpg. Now I have a 2000 toyota Camry with a v-6. Best mileage on the freeway is 30 mpg and 25 around town. Nine years newer and less gas mileage. And on TV chevy and other car companies are boasting 28 mpg. My, how technology has improved our lives!!! Biggist mistake I ever made was selling the Dodge. The Toyota needed a new thermostat. $10 at Autozone. About 20 minutes to coax the old one off, and 2 hrs to get it out.
Wonderful!
Ole Jack

[ManagerMike]

Just to chime in on this one.....I've been servicing cars/trucks for a living for a quarter centuryn now and have dicovered one truism, that appears valid across all makes and models, that explains why they are so maddeningly frustrating to reapair at times: they are designed and engineered to be ASSEMBLED, not serviced.

[Kronk]

Just to chime in on this one.....I've been servicing cars/trucks for a living for a quarter centuryn now and have dicovered one truism, that appears valid across all makes and models, that explains why they are so maddeningly frustrating to reapair at times: they are designed and engineered to be ASSEMBLED, not serviced.

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