German Engineering

[Tommychu]

We've all been there. You think, well Mazdas (and the Ford/Kia derivatives) are great, but there's a whole other world out there. Those German cars look really neat, they're all fairly well put together and a lot of them go like stink and handle like rollercoasters. Maybe you've been spying some good deals on Mercs or Bimmers on Craigslist and you might even test drive one someday.
Well I saw these pictures on another forum today and the Superior German Engineering(tm) very nearly had me losing my lunch:


Let that sink in for a minute.
The diff housing and the engine oil pan are the same part.
That spring has been that shape since it's been a spring.
Are you now a lot more glad you own a Festiva?

[bhazard]

Never seen anything like either of those on my German car... lmao

[Bert]

Truth be known 'ze schquare-heads' do come up with some very odd engineering solutions which tend to be quite expensive to fix. But I guess that's part of the prestige of knowing you can afford $5G garage bills.
My mechanic buddy tangled with an all-wheel drive 98 Audi A4 a few years ago. Clutch was backwards (Pressure plate and clutch precedes the flywheel up against the engine) and the rear driveshaft was overly complicated and featured an integral hanger bearing that is consequently $1500 to replace (ie purchase of an entire shaft assembly)! An inventive machine shop in the States will modify these to accept a replaceable $20 Ford or GM hanger but that bill comes to $500 in order to do so. The naive and blue-collar fellow that owned the car was told about all this and advised to get rid of the thing as fast as he could, and I no longer view Audi vehicles with even a slight degree of envy.

[Tommychu]

Oh Audi had the best one ever:

http://www.spannerhead.com/2011/10/21/technical-curiosities-audis-ufo-brakes/

It's around $3k per corner for a brake job on a car with this braking system these days- and that's only if you can find rotors (it was a 2 or 3 year production run on one model only, so no Raybestos, and Audi discontinued the part). They're not machinable and they like to warp.

[Bert]

Oh Audi had the best one ever:

http://www.spannerhead.com/2011/10/21/technical-curiosities-audis-ufo-brakes/

It's around $3k per corner for a brake job on a car with this braking system these days- and that's only if you can find rotors (it was a 2 or 3 year production run on one model only, so no Raybestos, and Audi discontinued the part). They're not machinable and they like to warp.

Helps explain why there is an entire row of Audis at the U-Pull near me. They aren't crashed or rusted either.
To work on these cars you have to invest in Audi proprietary wrenches and sockets too. All bolts are allen-key type which is complete lunacy when you really have to haul on them. Exterior flats (such as found on most other cars) are vastly superior and allow for much better grip. But I guess this ensures that Audi owners don't dare attempt repairs themselves.

[Rocketman]

I just saw this on /r/justrolledintotheshop what a ridiculous design. But "clever", I guess?

[Tommychu]

Helps explain why there is an entire row of Audis at the U-Pull near me. They aren't crashed or rusted either.
To work on these cars you have to invest in Audi proprietary wrenches and sockets too. All bolts are allen-key type which is complete lunacy when you really have to haul on them. Exterior flats (such as found on most other cars) are vastly superior and allow for much better grip. But I guess this ensures that Audi owners don't dare attempt repairs themselves.

Meh, triple-square stuff can be had from just about any tool supplier these days for fairly cheap. The fact that you need a VAG-specific scan tool for that stuff is ridiculous though (considering I have full diagnostic access to literally every other OBD2 vehicle in existence through my cell phone and a $10 bluetooth-OBD adapter).

http://www.grainger.com/product/SK-PROFESSIONAL-TOOLS-Socket-Bit-20K572

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/ELM327-Mini-OBD-II-OBD2-Bluetooth-Auto-Car-Diagnostic-Scanner-Wireless-Scan-Tool-/181177745308?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a2f08ff9c&_uhb=1

GM is getting pretty bad though. The Atlas (inline 4, 5 and 6 engines seen in Trailblazers, Colorados and all their sister vehicles) takes about $1K in specialty tooling to rebuild. It's a pity too, because aside from that little detail and the bizarre pointless failure-prone electric clutched mechanical fan they're a pretty incredible engine. They'll be a good swap candidate for the rat-rod/restomod crowd in a few years when they come down in price I think.

[Tommychu]

I just saw this on /r/justrolledintotheshop what a ridiculous design. But "clever", I guess?

Yeah it's always really clever mit ze Germans, it's just that clever to them invariably means that something is unnecessarily complicated- usually to a hilarious degree.