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Having done extensive work on both old ('64 Ford Falcon, '68 Ford LTD) and new ('99 Eclipse, '00 S4) old cars are WAY easier to work on. The first issue is sim
by modoc 15y ago
Having done extensive work on both old ('64 Ford Falcon, '68 Ford LTD) and new ('99 Eclipse, '00 S4) old cars are WAY easier to work on.
The first issue is simplicity and access. Old cars have big engine bays with everything spread out, easy to see, easy to get at. There are very few wires and it's pretty obvious (to a gearhead) what each component, wire, hose, etc... does. New cars have way more "stuff" packed into way less space. You can't see most things, and can't get at most things. There's a million wires, mostly run through harnesses, and plugged into various computers, etc...
Rebuilding a carb, while not easy, is easier than trying to diagnose if your poorly running engine is because of: bad MAF, bad O2 sensor(s) (some cars have 4-6 of these), bad O2 sensor wires (good luck tracking those through the various wire looms, etc...), bad computer(s), bad injector(s), bad FP, etc... Troubleshooting a throttle cable is easy compared to issues with a drive-by-wire system.
New cars are safer, perform better, handle better, etc... but working on them is a pain.
- r0s 15y agoI have a counter point for ya: Coming from an (amateur) electronics background, I can say the mechanical aspects seem just as opaque and confusing. For example: Most electric systems can be tested with a multimeter and needlenose pliers. Repairs don't get more complex than soldering. There's a garage full of specialized tools needed for the mechanical side of things. Checking fuel pressure, removing tires, etc.
- modoc 15y agoYes but even with modern cars you still need all the mechanical things, and things get way beyond a multimeter and a soldering iron on modern cars pretty quickly. There are many black-box computers, many complex sensors, thousands of wires that are next-to-impossible to trace/track through wire looms, the firewall, etc... I'm handy with a multimeter and a soldering iron, but still:)
- swishercutter 15y agoYou just need a diagram...I replaced all the wiring on a 1993 Mazda 626 from the front bumper to the dash. 4 big looms. If you have the "real" shop manual tracing problems is easy...not the Haynes or Chiltons (I have the original shop manuals for 2 of my 4 cars, including the electrical supplements, all wire color codings and methods to test every sensor are in the books. I will not argue that fixing the main relay on my father's 1962 Thunderbird was way easier (I won't even get into the difference between dropping the fuel tank vs. a newer car) I believe for the most part newer cars are not much harder to work on. I really like what Volkswagen did with their VAG-Com stuff, really makes troubleshooting easy...like stupid easy, plus it interfaces with the laptop for datalogging.
- r0s 15y agoI guess what I mean is most of those are closed systems which you need to replace entirely when they malfunction. That's the best part of mechanical components for me: When it fails, often they just need to be cleaned.
- nitrogen 15y agoI suspect that dirtying mechanical components have a higher TCO and/or failure frequency than total-failure electrical components.