Ever want to shoot an engineer?

[Palf70Step]

Who designed these dash pads & their mounting? Crud those clips are worse than dealing with multiple ex-wives (and I have had that experience). I am attempting to put in a new on in the 83.

I had to walk away for a while.

OK, Rant done.

[bluex]

Yes almost everyday. I feel your pain, hope it goes better after the break....
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[lilpoindexter]

As an engineer that used to work in the Auto Industry, I can tell you we do/did the best with what budget we had. Ease of assembly, cheapness and functionality were all considerations.

So no, I never wanted to shoot an engineer...but the ex-wife...that I understand.

[broey]

I used to work for chrysler, and they told us that everything would be designed by different groups, in different areas. and then they would meet up, put all their crap together and as long as somehow there is a way for everything to mount, they call it good.

[irving216]

Originally Posted by broey

I used to work for chrysler, and they told us that everything would be designed by different groups, in different areas. and then they would meet up, put all their crap together and as long as somehow there is a way for everything to mount, they call it good.

thats almost definatly what it is. im pretty sure on the caddy northstars your pulling the engine almost out to do a heater core. never did it just heard about it. but i mean really? engineers need to just work on one of there cars they build and then rebuild it.

[lilpoindexter]

I worked for chrysler as well, in truck powertrain...we used to get into arguments over who got what real estate under the hood.

[broey]

I laughed pretty hard the first time I went under a liberty and saw the "waterside" for oil when the oil filter is removed.

[bluex]

The trailblazer my wife had before this POS van had one of those. I used to cuss that guy everytime I changed the oil in it. Even with the "waterslide" it would cover the entire crossmember with oil...

[Palf70Step]

BTW, no offense to our engineers on the board. I was just venting.

I decided to leave he dash for another day and work on sheet metal as well as assembling the guts of the doors.

Banging on sheet metal relaxes the soul

[72lb4x4]

I once worked on a brand new just delivered treadmill in a hospital that had test points where you could insert meter leads. The problem was if you inserted the meter lead all the way in it shorted on the heat sink for one of the voltage regulators and burned up some of the electronics.

You also couldn't open the box up to replace parts or work on it. Wires too short, etc.

Brain dead design...

[Restrorob]

Ever want to shoot an engineer?

In my line of work, Nearly every day !

Read my sig line.....

[BigBlocksRule]

The bastige I want to shoot is the one that decided to use studs with clinch nuts on all 6 bellhousing to block points on the '88 - trucks.

[KQQL IT]

or the alternator on my 2.2L sonoma.

[78 Chevyrado]

2 things, getting dried out crusty orifice tubes out of the eveporator without ruining the expensive evaporator and getting to the front brake lines where they pass through the frame.

Where engineers get into trouble is that 99% of them work on paper and won't listen to us lowly peons. They should apprentice in their chosen field and have to be journeyman before becoming engineers. would save lots of $$ and time.

Ask ford how they liked having to lift the whole cab off of some 2005 or so F-150's just to change the rear spark plugs.

Yeah, I'm a maintenance guy and get to laugh at least once or twice a week at how the engineers ideas didnt pan out, and I told them why before they even started and it went wrong exactly the way I said it would. but they still never listen to me since I'm not an engineer, so I have a good laugh fairly regularly. oh and the other perk, is I get paid to do the same work twice. job security.

[lakeroadster]

Originally Posted by 78 Chevyrado

Where engineers get into trouble is that 99% of them work on paper and won't listen to us lowly peons. They should apprentice in their chosen field and have to be journeyman before becoming engineers.

As a 50 year old Mechanical Engineer I couldn't agree more. I have always said that when interviewing a Designer or Mech. Engineer for a position the first part of the interview should be to have them change the tire on the car they are driving. If they can't do that with some semblance of direction and aptitude, don't interview them.

I have enjoyed a fairly successful career over the past 30 years and I credit that more to the guys building the product than to my own ability. I value their opinions and feedback as much (and sometimes more) than other Engineers, codes or standards.

Most of my friends from prior places of employment are shop guys: welders, machinists, fabricators, shop foremen, plant managers, etc. That pretty telling.

In an OEM environment, where product is being built for consumers, maintenance items should be a design priority. Access panels, drain paths, etc. are all part of the thought process on a well designed product.

However automobiles are an entirely different animal. Items like dash pads are designed for ease of manufacturability and installation on the assembly line. Period, end of story. Making it easier for a guy restoring the vehicle isn't even part of the equation. Save a penny on every vehicle and you can save millions for the company. Even maintenance items such as access to plugs and oil filters is a low priority from a design perspective. Getting to them is important, getting to them easily, not so much. This is especially true today since most people don't even work on their vehicles, they have someone else do it. Therefore they don't "buy" based on maintenance ease. The manufacturers build what the masses demand.

[Psycho71]

I have a buddy who swears I play "class warfare" when it comes to engineers. I work in the HVAC industry, and constantly but heads with engineers/architects. I've never seen a job that was able to be completed the way a set of blueprints showed it. And there's always some little clause on the plans that prevents the engineer from being responsible for anything. The fact is, it's the worker in the field, on the assembly line, *insert job here*, that makes things work. Engineers are good for providing an overall outline of how things SHOULD go, but they should stop there and let the more experienced workers have the latitude to make the calls necessary to make things work right.

Speaking of newer cars and trucks, I'm not sure I'll ever own another one just because of the way they are engineered. My last/newest truck was a '98 Chevy. While relatively simple to work on, why they ever put a $300 fuel pump in the stupid gas tank is still beyond me when a $100 frame rail mounted pump would do the job just fine. All their design did was make it harder and more expensive, aside from the fact that most consumers wouldn't work on it themselves when a what should be a simple repair is made so difficult. If the fedral gubment wants to play a larger role in the automotive industry, they should police such unnecessary designs and help the consumer save money and aggravation down the road. Not that I advocate the gubment play a larger role in ANYTHING!

[rjn72]

Electrician here, same as above. I have seen engineers design things that absolutely will not work and get mad when you try to warn them. Nothing like a 12 foot conveyor were a 12 inch one needs to go. The last place I worked the engineers started drawing then sent somebody out with drawings and masking tape on the ground, then looked at it and adjusted two or three times to make it fit. With all that said, Kimberly Clark in Conway AR is the best engineered plant I have ever worked in. You don't move 1 wire without it being on paper. You hook it up the way they say, if it doesn't work then they adjust the drawing, then you can adjust the work. You can find everything in the plant on a peice of paper somewhere.

[INSIDIOUS '86]

how about how GM makes all the bolts to their cars together twice as long as the need to be!!! agravating as ---- and the fact my truck is half metric half standard. gm you twits!!

[Prong]

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

Who designed these dash pads & their mounting? Crud those clips are worse than dealing with multiple ex-wives (and I have had that experience). I am attempting to put in a new on in the 83.

I had to walk away for a while.

OK, Rant done.

That's a cake job compared to those blasted spring clips for the door lock and latch rods. You're guaranteed to have mincemeat hands after that job...

[Palf70Step]

Originally Posted by Prong

That's a cake job compared to those blasted spring clips for the door lock and latch rods. You're guaranteed to have mincemeat hands after that job...

Yeah I know. That routine was part of the day yesterday also. Good thing for skinny arms.

[njlimbaugh]

I'm a retired machine designer (engineer) that learned the hard way. Finished high school and went to work drafting. Learned from a lot of oldtimers and tried to pass down the knowledge because I wound up training a lot of graduate 'engineers' during the last 15 or twenty years of work. Most of them never turned a wrench (I've been a car nut since 1955) and aren't interested in getting their hands dirty. They want to push numbers around all day then go home and play basketball or something. I went home and worked on cars. It's amazing how many of these 'engineers' would come up with something totally impossible to build, much less get it to run. OK, I'm finished. Thanks for letting me blow off steam.

[GmtGmt]

I work at Renault and Volvo Dealer this is what i have to deal with on a dayli basis

YouTube - ‪Fifth Gear change a...

[70cst]

Originally Posted by GmtGmt

I work at Renault and Volvo Dealer this is what i have to deal with on a dayli basis

YouTube - ‪Fifth Gear change a light bulb‬‏

I luv it...It's FB time

[Prerunner1982]

Not so much on my squarebodies did I have a problem that I had a WTF were they thinking moment. However on my wife's old 97 S-10 Blazer three come to mind. First, the #1 spark plug. You either have to remove the steering shaft, or get a special socked to get it off. Next was the pitman arm. There is a welded cross member right under the steering box so the box has to be removed to get the pitman arm off. Last is the lumbar switch on the drivers seat. As the seat gets old and people slide in and out of the seat over say 10 years the wires to the switch and the seat frame come in contact with each other causing a short... which just happens to make the interior lights come on each time it shorts. That was a real PITA to track down. But as far as my squarebodies are concerned I can't remember anything that really irritated me. Even the dash clips weren't too bad. Of course they could have been bent just a tab, but it wasn't hard to bet it on and off.

[MadManAndrew]

Not to contradict, but most of the time it's these engineers who have never done any grunt work who come up with the radical ideas that experienced tradesmen, who have had the norm hammered into them, think absolutely ridiculous. Not to say a good, open-minded tradesmen can't do the same, but it's easier to think abstractly when you don't know what's normal. Some one that designs the kind of thing y'all listed doesn't really deserve to be called an engineer though, just some one with engineering education.
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