Ministry of Crap Design - VW Idiot Strike Again!!!!!!!!
Discussion
Right I've just spent the last half an hour 
effing & blinding at the wifes VW Golf Mk4, well to be more precise the idiot at VW who designed the thing. Who the is responsible for this crap at this at VW?? Come on stand up & be counted put yourself forward now & you'll be conveniently 
at dawn
All I need to do is change the radiator that's crapped itself (poor quality Spanish made me thinks) - can't be that difficult surely? 20 min job maybe...... I'm used to working on Toyota's you see
Design Failure Number 1: Drain the coolant, there's a convenient drain tap - but no hole in the undertray to drain it through, so that adds 25 mins to remove the undertray
when a small hole/plug would have saved me 20 mins. So I just drilled a 20mm hole so it takes 2 mins to drain the coolant now not 30 mins!
Design Failure Number 2: Removing the radiator cowling & fan, just 4 hex screws thats easy enough BUT there's two of those stupid Bosch plugs that you can't release as they are always a different design Ok So got that done. Please VW change those plugs please.
Design Failure Number 3: Removing the radiator, looks easy enough there are 4 rubberised mounts that the radiator locates in, looks like they just unclip & pop backwards, hey presto it's out. Errrrrr NO. They are held in by a single torx screw each - that - wait for it, to get to.... You have to remove the entire front of the car, eg bumper, bracketry, undertray etc etc almost 1.5 hours worth of work
as they can't be accessed by any other means unless you drill some holes in the bumper
The rubber clip unit
That you can't get to without removing the whole front of the car
A simple clip in unit that goes in the same hole would have done the same job & made the entire job a 20 min joy to do.
The offending part
Why why why I ask myself? It makes them expensive to repair especially for insurance type jobs, it surely can't be any quicker to assemble in the factory & it'd stop of an awful lot swearing.
So who can name the man responsible at VW I'd like to talk to him, better still get me a job at VW shooting people & getting some new people in the job with common sense instead.
Mr VW's view when I get hold of him
effing & blinding at the wifes VW Golf Mk4, well to be more precise the idiot at VW who designed the thing. Who the is responsible for this crap at this at VW?? Come on stand up & be counted put yourself forward now & you'll be conveniently at dawn All I need to do is change the radiator that's crapped itself (poor quality Spanish made me thinks) - can't be that difficult surely? 20 min job maybe...... I'm used to working on Toyota's you see
Design Failure Number 1: Drain the coolant, there's a convenient drain tap - but no hole in the undertray to drain it through, so that adds 25 mins to remove the undertray
when a small hole/plug would have saved me 20 mins. So I just drilled a 20mm hole so it takes 2 mins to drain the coolant now not 30 mins!Design Failure Number 2: Removing the radiator cowling & fan, just 4 hex screws thats easy enough BUT there's two of those stupid Bosch plugs that you can't release as they are always a different design
Ok So got that done. Please VW change those plugs please. Design Failure Number 3: Removing the radiator, looks easy enough there are 4 rubberised mounts that the radiator locates in, looks like they just unclip & pop backwards, hey presto it's out. Errrrrr NO. They are held in by a single torx screw each - that - wait for it, to get to.... You have to remove the entire front of the car, eg bumper, bracketry, undertray etc etc almost 1.5 hours worth of work
as they can't be accessed by any other means unless you drill some holes in the bumper The rubber clip unit
That you can't get to without removing the whole front of the car
A simple clip in unit that goes in the same hole would have done the same job & made the entire job a 20 min joy to do.
The offending part
Why why why I ask myself? It makes them expensive to repair especially for insurance type jobs, it surely can't be any quicker to assemble in the factory & it'd stop of an awful lot swearing.
So who can name the man responsible at VW I'd like to talk to him, better still get me a job at VW shooting people & getting some new people in the job with common sense instead.
Mr VW's view when I get hold of him
cptsideways said:
Why why why I ask myself? It makes them expensive to repair especially for insurance type jobs, it surely can't be any quicker to assemble in the factory & it'd stop of an awful lot swearing
Of course it is. Think about it, what parts go on first if a car is built from the inside out?All of those crappy little clips are also designed to be quickly snappable together at the factory and to hell with anyone who wants to take the car apart later.
Have you tried replacing the headlight bulbs yet? I tried on my wife's old Mk4 Golf TDI. Unless you have freakishly small hands it's a bumper off job!
Let's not forget the window clips made from the world's most brittle and weak plastic, which are guaranteed to fail and drop the window down when it's raining. I know of quite a few Mk4 golfs with blocks of wood holding the windows up
Bloody stupid cars. Bizarrely though I bought another a while later as well. Bloody stupid me
Let's not forget the window clips made from the world's most brittle and weak plastic, which are guaranteed to fail and drop the window down when it's raining. I know of quite a few Mk4 golfs with blocks of wood holding the windows up
Bloody stupid cars. Bizarrely though I bought another a while later as well. Bloody stupid me
Stuck screen washer pump for an E39 BMW. Bought replacement part for a tenner, went to find pump. After much hillarity in the E39 community, someone finally mentioned the driver side wheel, take that off, followed by the inner wheel arch cover, followed by another panel and you can get a child to get the damn pump out.
Who thought that was a good idea?
To be fair though, its not a common task and the rest of the things in the car were easily accessible.
Who thought that was a good idea?
To be fair though, its not a common task and the rest of the things in the car were easily accessible.
off_again said:
Stuck screen washer pump for an E39 BMW. Bought replacement part for a tenner, went to find pump. After much hillarity in the E39 community, someone finally mentioned the driver side wheel, take that off, followed by the inner wheel arch cover, followed by another panel and you can get a child to get the damn pump out.
Who thought that was a good idea?
To be fair though, its not a common task and the rest of the things in the car were easily accessible.
Same for a Mk1 Focus.Who thought that was a good idea?
To be fair though, its not a common task and the rest of the things in the car were easily accessible.
So far tbh i have found my a4 fairly easy to work on other than often requiring somewhat unique sizes of tools etc.
Headlight bulb 5-10mins to change either side or any bulb. Rear takes the same.
Front bumper is i believe a piece of piss to remove and actually hinges on one side so you can swing it open to work on front of car.
Headlight bulb 5-10mins to change either side or any bulb. Rear takes the same.
Front bumper is i believe a piece of piss to remove and actually hinges on one side so you can swing it open to work on front of car.
VW are timeless for this.
Passat or A4 with a 1.8t engine in it. Oil filter is right over the front subframe. So basically, it gets absolutly smothered in oil, which then drips everywhere. There is no tub big enough to cover the area it drips around.
The thing i hate them most for though, and wheels. Like, fair enough if you use small, lightweight steelies or whatever, but they have a habit of using massive, heavy, alloy wheels. But leading on, they use wheel bolts, instead of nuts, so there's nothing holding it on once all is undone. And the spigot ring is tiny.
But to add injury to insult, on a lot of them, there's no screw coupling the brake disc to the hub flange. So you try to put the wheel on, which weight a ton, and you try to line it up with the holes in the brake disc, and as you're doing that, it moves round a bit, and misaligns with the holes on the hub flange. So then you're trying to turn to things at once, which only want to turn one at once, and when you finally get it lined up, you realise you can't fit your fingers in the hole for the bolt because the wheels have such long bolt holes, so you need a socket to help you, but you can't rest the wheel there, because it fall off.
Erughhh
Passat or A4 with a 1.8t engine in it. Oil filter is right over the front subframe. So basically, it gets absolutly smothered in oil, which then drips everywhere. There is no tub big enough to cover the area it drips around.
The thing i hate them most for though, and wheels. Like, fair enough if you use small, lightweight steelies or whatever, but they have a habit of using massive, heavy, alloy wheels. But leading on, they use wheel bolts, instead of nuts, so there's nothing holding it on once all is undone. And the spigot ring is tiny.
But to add injury to insult, on a lot of them, there's no screw coupling the brake disc to the hub flange. So you try to put the wheel on, which weight a ton, and you try to line it up with the holes in the brake disc, and as you're doing that, it moves round a bit, and misaligns with the holes on the hub flange. So then you're trying to turn to things at once, which only want to turn one at once, and when you finally get it lined up, you realise you can't fit your fingers in the hole for the bolt because the wheels have such long bolt holes, so you need a socket to help you, but you can't rest the wheel there, because it fall off.
Erughhh
Jaguar E Etype.
I needed to remove a 2 ft long (if that) section of bumper, there are 3 bolts inside holding it on.
2 come off, the third is behind the fuel tank, so that has to come out, to get the fuel tank out it's 3 bolts, 2 come off.
The third is behind the rear subframe, so that has to be dropped out.
You end up having to remove this:
And this:
all to remove a piece of trim that looks like this:
Fun times!
I needed to remove a 2 ft long (if that) section of bumper, there are 3 bolts inside holding it on.
2 come off, the third is behind the fuel tank, so that has to come out, to get the fuel tank out it's 3 bolts, 2 come off.
The third is behind the rear subframe, so that has to be dropped out.
You end up having to remove this:
And this:
all to remove a piece of trim that looks like this:
Fun times!
sc4589 said:
Appentlty the new Honda CRZ thing has been designed with serviceabilty in mind, maybe we'll have one of them next! Actually this jpob has put me off buying another VW for ever, I said it before but this time its never ever again, despite the fuel efficiency which is about the ONLY thing it has going for it.
maniac0796 said:
VW are timeless for this.
Passat or A4 with a 1.8t engine in it. Oil filter is right over the front subframe. So basically, it gets absolutly smothered in oil, which then drips everywhere. There is no tub big enough to cover the area it drips around.
The thing i hate them most for though, and wheels. Like, fair enough if you use small, lightweight steelies or whatever, but they have a habit of using massive, heavy, alloy wheels. But leading on, they use wheel bolts, instead of nuts, so there's nothing holding it on once all is undone. And the spigot ring is tiny.
But to add injury to insult, on a lot of them, there's no screw coupling the brake disc to the hub flange. So you try to put the wheel on, which weight a ton, and you try to line it up with the holes in the brake disc, and as you're doing that, it moves round a bit, and misaligns with the holes on the hub flange. So then you're trying to turn to things at once, which only want to turn one at once, and when you finally get it lined up, you realise you can't fit your fingers in the hole for the bolt because the wheels have such long bolt holes, so you need a socket to help you, but you can't rest the wheel there, because it fall off.
Erughhh
Stick a big screwdriver through the wheel into a bolt hole. Piece of cake after that. Or hold the wheel on your toes while you push the bolt through.Passat or A4 with a 1.8t engine in it. Oil filter is right over the front subframe. So basically, it gets absolutly smothered in oil, which then drips everywhere. There is no tub big enough to cover the area it drips around.
The thing i hate them most for though, and wheels. Like, fair enough if you use small, lightweight steelies or whatever, but they have a habit of using massive, heavy, alloy wheels. But leading on, they use wheel bolts, instead of nuts, so there's nothing holding it on once all is undone. And the spigot ring is tiny.
But to add injury to insult, on a lot of them, there's no screw coupling the brake disc to the hub flange. So you try to put the wheel on, which weight a ton, and you try to line it up with the holes in the brake disc, and as you're doing that, it moves round a bit, and misaligns with the holes on the hub flange. So then you're trying to turn to things at once, which only want to turn one at once, and when you finally get it lined up, you realise you can't fit your fingers in the hole for the bolt because the wheels have such long bolt holes, so you need a socket to help you, but you can't rest the wheel there, because it fall off.
Erughhh
Personally though, I can't see what you chaps are moaning at, I think they're pretty easy to work on.
Headlamp bulbs on the Polo are a bit tricky as the gap is very small, but it's not impossible by any means. Definitely not a bumper off job, and there's very little space in there with the large 1.9 lump shoehorned in. It helps once you know how the bulb clips work, of course.
Bumpers on the Polo and Passat come off in a few minutes, in fact, the whole front of the Passat comes off fairly easily (although not particularly quickly). Then it's just a case of sitting on the floor in front of the engine to do a cambelt change. I had the front NS suspension partially apart the other night and the CV joint off, to change the CV boot. That was a bit of a fiddle but that was because I did it the hard way, in situ, rather than take the whole drive shaft off.
This is why I like older cars - specifically Fords (might steer clear of E-Types after reading previous posts though!).
15 mins is all it took to change the radiator in my old 2.8 Capri. My current car (Sierra XR4x4 2.9) is also a doddle to work on. As is my girlfiend's 1969 Volvo Amazon.
Seem to recall previous posts where people have discussed removing the front wheels of late modle Astras to chage headlight bulbs?
15 mins is all it took to change the radiator in my old 2.8 Capri. My current car (Sierra XR4x4 2.9) is also a doddle to work on. As is my girlfiend's 1969 Volvo Amazon.
Seem to recall previous posts where people have discussed removing the front wheels of late modle Astras to chage headlight bulbs?
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