Comment by orthogonal_cube
10 hours ago
> And cars aren't really made to be taken apart easily.
This is a major contributor for specific models. I was listening to my brother complain about a vehicle that rolled into their shop lately and how the engineers really didn’t think about how difficult it would be for technicians to service things. Some parts are fairly inexpensive and easy to replace but you have to remove the engine or transmission in order to get enough clearance to swap out the part!
It's there even for parts that require regular replacement. For example, VW GTIs have required removing the bumper and taking a decent amount of stuff off the car in order to replace the headlights. This has been the case since at least 2007. Granted with LED headlights this isn't as much of an issue but prior generations had xenon headlights which required replacement periodically.
Same on my 14-year-old Honda van. The sane way to replace the HID bulbs (or the ballast or the ignitor, because HID things) is to remove the headlight housings, and the first step of doing that is removing the front bumper cover. It's not completely awful, but it's not exactly awesome either.
The less-sane way to replace just-the-bulb is from the top. It seems like it should be faster, and it sure does look easier, but it's a blind one-handed process with little fiddly bits to manipulate. There's not enough room to add a reasonably-stout glove to that hand, and there wouldn't be enough dexterity and tactile sense if there were. Consequently, there will be blood. I'm told that it's a lot more practical to swap a bulb in-situ with the halogen housings (as those don't have as much depth to them as the ones for HID), but my Honda is not so-endowed.
Part of this is because, AFAICT, the headlight assemblies are structural. They tie into several other assemblies and help hold the front of the vehicle together.
(A pedestrian Buick or Chevrolet from ~20 years ago is very different: To remove a headlight assembly, just lift up on a couple of heavy nylon straps and the whole shebang basically just falls out. It takes seconds. Reinstallation is very nearly as quick.)
That’s not a new thing.
I replaced the heater core on a 1987 Ford XF Falcon. In hindsight, it would’ve been easier to pull the motor out and cut myself an access panel in the firewall than it was to disassemble and reassemble the dash.
Certainly not new. Though the space under the hood remains fairly constant, the free space has decreased. There are more and more components becoming difficult to reach and service while they’re among the first to wear out.