Design choices that create frustration during repairs

The outer door panel is on the outside of the door, the inner door panel is the trim panel inside the vehicle. “Door skin” and “door card” are what the dude at the body shop calls them.

1 Like

Just curious, What sort of material do body shops use to replace that plastic lining when it gets damaged? Do they use bulk plastic material and cut it to fit, or do they purchase a custom piece of plastic that’s already cut to fit?

Here are a couple of pics of yesterday’s thermostat replacement in my wife’s car.


Transverse V6 with the thermostat located in the valley underneath the intake manifold. Not nearly as bad to do as you would think.

Thanks for the interesting photos. Trying to imagine that configuration. Is the bottom of the valley used as a sort of coolant passageway, and there’s a gasket-ed cover over the bottom of the valley to direct the coolant flow, and the intake manifold fits above that?

The thermostat and housing is one piece, held down by the two 10mm head bolts on the left side of the pic. The coolant tube slides out towards the right and that connection is sealed by an o-ring.

It’s a little more time-consuming, but not nearly as annoying as the vertical t-stat and bypass hose on something like a '72 Ford 302. :grinning:

@asemaster That looks like the same 3.6-liter GDI V6 as on a 2019 GMC Canyon I worked on a few days ago

I had to remove the intake in order to replace all 4 variable valve timing solenoids

It was a LOT more work to remove it in a longitudinal application . . . the entire cowl had to come out first :laughing:

Yes, the same 3.6 is used throughout the GM family. But as you say, an engine mounted front to rear doesn’t mean it’s easier to work on.

1 Like

Yeah, that bypass hose does annoyingly get in the way. I learned to always remove it first before replacing my truck’s thermostat .

That’s something I learned from years of reading here in the forum! :slightly_smiling_face: Checking on the comparative costs of routine maintenance and typical repairs quickly narrowed my field of possible car models to those I could afford to maintain as well as buy in the first place the several times I’ve bought a car.

1 Like