Years ago the local auto talk radio show’s star mentioned that it looked like cars were headed to the point where all work would just be done at the dealer. This was prior to the rules on OBD2 but based on everything computerized and the specialized equipment needed. In addition, this would tend to make leasing where everything would be covered under warranty more likely. Seems like that’s sorta coming to fruition and maybe keeping cars for ten years or more might not be as attractive as it once was. For better or worse. Of course then there is Uber and some cities wanting all green, government owned, self-driving cars and eliminating anyone owning their own cars. Re-read 1984 and then while you’re at it the Weatherman’s idea of re-education camps and see how far we have come.
If they applied this technology to the Hyundai Tiburon then Dr Evil will finally realize his dream of “Sharks with Friggen Laser Beams”
Haha… This sounds interesting sure…but do we really need this? No…Not with the “Night Sun” headlights on current vehicles today…I’ve never before been able to Tan my face by going for a drive at night, until now.
The costs? Jeezoo…the cost… No longer will headlights be serviceable by the owner…bulbs would cost in the hundreds…and the calibration would be dealer only. God help you if you smack into something breaking the front headlights…the replacement cost will have a 5yr payment plan probably.
I think Mr @“the same mountainbike” nailed it with the high costs involved here… Perhaps I am now considered a “Poor Person” of limited financial means these days. I mean…how much money do you need to make today to be considered “Well Paid” or “Doing Well” ? I’m certain that number is above my pay grade…and I PAY MYSELF!! Yipes
Blackbird
TwinTurbo: You beat me to it. LOL
Honda Blackbird: When I was self employed my boss was an A-hole and my pay almost non-existent.
I think I knew that guy…
As cars become less user serviceable, I wonder what is going to happen to stores like AutoZone? It does seem as though there is a push for dealers to handle all automotive work. I have never understood why it should be made difficult to change a headlight. My 1990 Ford Aerostar was a pain to replace the sealed beam unit. The 1989 Mercury Sable we owned required removing the battery to change the left headlight bulb. Dealers in our area are now selling tires. The warranty that came with every new car I’ve purchased says that the tire manufacturer and not the dealer is responsible for tire adjustment. I had the infamous Firestone 721 radials on the 1978 Oldsmobile Cutlass that I purchased new. When I had tread separation problems, the tire store that handled Firestone tires claimed that only the factory Firestone stores were allowed to adjust the tires. The nearest store was 30 miles away. Of course, that store was more than ready to sell me new tires. I went down the street to Quality Farm and Fleet and bought Duralon tires. Now that new car dealers are selling tires, my guess is that with a new car, you will still have to to a tire store handling the brand of tire that came on the car and you have a tire warranty issue, even if the dealer handles that brand.
@Triedaq
"As cars become less user serviceable, I wonder what is going to happen to stores like AutoZone?"
I can’t see cars becoming less “user serviceable.” Perhaps certain things (as now where a sophisticated dealer computer and software is required), maybe, but not everything. Cars will always be mechanical and have parts breaking or wearing out, until some sort of molecular transporter replaces cars as we know them. Some people are under the false notion that when cars moved to converters and computers that they became out of reach for DIY repairs. I find the opposite to be true. Now, the cars help me help them.
I can’t count the number of things inside and outside my house that I’ve repaired after ignoring the admonishment on the label that reads, “no user serviceable parts inside.” That label dares me to fix something.
I’m sure there a was a maintenance/repair learning curve when some guy replaced his buckboard & horse with a horseless carriage.
CSA
no user serviceable parts inside." That label dares me to fix something.
I feel exactly the same way.
You nailed it!
Any sufficiently knowledgeable and determined individual can fix it, regardless of what “it” is.
Somebody proclaims it can’t be fixed?
The gaunlet has been tossed down!!
Stand back, this could get messy…
Or was that- hold my beer and watch this…
@common sense answer I was thinking about things like headlight units and other bulbs being harder to replace. Spark plugs on transversely mounted V6 engines are bwyond what I have the patience to tackle when the plugs face the firewall. Maybe some of the problem is my old age (75), laziness and impatience. Even the front turning signal bulb was a pain to change on the 2006 Chevrolet Uplander I used to own. I spent more than half an hour changing the bulb only to have it burn out again the next day. It took me 10 minutes to replace it the second time, so maybe it is a matter of getting used to today’s technology. However, I’ll bet I could change the spark plugs faster on my first car, a,1947 Pontiac flathead 6 than a top mechanic could change the plugs on my 2011 Toyota Sienna. I could replace a,headlight unit or bulb on that old Pontiac in less than 5 minutes. I used to replace water pumps and fuel pumps. Today, I wouldn’t begin to tackle these jobs. Maybe there are more people today than I think there are that tackle repair and maintenance on modern cars,that keep AutoZone and Advance auto parts going.
@TwinTurbo
My tool box even houses quite a variety of Special Tools that I’ve bought to service non-serviceable items in the car and around the house. I believe that “tamper-proof” only applies to other folks, the ones that heed the warning, “no user serviceable parts inside.” Certainly, it’s not aimed at me!
You’re right! It’s “Hold my beer, Watch This” whenever I see that label.
When I look beyond the “no user serviceable parts inside.” label and see Tamper-Proof fasteners or puzzling connectors (Some should win awards for Ingenuity.), it’s Game-On! Get the kids off the street! Cover me! I’m going in!
I make machines run until nobody could make them run any longer. It’s my hobby. It’s what I enjoy. I mowed my lawn yesterday with my faithful 1970 Simplicity lawn tractor. How many people do you know that fix their 35+ years-old clothes drier with new and salvage yard parts? 
CSA
I can’t see cars becoming less “user serviceable.”
I can. While they’re never be totally nonservicable special (expensive) equipment and training will become the norm for even such things as headlight replacement. Today’s cars are far less serviceable then the cars of my youth. Fortunately, they also require far less servicing!
Our washer and drier is in the 28 year old range, and minimal repairs, brakes, belts, and a few other repairs I don’t recall what. They were the same models sold for coin operated laundromats. Bought them from some people that worked at amana, they bought a condo and could not fit them in. 2 or 3 years old at the time. Started young tearing things apart to see how they worked, and fixing them. Progressed to cars when I got one.
Once in a while I got in trouble, don’t know if anyone remembers techmatic razors, wanted to know how it got 6 new blades, 8 years old or so, it was a band that would advance when you cranked it, cut the thumb pretty good when the band popped out.
“Hold my beer and watch this”
Was uttered by someone at a party in Florida that a friend attended. The guy that said it was going to wade into a pond and wrestle an alligator. Everyone tried to dissuade him and they finally did stop him. It took a lot of convincing, though. Beer has that effect on some people. Maybe he was drinking Hop Stoopid…
@jtsanders
I’ve always believed that half the clips on America’s Funniest Home Videos were preceded by the “star” uttering the words, "Hold my beer, Watch this! " If we could watch the videos beyond that, we would see why Emergency Rooms across our nation are often over-crowded when we need them.
I’d also bet that half of those contestants that go to the ER tell a different version of their injuries when they are asked, “What happened to you?”.
Two things have made that show a success for many years… the advent of home video cameras and no shortage of beer drinking geniuses.
CSA
Yeah I like to take things apart too but its getting harder and harder. For one thing you have to be able to get the parts which is not always possible. I remember taking a coffee pot apart some years ago and actually was able to pick up a new heat sensor for it. I picked up a relay for my 59 Pontiac windshield wiper motor at the dealer, and even those shut off clips for the GM turn signal switch for like 50 cents, but you couldn’t do that today. When my CRT screen went dark in my Riviera, no one had the schematics for it let alone parts even though it was made by Zenith. Only the authorized rebuilders were provided that. And now if you are paying someone, it just isn’t worth it so you throw it away.
I always tear things apart and try to fix the root cause of the failure… but it’s gotten a lot harder over the years. Things now are often designed in a manner that makes them non-repairable. They’re often sealed into a case welded by untrasonic vibration (can’t think… what IS that bonding process called?). Often assemblies are “potted” with a material that cannot be nondestructively removed. And, very often, access is almost impossible. Even sometimes on basic things like sparkplugs (that’s why I prefer 4-bangers on FWD cars).
Lots of modern design technologies keep manufacturing costs down at the expense of reparability. I can live with that if the issue is repair, but not when it’s something that requires periodic maintenance or replacement.
One pet peeve of mine is serpentine belts. Changing the serp belt on many FWD cars is a hassle. In the old days of fan belts we could simply loosen and slide the alternator in, remove and replace the belt, and slide the alternator back out to adjust the tension. Unless one of you knows a trick that I haven’t yet discovered, I need a second set of hands to hold the tensioner back while I thread the new serp belt in my extremely limited space. If you do know a trick, lunch is on me.
New front bearings on my car require removal of the hub and pressing out & in. Rear bearings come as part of an assembly, not designed to be pressed out. One buys the “bearing & hub assembly” as one. I remember longingly how easy it was to access the front bearings on my '64 Fairlane.
Too much stuff is simply designed not to be repaired. I could venture into other technologies too, but this being a car forum and there being plenty of examples in cars alone, I’ll stay with the subject of cars.
What I did/do on the belts is release the tension and while holding the wrench, slip it off just the tensioner pulley. Then putting it back on, weave it over all the pulleys except one and release the tension again and while holding the wrench, slip it on the last pulley. Then you can just loosen the tension a little again to make sure the belt is in the right location. Of course I use a longer pipe on the wrench to get some leverage though. Some cars its easy but some you can’t even see the pulleys and I’ve found the $50 charge for doing it is a bargain. On the Olds Aurora its about a one hour job with small hands and a lot of bad language. There is about a 1" square opening in the splash panels that you have to feed the belt through. I’ve use a grabber or stick with a hook on it too, to get the belt in the right place. And that’s following the procedure in the factory repair manual.
I tried that unsuccessfully, but that could have been more due to my limitations that the car’s. I needed two bodies and only had two. I had to thread the belt on the tensioner and top pulleys from up above and the bottom pulleys from down below.
I actually bought a “tensioner wrench”, figuring it would be easier to get into the tight clearances between parts, but it broke at the weld almost immediately… even with my gentle pulling to compress the tensioner. It’s a good thing I have a long 3/8" drive breaker bar and a shallow socket that fit. And friendly neighbor to hold the tensioner back while I threaded the belt.
I’m open to any other ideas. I’d really like to do this as a one-man job. It ain’t the money (I can get the work done for free), but the challenge.
I dunno, clamps and welding come to mind. Something to hold the handle in position but then usually the breaker bar is in the way to put the belt on.
I gotta go work on the snow blower carb before it snows again.
Replacing a Serpentine Belt On My 4 GM Cars With 3.8L Engines Is Simple, Takes A Couple Minutes. Lots Of Room In There Next To Those V-6s.
I too have to make it a one-man procedure as everybody is busy when I need help. What I do is relax the tension on the tensioner with a fairly long pry bar. Then I use a suitable piece of wood between the pry bar and a suitable car body part and wedge it there to hold tension on the tensioner. DANGER: DO NOT GET YOUR FINGERS BETWEEN BELT AND PULLEYS in case something slips. I often use a screwdriver to place the belt.
The belt comes off the tensioner pulley first and goes on it last.
If my procedure sounds too scary then do as @Bing suggested and release the tensioner once the belt is off of it. Thread the belt except over the tensioner pulley and then force the tensioner against its spring enough to slip the belt on. I’ve even used twist-ties to keep some pre-tension on the belt while threading it to keep it from coming off.
CSA