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Why I went into engineering/stupid things engineers do with car designs

13K views 43 replies 21 participants last post by  polarzak 
#1 ·
See the photo below from my efforts to change my alternator on my 2007 Toyota Yaris.

I am at 115,000 miles, I would expect better based on Toyota's reputation, but then again I don't buy the hype either, so at 115,000 miles I'm not overly surprised to be replacing the alternator.

But what really pisses me off is the simple fact that I am prevented from doing this simple routine mechanical repair BY STUPID ENGINEERING.

Take a look at the lower mounting bolt in the picture below. Notice on the upper hand end of the bolt that there are aproximately 1-2 threads visible. Notice on the lower hand side that the head of the bolt is contacting a bracket and can be moved out no further. This bracket is secured with 1 bolt, and this bolt does not have adequate clearance for any kind of socket wrench.

This bolt has enough engagement that it prevents the alternator from being removed.

This is very basic stuff. Knucklehead Japan engineers probably never touched a wrench in their lives, and they probably did their clearance study based on the wrench without even thinking about the fact that the bolt is longer than a socket and wrench.

Just plain stupid.

If anyone has any slick tricks to get past this before I take a pry bar to the alternator and pull until something breaks I would appreciate it.
 

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#42 ·
haha this made me laugh. i used to do a lot of work on Toyota MR2's (engine swaps, transmission replacements and all other sort of maintenance when i had a pair of them) and wow, some of the things.... i needed kid hands to do. on the 3SGTE turbo engine there was a coolant hose for the temp guage. it was a $2 hose, about 4" long. but you basically had to remove the turbo and exhaust manifold to get to it. ugh. lots of bloody knuckles. the belts on maxima's suck trying to get to the tensioner bolt. no my father in laws 69 chevelle SS... lots of room to work haha.

Brandon

(mechanical engineer who went to college for auto industry - no in the water and wastewater equipment business)
 
#43 ·
Yeah, probably half of all curse words were created by frustrated mechanics. I remember a "Driver" magazine back in my navy days that had a funny article on "exercises" to do to get ready to work on your car. One was to take a cheese grater to your knuckles to get used to the feeling of raw busted up hands. Another was to take a clothes iron to your arm to get used to getting burned by the exhaust pipes. Yet another was to get a large child wearing golf shoes (back when they had metal spikes!) to stand on your chest to get used to scraping yourself up on the car chassis.

Interesting about how different cars are engineered, too. I have a coworker that spent many hours during several days of on and off work to replace the timing belt on his VW Golf TDi. He said the same job on his Honda would have taken only 2 hours or so.
 
#44 ·
Interesting about how different cars are engineered, too. .
And how they have changed over the years. I had a 67 Grand Prix...a land yacht by today's standards. There was so much room in the engine bay, everything was in easy reach. Now to just change plugs, you need to disconnect engine mounts, remove alternator, roll engine forward, or access underneath. (or take hours to remove just one plug) Hell, my current car doesn't have enough room in the engine bay for the battery. They put it under the back seat!.
I wish I had known of that cheese grater trick years ago. :laughing:
 
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