Sort of a rant

Sorbate

Sorbate

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Trusted Member
My 2020 Gladiator was making a weird squeak sound when I’d apply the brakes, even sometimes after being stopped, I’d jump out and get a little squeak.
It wasn’t the normal brake squeal, or pad indicator squeal, but a strange, squeak,squeak, then be gone.

I figured with only 28,000 km no way the brakes were gone, maybe a loose cv joint in the front, or a stone in the pad, or a seized caliper that prematurely wore the brakes. I kinda ignored it because it was really minor for 3 weeks.

So today I finally got off my ass and pulled off the tire, cv joint was fine, took off the caliper and checked the pads, lots of pad, but a bit of the rubber wore thru on the rubber shim on the backside towards the caliper pistons. Had an a ha moment, cleaned the back side with brake clean then sprayed on the anti squeak rubber stuff.
Thank god I have this type of stuff just laying around, the brakes on my SRT was horrible for back pad squeal.

Noise is gone, may not last forever, I may have to spray it again in a year. Had to do that with the SRT pretty much yearly.

My rant is, is it just me or has the quality control on vehicle parts reduced over the years? All the 70’s cars I worked on never had brake noise, no shims.
 
Sorbate said:
My rant is, is it just me or has the quality control on vehicle parts reduced over the years?
Click to expand...
Definitely not your imagination! Ever since manufacturing has gone over seas quality in pretty much everything has taken a nose dive.

I’m a hardcore fan of Dewalt for obvious reasons and their quality has also gone down, still better than most competitors but nothing like they used to be.

Get used to it, its only going to get worse.
We demanded affordability and they gave it to us, at a cost in my opinion.
 
I had a college trades instructor that works full time at magna and he had mentioned several times that all parts for new vehicles are being made with cheaper metals and plastics. Plastics even replacing metals when they can. He said its being designed specifically that by the time the warrenty is up, the parts start breaking. Even the more reliant hondas and toyotas are falling victim to this crime to a lesser extent. Btw this was about 5 years ago when he had said this.
 
Ive owned 1 ford and 3 hondas. All 4 vehicles were owned for 4-5 years each. I spent more money on repairs with the ford than the 3 hondas combined easily. Also, i resold the hondas for half the original price while the ford could only fetch a quarter of its price. All were clean, in good running condition with no visible rust.
The wife has owned 3 hondas and a chrysler, mercedes, mazda. Same idea here.
My brother has owned 2 toyotas and a pontiac, dodge. He meticulously maintains his vehicles. But the toyotas were and are by far the most reliable hes owned. I feel the need to mention that the dodge was a brand new neon. In 5 years it had so many problems that it went to the scrap yard as nobody would touch it.

I do like a lot of the american vehicles styling but the quality is terrible compared to honda and toyota.

That was my rant, lol.
 
I am finding the smaller control fuses don’t last either. They don’t seem to like to run over 80% capacity for more than a year. And not constant draw either, only twice a day for 30 minutes. Off defrost it’s a 2.3 amp draw.

I know it’s not a connection issue, I checked everything, no burnt ends, no crossion or loose connections. I also place my recording meter on it numerous times and it never goes above 12.9 amps, 15 amp fuse.

I was thinking of using a relay cycle to remove the defrost heat elements off the circuit and that would reduce the current to about 10 amps. Maybe no fuses like close to max current all the time? Maybe a micro breaker system would work better (sorry thinking out loud)

I check this stuff at work all the time, equipment vibrates, shit gets loose. Smokehouse is the worst offender, I tighten connections around once a year. Actually 75% of the time if I have a equipment failure, it’s either a bad (burnt connection) Or a loose screw, lol.
 
Gawd I remember 30 plus years back our elected officials going back and forth for these “trade negotiations” proudly standing up for the the cameras waving and spewing what a great thing they were doing for us.

My father in-law who was smart but by no means a genius saying how they were selling us out and me thinking it was just the ramblings of an old man.

Who’d a thought.
 
faller said:
Gawd I remember 30 plus years back our elected officials going back and forth for these “trade negotiations” proudly standing up for the the cameras waving and spewing what a great thing they were doing for us.

My father in-law who was smart but by no means a genius saying how they were selling us out and me thinking it was just the ramblings of an old man.

Who’d a thought.
Click to expand...
Now you the rambling old man. 😂😂
 
The Old Guy said:
About ten years ago I started to buy Toyotas. None of these issues, hold their value, and are really nice vehicles.

In that time I did buy a Dodge Eco diesel and what a piece of garbage that was.
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Toyota man myself. I have had 2 toyota
4 runners. A 2001 and the current one is a 2007. Between the two I have only had to change brakes and oil. The 07 I did put a small lift in because one of the xreas shocks went. Other than that problem free. Looking at buying a new one before they changed to the new model, I know if taken care of it I can drive for the next 10-15 years....
 
I was in the automotive industry for many years. QC is a joke. New vehicles constantly have issues, nothing is repaired anymore as things are just replaced and those things fail constantly. Batteries, telematics, brakes, comand systems, whole engines going kaboom, etc. And of course none of these issues can be repaired by the end user as they are all now designed to be brought back to the dealer for service and repair. And when your warranty is up good luck

Its shocking the percentage of vehicles that come back under warranty for parts that are backordered for months, and they cant be driven without these parts so they just pile up and customers are given shit courtesy cars or rentals

All the new battery tech is creating lots of vehicle fires too, way more than you see in the news. And this isn't just EV cars, its batteries in fuel powered vehicles lighting up too

Granted lots of vehicles don't have problems, but it's a lot when you actually see them coming in

Same with home appliances as was discussed elsewhere, it's all replace vs repair
 
As a middle aged guy whose ALWAYS done his own repairs on everything (with a tiny exception of the odd thing) I'll chime in.

The simplicity of vehicles has disappeared in exchange for "technology" that is supposed to make our vehciles greener and more convient... That trade off has deffinitly made our vehciles greener in terms of fuel economy, but I think vehicles are becoming throw aways due to the techonology being junk... On the other hand, man sometimes technology kicks ass in regards to longevity.. look at spark plugs, no more carb's etc.. So much better these days. The technology that makes our vehicles more convient has 100% decreaed longevity.. air cooled seats, power everything, blue tooth, sensors, electornic stbaility/suspension, etc... yup it makes the vehciles super fun/cool/amazing, but so much of this shit just sshortens the life of the vehcile because its so friggin expensive when it fails.. and when it fails, the vehcile is often undriveble..

I was told by someone who works at delaerships that a lot of the tech stuff on new cars will be montlhy subscription... lol... so that heated seat option we love so much in Canada?? you can't "own" that options.. that will soon be a monthly subscription.. and if you don't pay, it's turned off on your car remotely..

The scary thing about this is you OWN the f'ing car... but they will soon be connected to the car maker through wirless tech and they will be able to do anything they want remotely.. shut it down, disable your AC/HEAT etc... and to me that's not a far cry from pushing a button to make your timming off so your engine ticks and you have to take it to dealer for a reapir..

Pisses me off, but you can't even replace your own battery anymore at home because once you swap the batteries, you have to reflash the car at the dealerhip.

I hate so much of the way this world is going...

Highschool USED to teach autoshop.. Kids would literally learn to change ball joints, batteries, carbs, set valves/timminy, shocks etc.. Some even went so far as to walk through a engine rebuild with the class.. BEtween vehciles being designed to not be able to be fixed at home and how accepting people are into throw away/pay someone else to fix is, soon no one will be fixing anything themselves at home.. What a shit society..

When I was a teen, I owned a ford car and a previous a plymouth.. I was just learning auto repair on my own... I bought a "haynes repair" manual for the ford at one point when I had to pull the egine, but man with a simple wrench/socket set, hammer, screw drivers etc there wasn't much I couldn't fix on those cars.. I loved working on them, but I also repaired them on my own because I had no money and neither did my parents..

It's just sad what we've turned into as a society and truthfully the auto industry is a great over all reflection of bad we have gotten...




Back on track.. Yup what I've seen is the quality of the actual materials taking a huge shit... I own a couple ATV's.. one japanese and the other made in mexico... The japanese one has needed NO work or repairs at all.. and it gets abused.. The mexico made one has had thousands in repairs.. Mexico ATV hubs are made of metal so soft that when you do the wheel bearings, you repairs the whole hub (350$ for hub vs 20$ bearing).. When the bearing starts going, it qucikly makes the hub oblong so a new bearing isn't tight and doesn't sit properly to the point that new bearing lasts a few months.. The japanse atv is made of so much better quality metal it shouldn't even be in the same class.. I once stripped a bolt on the mexico made ATV with my fingers, not even a wrnech... just my fingers..


As far as road vehciles.. My wife's SUV will only even be a honda or toyota.. I prefer toyota, but she's got a honda for now.. I heard Toyota designes their vehciles with the goal that they are all still on the road 25 years later..

I need a heavy truck.. 3/4 or 1 ton.. so I'm stuck with domestic.. Right now I got a dodge, but I prefer GMC... If toyota/honda ever made a 3/4 ton or 1 ton truck I will be first in line for it..
 
animal-inside said:
As a middle aged guy whose ALWAYS done his own repairs on everything (with a tiny exception of the odd thing) I'll chime in.

The simplicity of vehicles has disappeared in exchange for "technology" that is supposed to make our vehciles greener and more convient... That trade off has deffinitly made our vehciles greener in terms of fuel economy, but I think vehicles are becoming throw aways due to the techonology being junk... On the other hand, man sometimes technology kicks ass in regards to longevity.. look at spark plugs, no more carb's etc.. So much better these days. The technology that makes our vehicles more convient has 100% decreaed longevity.. air cooled seats, power everything, blue tooth, sensors, electornic stbaility/suspension, etc... yup it makes the vehciles super fun/cool/amazing, but so much of this shit just sshortens the life of the vehcile because its so friggin expensive when it fails.. and when it fails, the vehcile is often undriveble..

I was told by someone who works at delaerships that a lot of the tech stuff on new cars will be montlhy subscription... lol... so that heated seat option we love so much in Canada?? you can't "own" that options.. that will soon be a monthly subscription.. and if you don't pay, it's turned off on your car remotely..

The scary thing about this is you OWN the f'ing car... but they will soon be connected to the car maker through wirless tech and they will be able to do anything they want remotely.. shut it down, disable your AC/HEAT etc... and to me that's not a far cry from pushing a button to make your timming off so your engine ticks and you have to take it to dealer for a reapir..

Pisses me off, but you can't even replace your own battery anymore at home because once you swap the batteries, you have to reflash the car at the dealerhip.

I hate so much of the way this world is going...

Highschool USED to teach autoshop.. Kids would literally learn to change ball joints, batteries, carbs, set valves/timminy, shocks etc.. Some even went so far as to walk through a engine rebuild with the class.. BEtween vehciles being designed to not be able to be fixed at home and how accepting people are into throw away/pay someone else to fix is, soon no one will be fixing anything themselves at home.. What a shit society..

When I was a teen, I owned a ford car and a previous a plymouth.. I was just learning auto repair on my own... I bought a "haynes repair" manual for the ford at one point when I had to pull the egine, but man with a simple wrench/socket set, hammer, screw drivers etc there wasn't much I couldn't fix on those cars.. I loved working on them, but I also repaired them on my own because I had no money and neither did my parents..

It's just sad what we've turned into as a society and truthfully the auto industry is a great over all reflection of bad we have gotten...




Back on track.. Yup what I've seen is the quality of the actual materials taking a huge shit... I own a couple ATV's.. one japanese and the other made in mexico... The japanese one has needed NO work or repairs at all.. and it gets abused.. The mexico made one has had thousands in repairs.. Mexico ATV hubs are made of metal so soft that when you do the wheel bearings, you repairs the whole hub (350$ for hub vs 20$ bearing).. When the bearing starts going, it qucikly makes the hub oblong so a new bearing isn't tight and doesn't sit properly to the point that new bearing lasts a few months.. The japanse atv is made of so much better quality metal it shouldn't even be in the same class.. I once stripped a bolt on the mexico made ATV with my fingers, not even a wrnech... just my fingers..


As far as road vehciles.. My wife's SUV will only even be a honda or toyota.. I prefer toyota, but she's got a honda for now.. I heard Toyota designes their vehciles with the goal that they are all still on the road 25 years later..

I need a heavy truck.. 3/4 or 1 ton.. so I'm stuck with domestic.. Right now I got a dodge, but I prefer GMC... If toyota/honda ever made a 3/4 ton or 1 ton truck I will be first in line for it..
Click to expand...
I loved working on cars. Did everything from electrical to rebuilding motors and transmission (automatics).
Most of it I did by reading old magazines my dad bought, the odd rebuid book he owned.
Even when I was a kid I would take broken things apart and fix them
My dad would take the plug ends off so I couldn’t hurt myself, but really how hard was it to put another plug end on, lol. His poor old electrical cords, lol. They would become donnors.

Thankfully so far only issue I have had with my jeep was a bit of worn rubber on the brake pad, my wifes jeep which is 4 years older than mine is completely fine (only issue I had was after taking it in for an oil change the rear end oil cover mysteriously had a few bolts come loose and the seal started to leak, and that was 2 years after I bought it and about 2 weeks after the oil change. Wasn’t the fist shady thing this dealer did, the saud they changed the oil in my SRT, but when I checked the oil, well because no one had reset the oil indicator light, it was still dark as hell. Did it the second time myself when they refused to change it saying I was lying. It was obviously old oil. Nothing like paying $160 for an oil change that didn’t happen. The rear end leak I just chalked up to poor building at the factory, but after the no oil change thing, I had a bit of a a-ha moment

Now I do what I can myself, but there really isn’t much you can do besides change the oil, brakes and cabin filter. Not a grease nipple to be found anywhere, lol.

I think I’m not having issues with the jeep because it’s overbuilt for the road, considering it’s other function is off-road. And if they were falling apart while off-road, then the brand would be tarnished. Also the power functions are limited, no power seats, no cooled seats. Just the basics like power windows and mirrors.

As far as vehicles being connected, even though I have never paid a subscription, my gps updates and I get daily weather reports. So my vehicle is still communicating to something, which I really don’t like. This is over 2 years after purchase.
 
Sorbate said:
I loved working on cars. Did everything from electrical to rebuilding motors and transmission (automatics).
Most of it I did by reading old magazines my dad bought, the odd rebuid book he owned.
Even when I was a kid I would take broken things apart and fix them
My dad would take the plug ends off so I couldn’t hurt myself, but really how hard was it to put another plug end on, lol. His poor old electrical cords, lol. They would become donnors.

Thankfully so far only issue I have had with my jeep was a bit of worn rubber on the brake pad, my wifes jeep which is 4 years older than mine is completely fine (only issue I had was after taking it in for an oil change the rear end oil cover mysteriously had a few bolts come loose and the seal started to leak, and that was 2 years after I bought it and about 2 weeks after the oil change. Wasn’t the fist shady thing this dealer did, the saud they changed the oil in my SRT, but when I checked the oil, well because no one had reset the oil indicator light, it was still dark as hell. Did it the second time myself when they refused to change it saying I was lying. It was obviously old oil. Nothing like paying $160 for an oil change that didn’t happen. The rear end leak I just chalked up to poor building at the factory, but after the no oil change thing, I had a bit of a a-ha moment

Now I do what I can myself, but there really isn’t much you can do besides change the oil, brakes and cabin filter. Not a grease nipple to be found anywhere, lol.

I think I’m not having issues with the jeep because it’s overbuilt for the road, considering it’s other function is off-road. And if they were falling apart while off-road, then the brand would be tarnished. Also the power functions are limited, no power seats, no cooled seats. Just the basics like power windows and mirrors.

As far as vehicles being connected, even though I have never paid a subscription, my gps updates and I get daily weather reports. So my vehicle is still communicating to something, which I really don’t like. This is over 2 years after purchase.
Click to expand...

I'll try to keep this thread about quality of vheicles, but yes dealerships/mechanics seem to be 100 bad ones to every good one. There are deffinitly good dealerships and mechanics, but doesn't seem to be many. In your case, that dealership should have told you to bring the vehcile right back in and checked the oil for themselves, if it was old, the mechanic they assigned it to you should in some serious f'ing shit for making the dealership look awful. Lots of times, its actually not the dealership or the guy at the desk of the mechancs, its the actual mechanic himself.. Sometimes its the other way around though.. I caught a mechanic charging my wife for a condensor rad in her Jeep and not actually replace it. They told me they replaced it with an aftermarket condensor rad to save my wife some cash.. AC still blew warm so upon a follow through, the condensor rad was still mopar stamped, bent fins, full of bugs, rusty etc.. fucking assholes..

Either way.... Part of our problem is people LOVE trinkets, options, convience and luxury.. they are very willing to compramise longevity, simplicty and cost for it.

Best truck I ever had was a 3/4 ton durmax.. the model was simply "WT" aka "work truck".. rubber floors, manaul everything except it had power locks.. simple.. was nice and reliable.

I remember looking under the hood of those 1980 vehciles.. lots of room, not much other than basic engine parts etc.. super easy to work on... but to be honest, they broke down more often than vehicles today.. But when they broke down 1 trip to Canadian tire and a couple hours in the driveway and you were back on the road.
 
animal-inside said:
I'll try to keep this thread about quality of vheicles, but yes dealerships/mechanics seem to be 100 bad ones to every good one. There are deffinitly good dealerships and mechanics, but doesn't seem to be many. In your case, that dealership should have told you to bring the vehcile right back in and checked the oil for themselves, if it was old, the mechanic they assigned it to you should in some serious f'ing shit for making the dealership look awful. Lots of times, its actually not the dealership or the guy at the desk of the mechancs, its the actual mechanic himself.. Sometimes its the other way around though.. I caught a mechanic charging my wife for a condensor rad in her Jeep and not actually replace it. They told me they replaced it with an aftermarket condensor rad to save my wife some cash.. AC still blew warm so upon a follow through, the condensor rad was still mopar stamped, bent fins, full of bugs, rusty etc.. fucking assholes..

Either way.... Part of our problem is people LOVE trinkets, options, convience and luxury.. they are very willing to compramise longevity, simplicty and cost for it.

Best truck I ever had was a 3/4 ton durmax.. the model was simply "WT" aka "work truck".. rubber floors, manaul everything except it had power locks.. simple.. was nice and reliable.

I remember looking under the hood of those 1980 vehciles.. lots of room, not much other than basic engine parts etc.. super easy to work on... but to be honest, they broke down more often than vehicles today.. But when they broke down 1 trip to Canadian tire and a couple hours in the driveway and you were back on the road.
Click to expand...
This thread can go anywhere it wants, I made it, lol.
 
The Old Guy said:
About ten years ago I started to buy Toyotas. None of these issues, hold their value, and are really nice vehicles.

In that time I did buy a Dodge Eco diesel and what a piece of garbage that was.
Click to expand...
Toyotas are awesome, change the oils as per schedules and you will easily get 15 years out of that car, they are dogs
 
I loved my Muscle cars. The best car and most reliable was my 1990 Honda Prelude EXR. Now I drive a 370Z all summer. Currently hunting for a new winter beater.

Cars have become Plastic disposables. Any upgrades cost ridiculous amounts and require a team. It really took much of the fun out of it.
 
Gawd I remember beefing up vehicles, bunch of us get together and chip in for a four barrel and then tinker.

I “beefed” up my 2006 crew cab because I hauled a 10,000lb capacity duel trailer and needed more power. Plugged in this gadget under the dash, pushed a couple buttons on this monitor and done.

Times have changed for sure.
 
I want to put a supercharger on my 370z. The supercharger is $8500 US delivered. Then the additional procedures to manage heat, and power add up to another $20,000.
I am just not tech enough to do the build in my driveway anymore. The car is very quick but not really fast. Fades in the 4th gear. No real mid-range torque. I will do a dyno-tune on it next year. Stage 1 chip. exhaust, shocks. Should net 60HP.
 
granpa1959 said:
I want to put a supercharger on my 370z. The supercharger is $8500 US delivered. Then the additional procedures to manage heat, and power add up to another $20,000.
I am just not tech enough to do the build in my driveway anymore. The car is very quick but not really fast. Fades in the 4th gear. No real mid-range torque. I will do a dyno-tune on it next year. Stage 1 chip. exhaust, shocks. Should net 60HP.
Click to expand...
I am debating the same for my 2010 FX35.... but looking at the cost of it all and to have done upand tuned I may just add a spray bottle for the time being .... LOL
 
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