What the hell were the designers at Chrysler thinking

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plum crazy dart

plum crazy dart

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Well I have recently started a new job working for AAA doing light service. Tire changes, battery testing/selling/installing, lockouts, etc. Today I had a battery call for a Dodge stratus. Anyone know whwere the battery is and what you have to do to change it........... :wack: you have to jack up the car, take the tire and inner fender well off to get to the battery. WTF were they thinking:dontknow: :protest: :angry4: :thumbdow: :banghead:. And that isn't the only model that is horrible to get to. All the guys dread to get a battery call for a chrysler car. I'm pretty sure the designers sat around drinking one night and said lets have a contest to see who can come up with the most ridiculous place to put the battery and see if we can get the design approved. Have heard horror stories about the 200 and 300 series and intrepids, and sebrings. The spare tire location/design on a caravan is another great design :angry7:
 
I plan to never own one of the newer Mopars and that was even before Fiat took them over.

Try one of the mid to late 90s Cadillac Northstar starters where they put the damn thing under the intake.
 
Caddy northstar plugs require engine mounts taken loose.

New cars suck. All of them.
 
Yep my Sebring convertible is the same way. Major pain to change out.
 
DaveBonds said:
Caddy northstar plugs require engine mounts taken loose.
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Not the only ones! Our '98 Olds Intrigue has been a great car...except when it's time to change plugs. FWD V-6 and the only way to get to the plugs on the bank against the firewall is to unbolt the front engine mounts and rock the engine forward to give enough clearance. There's even an extra hole in one of the front engine mounts to slip the bolt through to hold the engine in place "rocked forward".
 
Looked for the battery on my niece's 99 Sebring vert and after 10 minutes I gave up! (FYI, I am a mechanical engineer and also very mechanically inclined.). I just jumped it with the underhood posts and thanked God that it started!
 
try changing headlights in some of the new cars. the bumper has to be removed on many of them
 
72dust said:
try changing headlights in some of the new cars. the bumper has to be removed on many of them
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I was just going to relate some of the horror stories I've read about something as simple as changing a headlight, but you beat me to it lol.
 
This is what happens when college kids start designing cars instead of car guys,...
 
They keep trying to make them more compact and doing so harder to work on.

I had to remove the battery to change air filter in my wife's free star van

It is getting to the point that removing the engine cradle to work on the engine might be easier than working on it in the car.

The new ford trucks with diesels have to remove the cab to do several maintence items

Engineers should have to do some of the repairs or replace some parts in their stupid designs.

One body controller on the new Escape is on the tunnel under the console. The only way to get to it is remove both seats to disassemble the console to get to it.

So it isn't the Chrysler engineers, it is all of them.

Snap together cars that break when you have to take them apart, but they give us 44 seconds to do our job 650 times a shift
 
A friend of mine had a Mitsubishi Montero Sport. 2001? The intake manifold had to be removed to change the spark plugs.
 
Lol... I bought a slightly used Chrysler 300 for my wife ten years ago. Think it was a 1999 model. Nice looking and driving car, we had it for about three years. When the battery took a ****. I went looking for it and found it in the exact same spot down under passenger front fender. I said hell no! We jumped started the car and took it to Pep Boys. I bought a battery and was going to pay them to install it. Found out the install was free with the battery purchase.:D I left the car there and told them to call us when it was done. about three hours later they called and we went and picked it up. The tech said that was the worst battery R&R he ever did.

I paid the Toyota dealer to take that car off my hands as a trade in. Probably one of the best decision I have ever made. It's to bad, it was a really nice car. It just had so many issues it was killing me both financially and emotionally. Had it three years and had major work done on the AC every year. Then door locks and window issues just topped it off. With the arrival of my daughter, I was done with that car and bought the wife an SUV that has been issue free for the last eight years. I said never again, but damn I sure like the new Challenger!
 
Was installing sirius in a buddy's new/used 2012 jeep grand cherokee. Went to disconnect battery under the hood and all I found was a neg. and pos. terminal for jumping. I am like where in the hell is the battery? Went online and low and behold they put it under the front passenger seat. The really screwed up part is if the battery ***** the bed the only way to change battery is you have to remove the seat! Are you kidding! They are forcing you to let them do the work and bending you over. What a bunch of idiots.
 
Well I was an engineer that worked for Chrysler on packaging for almost ten years, lets just say it was challenging! No Don't blame me I had nothing to do with those cars but I know some of the battery locations and servicing them really suck. But there are some good reasons for putting them down low. The primary one is in a front impact, the battery doesn't crush or collapse and its big. Moving it out of the way made the car a lot safer, it was hard to argue with that. So ten years later we find out its a pain to replace the battery, I hate to tell you but thats not a problem for the guys that made the decsion to put it there.
 
Wait until you have to do driveability on some of the modern designed cars. Fuel pump is new (from another shop) but still doesn't work. Run a continuity test. Broken wire. Going from the PCM at the driver's inner apron, running under the headlights to the passenger side of the car before finally working it's way back to the pump. In the middle of a harness that's about an inch thick.

Crank position sensors. On top of the tranny. Under the cowl. With about an inch of room. Or on V8 diesels. In full size vans.

Remember, design has nothing to do with us in the shops having to repair this s***, it's called ease of assembly at the factory.
 
My uncle had a Ford(I think) mid 90's....the brake lines were run inside the frame from the factory....
 
plum crazy dart said:
I'm pretty sure the designers sat around drinking one night and said lets have a contest to see who can come up with the most ridiculous place to put the battery and see if we can get the design approved. Have heard horror stories about the 200 and 300 series and intrepids, and sebrings. The spare tire location/design on a caravan is another great design :angry7:
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WildCat said:
Engineers should have to do some of the repairs or replace some parts in their stupid designs.
Click to expand...

I always get the feeling that this is the intention! Sort of like "let's see you guys fix THIS at home in your driveway!" Difficult, time-consuming maintenance is something that the customer pays for.....at a dealer. Everybody gets those junk mail flyers sent to your house about $25 oil changes at the dealer, just to get some people into the service dep't. I think this is just another way to get more people in.
 
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