first prize for worst car maintenance engine design: the dipstick

[dodgerammit]

For the fun part: on Jeeps no need for a dipstick if your parking spot is missing a stain, you know that oil is needed either on front or rear axle, transfer case, trany or engine, forgot power steering and coolant...

Ah, primitive rust protection....

[Tatsadasayago]

"My Jeep doesn't leak. It marks it's territory!"

[candymancan]

Its not just germans man.. Chevy has been doing this forever.. my friend has a 04 Chevy malibu classic with no trans dipstick.. well there is also no sensor to say if the trans fluid is low. The only way to check it is to jack the car up so you can get under it and remove a little 10mm bolt on the side of the transmission (which btw is hard to find) and have to do this while the vehicle is running (yea i low crawling under jacked up vehicles when running) if its low no fluid will come out.. Then you have to remove the entire airbox assembly to get to the cap to fill the transmission and have someone fill it while you under it while its running in neutral (and pray the parking brake works or chaulk the wheels) and put the plug in when it starts pouring out.


Worst fing design ever...


As for leaks i probly have most of you beat.. I have a 8 quart container under my Jeep with a 2 foot long drip tray under it. because my shifter seal has been leaking so badly latetly that it needs a quart every week or so.. after a month i have to pour all that clean fresh atf into a jug and eventually bring it to get recylced.. It sucks... I need to fix that seal soon its getting to be too much

[dodgerammit]

Ford does this as well. It is all part of the grand maintenance free/planned obsolescence garbage. Research pretty much any vehicle now that is less than 10-15 years old. By year 8, most are giving some major problem. Think new vehicles have fuses for the headlights? wrong. Now they have a $1000 module that does the same job. Except, once a circuit goes bad (ie: the left headlight), you have to take it to the dealer for another complete module. No thanks. Give me fuses and relays.