Deferred Maintenance
 

In Shaun’s thread about leasing, I mentioned deferred maintenance.

This is a perfect example why it happens.

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LOL. I have to pull my Cayenne bumper in the spring to repaint due to a rattle can repair by the po. It's the same procedure, but to have to do it for air filters? Nah.

Wow. What a PITA

superior German design, definitely! :rolleyes:

Automotive design engineers should have to do basic maintenance as part of their development process.

Of course the opposite side of the coin is Porsche AG rewarding their dealership network with billable hours vs minutes.

Last summer I changed the diff fluid in my Jeep Grand Cherokee.

Should be a very simple process IF the fill port was located opposite the exhaust where there was gobs of room.

Instead I had to make a mess trying to get the fill tube in. Yes, a more well equipped mechanic would have a pump but there is absolutely no reason for it to be packaged the way it was.

I wonder what the dealership charges for an air filter change like that in the video.

Changing the air filter is one of the simple tasks on my El Camino that I could likely do in 60 seconds if I tried to work fast.

On my 85 Carrera getting the air filter box intake off is not horrible, but getting the dang clips to snap into place on the back side requires me to soap down my arm to get it shoved in far enough to get to the damn lower back side clip. I even have a zip tie on it to help me grab it. I really need a 100 pound skinny kid to reach into the tight space. It is sometimes easier to unbolt the AC compressor, and lay it over on the fender to have access to that lower clip. It is still a lot easier than the video above.

There are many cars that have the oil drain plug on the engine aimed right at a cross member of the car so any oil change will make a huge mess.

Not sure, what do you guess the book rate is on that? 2 hours? I can't imagine it's less than $500.

My concern is there's a lot of opportunity for broken plastic and it would be enormously frustrating to DIY.

For perspective, we had a Honda Pilot, dealer wanted $80 to replace the cabin air filter. I just checked, a Bosch filter is $15 on Amazon and to replace the filter, you had to drop the glove box, so about 5 minutes of actual labor. But the book gives the tech credit for going to the parts desk, cleanup, crack scratching, etc. so 30 minutes labor plus an inflated price for the parts.

I'm getting off track, but this is why dealership owners are dumb. Service is where they make their money. If they made it a great experience for owners, they'd get more maintenance work.

A Ford dealer local to me has complementary valet service. I make an appointment on their website, they send someone to my workplace to pick up the car and later return it with a copy of the invoice and a coupon for an exterior car wash at the place next door to them.

Oil and filter costs $73. I will NEVER consider DIYing an oil change OR taking it anywhere else, even for a discount.

I can't imagine the book is only 2 hrs, but could be wrong.
Its not too bad to do, actually. Yeah, lots of fasteners to remove in the liner and a couple in the bumper, but it pretty much slides off. Helps to have two folks to manage not dropping it and to realign when sliding back on.
Not making excuses for having to do it though.
Its like undertrays. Man, it sucks to just change the oil on many cars today without a lift.

A heat gun on low makes plastic tabs & loops a lot easier.

An absolutely redonkyouluss procedure, but man, that video was done well. Every step described and filmed perfectly. (I noticed that whatever the part that the hose attached to had already been broken and repaired with gorilla tape.)

This stuff drives me nuts and both Porsche and Mercedes do it. They do so many things really well but routine maintenance like air filter and oil filter changes should be engineered to be simple and bulletproof. Boxster/Cayman air filters are annoying but nothing like this monster.

Changing the oil filter or fuel filter on a Sprinter 3500 are accessible but tough to get out without breaking fragile plastic tube fittings around it. Also the oil filter requires very careful o-ring placement into a non-intuitive groove. Get the o-ring wrong and it may not leak right away, but tomorrow on the highway the filter slips and dumps your oil. Now you get to buy a new motor.

How long would it take for a Human Factors Engineer to solve these problems and greatly improve owner experience?? If Toyota can do it, so can Porsche.

Similar to taking the front bumper off my 996 but it has all the light connections.

That procedure isn’t too bad - if you’re changing the radiator.
I think, in general, cars from the mid-50s through the early 70s were the easiest to work on. In the 30s and 40s they threw the cars together without regard for the poor guy working on it. I worked on a WWII ERA car whose make and model I cannot remember; I only worked on it the one time. It had a side opening hood and a Continental engine, with the distributor in the middle of the cylinder head. You could baaarreellly get the distributor cap off with the hood on the car if you didn’t mind losing some skin.

For my wife's Macan I have an oil pump with a long plastic tube I shove down the oil filer canister that is right on top, and front and center. Super easy to take out the filter, suck out the oil, install new filter, all while standing up.

The other method is drop the belly pan that has what seems like 100 torx screws and four large plastic clips. Not a bad job with my lift.

The cabin filter is in the passenger footwell. Super easy to replace. My 911 has never needed a new cabin filter, or a battery for the key.

Well crap. I bought a Panamera GTS last summer. Guess this will be in my horizon eventually.

Right now, I have to replace the washer reservoir pump. Unfortunately, it will require removal of left front tire and the wheel liner just to get to the stupid thing.

But dang, this is one helluva of a nice vehicle. Amethyst metallic, which is fairly rare.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1769117777.jpg

Yeah, MB puts their washer pumps down there on some models, no fun. Generally I wouldn't remove the whole liner, but still a pain.