Engine Modesty Cover Serves a Useful Purpose

At first glance the plastic valence that you now see in all late models to
cover the engine compartment from view would seem to serve no purpose. Why
in the world would Chrysler spend money that would otherwise be available
to lower the cost of its product, or better yet, buy a second fuel pump for
the fuel tank so you don't get stranded down the road some day? After some
reflection, I realize the brilliance of this useless piece of vestigial
polymer!

Think, "No user serviceable parts inside this unit". When the owner lifts
the hood, he is instantly intimidated. He will not ever attempt to do even
the simplest routine maintenance or minor repairs as in the days of old.
Not even an oil change or spark plug replacement. Chrysler has brilliantly
planned it that way; every customer is now locked into $75 per hour shop
rate for literally everything. If Chrysler is smart, they will make the
crankcase drain plug of a trick design requiring a special tool available
only to licensed dealers, to release it. That'll put the cabosh on those
20 Minute oil change joints as well as Saturday mechanics in one fell
swoop.

You see now, Chrysler is cost conscious. They invest say $15 covering the
mechanicals and get 100 times in returns for their dealerships and take a
piece of the action for themselves as well. Its legal, for now, but there
might be a legal theory to abate it.

How do you suppose it got started and how wide spread is this new approach
to business? Probably with consumer electronics. Not too long ago, TVs
were full of vacuum tubes. When your set quit, you would take out all the
tubes and test them at Thrifty Cut-Rate Drug Store. Replace the bad ones
and the set was usually good for another six months or a year. But today's
sets have only one vacuum tube in them. Nothing to fix. Therefore the
maker puts this little tag on the back and tells you not to open up the set
because its futile. You need to throw it away when it breaks down and buy
new. This concept has now spread to cars and most other products that
owners once tinkered with. Take the Ducati Monster 800 motorbike. The
owner's manual instructs you to have the oil changed at the bike shop. You
are not invited to do so yourself. Presumably you jeapordize the warranty
if you do so yourself. I think car companies are going in the same
direction.

They just about have to because they aren't making the money on selling new
cars. By getting the dealers to do virtually all the work, they will keep
their dealers healthy and the dealers will sell far more genuine factory
parts, locking out the 3rd parties. Everything will be O.E.M. and that
means profits. They will make profit on the back end instead of the front
end. That is my conclusion.

But there is a downside to purposely making servicing more difficult than
it needs to. Since servicing will now be very much more expensive and for
the second-hand market, prohibitively so, much servicing will be neglected.
Letting parts like spark plugs, wires, belts, and hoses go is going to lead
to sudden breakdowns and accidents as a result. This will come back to the
makers as bad will, reputation for unreliability, high maintenance costs,
and just plain cursing. Overall, it would seem the manufacturers will be
the losers in this game of cat and mouse. Given that this might be
considered bad faith action by manufacturers, there is the potential for
class action lawsuits to abate policies that are contrary to public
interests. Watch out Chrysler! Some of your customers are lawyers and
ready for action.

To illustrate just how much worse the serviceability has gotten just look
at the Bosch Jetronic fuel injection system. You could yank out every
injector with a pull for testing the spray patterns (qantity & quality)
into test tubes. One jumper and you could energize the pump for testing.
One pull on the air flow plate with a pair of pliers and you could actuate
the injection system and make the injectors spray for testing. The only
instruments needed to do a complete check was a fuel pressure gauge and a
test light or voltmeter. The whole system was intuitive and documentation
was complete, right down to temperature/pressure graphs. And one more
thing, every part was out in the open for service, no valence covers. Try
that with todays EFI system. Its utterly hopeless. Time for action, I say.

 

I would suspect that the majority of 'new car' owners do not service their
own cars, so the presence of a cover only serves to make the engine look a
little less agricultural in appearence.. when showing their pride and joy to
neighbours, they can quote big numbers while looking at the sleek design..
for those that do maintenance themselves, if they can't remove the cover,
they should not be doing any repair work..

 

JUMP on Chrysler. Yea. Well, for your information, GM has been doing
this FOR YEARS. If you can't figure out how to get the covers off,
keep your cotten picken fingers off of the engine. You complain about
the few pennies it cost to put the covers on and you want to add a
$150+ fuel pump redundancy system that is not needed. HOW MANY fuel
pumps go out early, and WHAT IS EARLY? The same people who have fuel
pump problems are the same people who always run thier fuel tank to
the E and under constantly and wonder WHY the pump goes bad.
DUH!!!!!!

 

You give Chrysler more credit than they deserve. The cover is basically
there for cost and cosmetics. It makes the enginer compart look pretty
for the cost of a plastic tray. They don't have to paint of polish any
of the engine compartment pieces to make them look good. Those covers come
off eaisly enough that they won't be thwarting any home mechanic from
performing basic maintenance. If anything, this might scare off the really
incompetent persons who should not be messing with stuff in the engine
compartment without some guidance.

 

If this is really an issue, then it points to poor fuel system design.
It would be stupid on the part of an engineer to expect a car owner to
keep their tank filled above a certain level. If fuel pump cooling when
the tank is low is really an issue, they should figuer out a way to keep
the pump cool when the tank is running low.

 

MAYBE YOU SHOULD WRITE YOUR CONGRESSMAN AND PASS A LAW AGAINST IT< GEEEEEES
I HOPE I NEVER HAVE YOUR CAR IN THE SHOP
Glenn Beasley
Chrysler Tech