On 8/6/2012 8:42 AM, Paul Parkanzky [and others] wrote:
> It wasn't long ago that we expected an eight or nine year old vehicle to
> be held together by hope and zip ties. Now, a piece fails and you're
> ready to call the lawyers? Cars have come a long way in the last 25
> years or so. I don't know if I can say the same about society.
Sorry if I hit a nerve with some of you. I despise litigious jerks and
ambulance chasing lawyers as much as anyone. I know a lot of you are
into 1950s-ish LBCs and such. If that's your choice, fine. But all bets
and expectations are off on reliability in that case.
Major failure of a safety critical part on a sub-ten year old mainstream
21st century vehicle is unacceptable. Unless it somehow has crazy high
miles, or has been abused. I consider a brake line to wear with age,
rather than mileage, but maybe I'm wrong on that.
I'm 45. Growing up in the 1970s, I remember cars commonly broken down on
the side of the highway, frequent tune-ups required, and it was
impressive if you car made it past 100k miles. Now a days synthetic
rubber technology has made belt and hose failure nearly unheard of, and
spark plugs go 100K.
> Wow. Who knew Ford was the only auto company on the planet that
> had an issue with parts almost certainly supplied by a third-party
> manufacturer who likely sold similar--if not the same--parts to GM, >
> Chrysler and quite possibly some of the 'foreign' brands.
Worked at one of those suppliers for nearly ten years (we did jet engine
and military stuff, too) and have family at Dana and Faurecia. ZERO
defects per million parts is DEMANDED. We had Delphi in Dayton OH call
us up one day bitching our parts were out of tolerance, the line was
shut down, and we were going to be slapped with huge costs. Turned out
their AC had failed in the place, it was 90 degrees inside, and that was
enough to expand the parts (ball joint receptacles) out of spec'.
> How long would you expect a brake hose to last?
20+ years. They have on all my cars that age. Though I inspect them more
frequently.
-Peace! Wayne
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