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shock absorber rebuild Related Articles

Nissan to stop producing vehicles in Indonesia

production cuts are imminent and plant closures will be part the move to accelerate cost-cutting and to help rebuild

The Blue Monster Isuzu D-Max survived the Borneo Safari

standard truck.Among the modifications made were a body lift to fit the mud terrain tyres, long travel shock

Used Proton Inspira for RM 20k! This or the Mitsubishi Lancer?

the car was completely devoid of issues.Common complains about the Inspira include bump stopper and shock

The first-ever steering wheel was invented by Mercedes-Benz for racing

Mercedes-Benz introduced a patented safety steering system in 1959 with a telescopic steering column and impact absorber

Facelifted 2021 Kia K3 (Cerato/Forte) unveiled, refreshed Elantra fighter!

priorities for the time being.Also read: Bermaz: CKD Kia Seltos and Carnival not until 2022, priority is to rebuild

Proton vendors urge for exemptions for the automotive parts manufacturing industry

recommendations that persuades the relevant authorities to help entrepreneurs and the self-employed to rebuild

The original Baby Benz – The history of the Mercedes-Benz W201

The front axle was equipped with shock absorber struts with anti-dive control, giving the car excellent

Buying a used Toyota Camry? Priced from RM 20k, here's what you need to know

credit: GlobuskOther than that, this generation also suffers from the premature wearing of the front absorber

Bermaz: CKD Kia Seltos and Carnival not until 2022, priority is to rebuild after-sales

Kia models will be launched in Malaysia in the near-term.Dinamikjaya’s immediate priority is to rebuild

Elderly Proton Iriz driver crashes into market stall, injuring 3 pedestrians

deputy police chief, Supt Mohamed Nordin Abdullah, told Harian Metro that the driver had received a shock

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Classic Rolls Royce vs brick wall, RR wins this round

rdquo;Both the elderly driver and his wife were unhurt during the accident but were treated briefly for shock

Xiaomi teases new car, but there's a twist

The RC car comes with plenty of features such as four-wheel drive, off-road tires, and shock absorbers

Giant lizard in a car!

This Toyota Vios owner had the shock of his life when he opened his car bonnet and discovered a flipped

New 2021 BMW M5 (F90) debuts, do you like the new looks?

CoupeThe single biggest improvement that BMW M has done to the new F90 M5 Competion is updating the shock

Malaysia to launch CKD Kia Carnival in Q1 2022, Seltos in Q4, target 2,000 unit sales

in Malaysia until 2022.Also read: Bermaz: CKD Kia Seltos and Carnival not until 2022, priority is to rebuild

The Toyota C-HR GR Sport gets Gazoo-ed, comes with 6MT!

Sport gets mechanical revisions of a new centre brace to boost body rigidity, muscled up coil springs, shock

After Mazda, Bermaz to also export Kia Seltos and Carnival from Malaysia

in Malaysia until 2022.Also read: Bermaz: CKD Kia Seltos and Carnival not until 2022, priority is to rebuild

2021 BMW iX teased; 500 PS electric SUV coming to Malaysia

certainly gives a visual impact.According to BMW, the massive kidney grill is more than just a visual shock

Perodua D55L's DNGA platform - is it better and more comfortable than Proton?

- from the locations where suspension is attached, bushing characteristics to spring constants, and shock

When to change your shock absorbers? Here are 6 signs the time has come

A shock is just a shock.

How much of the Ford Ranger Raptor is inspired by racing technology?

has been specially reinforced in the Raptor to fit the tough requirements of the Baja 1000 race.The shock

Plane T-bones Lexus IS, how do you explain that to the insurance company?

But we’re also sure that agents will never get over the shock of some of the excuses they come

Price drop for 2020 Mercedes-Benz C300, no more Airmatic, RM 2k less

Compared to traditional strut suspension, there are no coil springs or shock absorbers on air suspension

New 2021 Hyundai Santa Fe design revealed, it’s all about the lights

completely redesigned the SUV from the ground up to fit the new hybrid powertrains.Though the focus of the rebuild

2020 Mercedes-Benz C300 AMG Line drops Airmatic suspension

Compared to traditional strut suspension, there are no coil springs or shock absorbers on air suspension

2021 Renault Megane RS 300 Trophy facelift launched in Malaysia; RM 326k, drops 6MT

Each absorber features clever hydraulic compression stops to improve everyday drivability.The Renault

Carsome and CIMB partner up to create new financing solution for used car dealers

Dealer Alliance Support Program, an initiative that provides short-term boosts to help used car dealers rebuild

How did the Toyota Hilux get its name? The reasons might shock you

, here’s a short story of how Toyota came up with the Hilux’s name and the reason might shock

2020 Lexus LX 570 open for booking in Malaysia, starts from RM 1.2 million

It also comes with adaptive variable suspension that continually adjusts shock-absorber damping rates

No easy solution for Kia’s after-sales woes in Malaysia, even with Bermaz

can get new customers.Also read: Bermaz: CKD Kia Seltos and Carnival not until 2022, priority is to rebuild

shock absorber rebuild Post Review

New pair of shock absorber inserts arrived as the old ones weren't gonna cut it with the HR31 Import struts. Assembly went smooth but the 300ZX Turbo calipers wouldn't open up enough to go over the rotors. Pulled one apart and found it was seized with corrosion. Rebuild time! https://t.co/1DRjK4rhZl

EM international reserves – Great story got even better: >It only took 2 months for EM to rebuild their reserves post COVID >Reason - many learned their lessons and now explicitly target reserves, using FX as a shock-absorber (while credible policies cap FX-CPI passthrough) https://t.co/HUCV1YjJnn

Pivot Works Rear Shock Absorber Rebuild Kit PWSHR-T04-000 https://t.co/zZigUEaLM4 eBay https://t.co/8vaJ4IrOPo

BMW ESA Shock absorber rebuild. Massive improvements both Internally & externally. Re-sealed, oiled & gassed. HUGE saving over buying brand new at just £199 for a WP/Showa unit or £249 for the Sachs #BMW #BMWK1200 #BMWMotorrad #BMWMotorradUK #K1200 #ESASHOCK #BMWTOURING #R1200 https://t.co/PGWPmGgYQw

Tonights little job. Now just a matter of a new tyre and a rebuild. Noticed shock absorber bushes were also fooked so I'll change these at the same time 👍 https://t.co/q6Wxha0Ybc

Last job of the week rebuild front shock absorber assembly Ready to be re fitted to the car. https://t.co/94v9moLszP

Quick shock absorber rebuild up front, and a swap to studded tyres. #modelcitizen https://t.co/0etb5PdYJ4

Factors headed for chew over still alternativity an shock absorber rebuild put in order: awxh

"how to rebuild a 1940 buick front shock absorber?" http://t.co/uvf80FZz

Shock absorber rebuild: about tips conjunction also hardwearing. stockcar kinematics courtierly: mPkcCDGA

shock absorber rebuild Q&A Review

What is the simplest car repair you have ever done?

Back in the late 1980’s, I bought a new Subaru GL hatchback. Occasionally, when I drove over a bump (railroad crossings, potholes, etc) I would heard a loud “clunk” from the rear of the car. I took it to the dealership. After the first visit, they said they could not reproduce the sound. Great. Of course, it happened again a few days later. I took it back to the dealer and they were able to reproduce the sound this time. They “tightened” the shock absorber and said they fixed it. Well, a few days later it happened again. Back to the dealer for the third time. This time they kept the car for a couple of days. They said they checked the suspension specs and could not find anything out of spec. They had received an OK from Subaru to rebuild the whole rear suspension. I got the car back after those few days. Well, (need I say it?) the clunk recurred a few days later. In those days, I always bought the “shop manual’ for new cars I bought. I opened that manual and looked in the troubleshooting section. Under the rear suspension noise section there were a few items. One, check shock absorber. Check. Two, install second retaining bolt in the rear torsion bar tube bearing. ???? Never mentioned by the dealer. So I went to the dealer’s parts department and bought two of the bolts. (About $3.00 total as I recall). I installed the bolts and the sound never happened again! Just the facts that the dealer shop never got to “line two” in their own manual and that the design engineers had provided for two retaining bolts on each end of the torsion bar tube, convinced me to never go back to that dealership again. They were out of business about a year later. I wonder why??!!

What is the most difficult/complicated auto repair you've ever carried out, completely on your own?

Many years ago, I bought a 1968 Toyota Corona 4 door sedan for $50.00. The engine had spun a rod bearing which ended up bending the valves on one cylinder along with damaging the piston. I pulled the engine and rebuilt it myself with a friend at a local machine shop aiding me in boring the cylinders and reworking the cylinder head along with turning the crankshaft. I then reassembled the engine with new parts as required, and installed it back into the car. At that point, I was finally able to drive the car, and found that the transmission (Toyota’s 2 speed automatic… the “Toyoglide”) was slipping badly, and the differential was making a lot of noise. I went to a local wrecking yard and pulled the transmission, driveshaft and differential out of a car very similar to mine that had been scrapped due to a crash, but with a lot less miles than mine had. I did this using a scissors jack and my own muscle, and swapped out these parts in my back yard, along with replacing all four shock absorbers, replacing the worn-out steering components, and completely rebuilding the entire braking system. I drove the car for 3 years after that, eventually trading it in on my first new car… a 1984 Nissan Stanza. This is not my actual car, but is one just like it.

Why do car companies design cars with parts that are so hard to access (e.g. bolts, etc.)?

Back when I worked as an auto mechanic, and even now, I wondered the same thing. I firmly believed that every engineer should be required to service what they design. As many have already pointed out, there are a few factors at play here. Cars today are more complex. Today’s cars must be built with airbags, shock-absorbing bumpers, side impact beams, rollover protection, sensors, computers, more emission equipment, more options, more complex engines, etc… All of these things take up valuable space, which leaves less room for hands and tools for servicing. Cars today are built with a limited service life. Cars built during the “age of steel” were designed to be rebuilt. Virtually every wear component could be removed with tools and replaced with parts available from a local auto parts store. Whether that was ball joints, wheel bearings, crankshaft bearings, rear axle gears or other parts. In addition, most parts could be refurbished or rebuilt. You could rebuild the carburetor, rechrome the bumpers or install a new wiring harness or rubber door seals. With extremely high parts prices and more permanent robotic manufacturing techniques used on assembly lines (such as spot welding), the modern car is more of a disposable consumer item than a piece of equipment you keep repairing and pass on to the next generation. Assembly lines allow for sub-assemblies. In other words, all of those engine components were easy to put on by workers on the line, with the entire crossmember on the floor. However once it goes up into the car body, along with the engine harness, transmission and steering components, it then becomes inaccessible. Government recycling incentives. In many countries, the government encourages car owners to turn their cars in after a few years and they apply a credit towards the purchase of a new automobile. Why fix something if you’re just going to turn it in to the recycling center in 6 months? There are other reasons, but I think you get the point.

Is it advisable to repair shock absorbers?

The shocks that are generally sold and installed to the public are constructed in a way that they are not serviceable. They are sealed, welded in their construction. You can however buy speciality shock meant for automotive enthusiasts and racers that are rebuildable and even tunable. You would be shocked to know what they can cost. Simply put you're not going to find a rebuildable set under 500 for a set of two, and the price goes up from there.

Are there any disadvantages to a shaft-driven motorcycle?

The rear axle will have higher unsprung weight. That is bad for handling. The bike will have added weight and cost too. BMW , Guzzi and Kawasaki have all built models that have extra parts to counter the jacking effect on acceleration, the BMW version is not as long term durable as the previous design though, Many fail unexpectedly as one of mine did at 60 k miles. By comparison to chains, the chain is a known wear item like the tires and is easy to see as it wears. Modern chains can last 20 k miles even with hard use. Replacement takes minimal skill compared to rebuilding a rear drive assembly. Racers like that the gear ratios are easily and cheaply changed on chain drive bikes. people rarely race shaft drive bikes, and even BMW makes their sport models with chain drive. Back when the V Max was being drag raced, it was common to convert the drive to chain from shaft, specifically to make ratio changes and presumably to get a bit more power to the tire. Long travel suspension puts added wear on the driveshaft U joint, this is not an issue on street only bikes, but for example on the BMW GS models replacement of the drive shaft is considered a good idea at 30 k miles. Much more expensive than replacing a chain and sprockets! a pair of sprockets and a chain is likely to cost a bit over $200 for the parts. A BMW driveshaft is over $600. I feel on a Gold Wing or a Cruiser model. the driveshaft is a good design choice. Sporty performance bikes these days are better with a chain drive as are dirt applications. The old BMW air heads last built in 1995 all had driveshafts, they are the models that earned BMW for the reputation for reliability. They were very reliable and simpler than the more recent BMW designs, particularly when the swing arm contained oil to lube the joints. ( later ones had a rubber in line shock absorber so the oil was removed)

Which suspension is best for an off-road, a vehicle shock absorber or a damper?

A shock absorber is also known as a “shock damper”. There are quite a bit of different options when it comes to picking shock absorbers/dampers, and a lot of it depends on things like how much are you willing to spend to be able to get the most performance out of your suspension. There are a few options that are popular among offroad vehicles: Twin Tube Shocks Monotube Shocks Some manufacturers make monotube shocks that offer higher quality materials; as well as rebuildable, so that you can change the shock valving and replace worn out parts as needed. Reservoir Shocks These are typically monotube design, but with an external reservoir to increase the shocks oil capacity and cooling ability. These include piggyback reservoir and remote reservoir. Bypass Shocks These are also typically monotube design, but the difference here is that they can be tuned via internal or external tubes, so that the amount of shock dampening changes with the position of the internal piston. These are typically a much more expensive shock due to the cost and complexity to manufacturer, but they offer some of the highest amount of tuning/adjustability options for increase performance. Air Shocks These act as shock absorbers as well as hold the weight of the vehicle using compressed gas (Nitrogen) instead of coil or leaf springs. These are similar to monotube shocks. These typically do not offer as great of performance, but where these excel is that because these hold the weight of the vehicle, there is no need for springs to hold the weight. This offers tight packaging and weight savings. I’m not going into great detail on each of these, but here is a general idea of the different products out there. There isn’t really a “Best” option, because there are so many different variables to consider when choosing a shock absorber/damper.

Is it hard for an average person to maintain an antique car say a Corvair?

Question: ,“,Is it hard for an average person to maintain an antique car say a Corvair?,” Short answer: ,YES!! First of all, cars built in that era require ,much more maintenance, than anything that you have ever driven, than anything that has been built in decades. Whereas today tune-ups are unknown and spark plugs last 100K miles, on cars such as the Corvair it is necessary to file the ignition points, adjust the timing, remove, clean, gap and replace the spark plugs, and adjust the carburetor every 3K miles. Plugs points and condenser have to be replaced, and the timing set and the carburetor again adjusted every 10K miles. The chassis must be greased every 3K miles. And there are a lot of Zerk fittings on those cars! Secondly, essential parts on cars of that era had much shorter life expectancies than you are familiar with. In the 1950s and 1960s fuel pumps and ignition coils seldom lasted over 30K miles and failure could be expected at anything over 10K miles. Exhaust systems rusted out and had to be replaced every two or three years. Shock absorbers had a life span of less than 30K miles. Major services that required the cylinder head or the oil pan to be removed, such as lapping or grinding of the intake and exhaust valves and seats or replacing the piston rings or the crankshaft and connecting rod bearings were commonly done and could be necessary as early as 45K miles. Engines were considered to be worn out and in need of overhauling at 70K miles. Even when these cars were new, many of the required services, such as carburetor rebuilding, required specialists. The technicians who did that sort of work retired more than a decade ago. Rebuilding and servicing carburetors has become something of a lost art. But you ,will ,have to have it done. Good luck finding someone who still knows how to do it. Corrosion protection was an unknown art when those cars were designed and built. Parts tended to rust out. This was so common that in the 1950s and ’60s every town in the midwest and northeast had shops that specialized in replacing rocker panels! They would commonly rust out on a new car in three years. Parts like seals that we ordinarily do not think of today wore out and required replacement. That required at least removing the oil pan. After 60K miles it was frequently necessary to replace both the front and rear main crankshaft seals. Some designs were inherently bad and always failed. Because of inadequate bearing support on the input shaft, the main seal on the Chevrolet automatic transmission would leak ,especially if the car was not frequently driven., Because collector or show cars spend much of their time parked in garages such designs mean that the seals on those cars will always leak. Once a car is over only twenty years old parts are not routinely stocked and remanufactures have no incentive to rebuild them. Parts become hard to find. What might be a routine remove-and-replace operation on a modern car can become a months long parts search if you own a car built in the 1950s or 1960s. Some cars, such as the Corvair, were problematical even when new. The original version of he Corvair used a log fan belt bent at a 90-degree angle to drive its engine cooling fan. Those cars ate fan belts. The turbocharged versions of the later Corvair Corsas were never fully developed and should be thought of as prototypes. Corvairs, especially the later Corsa convertibles and coupes, are pretty, really fun to drive if equipped with manual transmissions, and worth restoring and collecting. But to do so you either need to have high level automotive maintenance skills or a lot of discretionary cash and a very good relationship with someone who has those skills and specializes in Corvair maintenance and restoration. And you have to realize that for anyone who is old enough and experienced enough to have those skills, money is no longer important. You cannot simply pay for his time. You will need to bribe him. I suggest cases of fine wine or many bottles of single malt Scotch.

Will electric cars need mechanics?

Yes, electric cars still need mechanics, but not as many or as often. Electric cars will eventually need brake maintenance (pads and rotors) but not as often because of regenerative braking. Electric cars will need tires, shock absorbers, alignments and mechanical items like that just as often as any other vehicle. They will eventually start to have some typical issues with other cars such as door locks, door handles, and window regulators that stop working. The mechanics that specialize in motor or transmission rebuilding won't be needed on electric cars. Neither will the oil change shops.

What is your cynical take on US politics?

Contrary to his fears, I actually agree with ,Peter Kruger,, though I arrive at the conclusion by a different route: We’re Fucked. (,Dave Consiglio,, care to get a tag going on that one? ;-) ) I tend to take a different view than most of Quora’s other intellectuals. I don’t see America as a single unit or a coherent polity. For one thing, for reasons I’ll get into, it never has been. But closer to the surface, my point is simply that most of Quora’s other top writers here, however nobly or ignobly, take the American context at face value: we’re a nation of laws, we’re a nation of immigrants, this is a time of great stress and peril, we must come together, yada yada yada. It’s the same bullshit framing that we all buy into because we’re fed it by a news media that wants us all to think like pundits all the time. To me, America is a historical setting, in which history is playing out. ,It’s much like any other that we tend to obsess about and analyze to death - Rome, France, England, Greece, Russia, etc. Historically, America isn’t one nation, it’s 11. This is beautifully laid out in Colin Woodard’s book ,American Nations,, but most easily digested in this map that’s become increasingly popular here on Quora: To me, this “historical setting” is also a system. ,I’m an engineer, so I think in these terms. The system is defined by certain constraints - legal, informal, cultural, and so on - and by its participants - those 11 nations, and their people, institutions, politicians, etc. Most importantly, the development of this system is defined by certain dynamics. These have been beautifully outlined by the other writers - political polarization, epistemological closure of media bubbles, algorithmic radicalization, the inevitability of climate change, non-rational or affinity-based voting behaviors - to the point that I won’t waste our time going through them all. Suffice to say, we know what is going wrong and why it’s happening. Well… …, kind of. What has me so cynical about politics today is that from ,my, perspective, the drivers of the problems are relatively easy to understand, and yet no one ever puts together the big picture. Maybe they’re afraid of the implications; past attempts at “big pictures” have ended horrifically. Maybe more charitably, they’re just too siloed: despite all honest attempts to rise above it all, few of us can ever see past our own noses. Whatever it is, the problem remains: ,We’re Fucked,. Why do I say this? I’ve laid out some of the key dynamics many times before, but the main basis is that they all point to a single phenomenon: we have an electoral system that reliably fluctuates between 45–55% majorities, but a strong cultural norm (the filibuster) that requires 60% majorities for even ordinary business, let alone fundamental change. It’s not hard to see how these norms were necessary to knit 11 different nations together under one system, especially if you know your history, like Martin van Buren’s role in building the national two-party system. An engineer would call this an “overdamped” system., Think of it like a shock absorber that’s too stiff: because the force required to make it budge is so high, it can’t accommodate anything less than that force, so even the slightest pebble sends a shock through the system, making the ride bumpy for everyone inside. Sound familiar? The thing is, as this whole situation was escalating (IE increasing use of the filibuster), the country became more polarized. Each victory required a careful negotiation to maintain the balance of power, and each time, another constituency sorted itself into a better-suited camp. Eventually, all the constituencies were settled into camps they could not easily leave, and the country became so riven with delicately tuned compromises, that no major change could amass a majority anymore, no minority’s sacred cows could be slaughtered, and the slightest deviation from the settled balance by any nation among the 11 might mean total defeat and irrelevance for a generation. Meanwhile, the problems kept getting worse, because nothing in the overdamped system could get done about them. The solutions we need now grow ever more extreme, and thus less palatable for compromise. We no longer can achieve a compromise to solve our immediate problems, let alone one to solve the long-term problem of overdamping. It’s a catch-22. You need a sane polity to escape overdamping, but an overdamped polity is one inexorably being driven insane. This is the country you and I live in today. The answers are staring us in the face: Rebuild the electoral system to defuse the two-party impasse and allow the 11 nations - and the country as a whole - more flexibility under a proportional system that still respects our highly varied geography. Devolve more power to those nations - and recognize that they do not perfectly overlap with present state boundaries, and thus that we must reconceptualize the country from a confederation of states to… something new which acknowledges our 11 constituent nations, without going so far as to “hard-code” one historian’s opinions into yet another inflexible successor system. Specifically, in the short term, replace First-Past-The-Post and Winner-Take-All with some form of ranked voting. Abolish the filibuster. The problem is,, few want to do these two things, or start down the grander path. They’re scared of what might happen - we’re all so ingrained into the system we have, we can’t really contemplate how anything else could even work, let alone that it could work better. They’re scared that “their side” might lose in the interim, transforming the country quickly into something they wouldn’t recognize. They’re scared of backlashes - getting their hopes up and “winning”, only to wake up to a (potentially violent) revolution that undoes their hard work. Fear and myopia. My fellow Americans, these are the emotions standing in the way of your happiness and our progress. Learn to recognize them, for they are the true enemy, not your countrymen. And even if we all agreed on these things, the path would still be long and difficult. Would we survive the immediate aftermath of abolishing the filibuster? Would we be able to weaken the two-party system without one party seizing permanent control? Would we survive a decade or two of even ,benevolent, one-party dominance? So… ,We’re Fucked. What annoys me the ,most,, what makes me so cynical about it all, is that people still keep going around as if other issues ,mattered,. The Democrats are smart enough to see that healthcare is a huge issue that affects the ,entire country’s, daily lives, and they’re endlessly frustrated by the two-party impasse, ,buuuuuuuut,… … not enough to admit to themselves that they’ll never get universal healthcare without breaking the impasse, or that this particular impasse can’t be broken by normal politics, but rather only by systemic electoral change. The Republicans can tell that trade and overspending have negatively affected our economy for millions of rural Americans, ,buuuuuuut… … are too invested in tax cuts, big business, and the Southern Strategy, to admit that coal jobs aren’t coming back, Wal-Mart unjustly benefits from corporate welfare, and immigrants aren’t actually the problem. People everywhere are so invested in the things they have lost, the arguments they’ve been trying to overcome a filibuster for, the parties they vote for, that they can’t see the actual threat that the filibuster and two-party elections pose to them. They’re mistaking the opponent on the other side of the chess board for the true enemy, when both players have always been perfectly free to vote to choose another game to play. (,And to extend the analogy, it’s like 11 players deciding to remain split into two teams to play chess by committee, rather than just pick an 11-player game.,) And so, I have grown pessimistic that neither could our country recognize and achieve the changes it needs, nor even survive those changes, without some sort of major, violent, and ultimately ,tragic, upheaval that hurts too many of the dear citizens of a country that I love very much - any more than zero is unacceptable, in fact - when the peaceful solution has been staring us in the faces all along. That’s why ,We’re Fucked. [Ed: Footnoting the companion answer., , ]

It is sometimes said that modern cars are not built as well as cars were in the past in terms of quality. Will most modern cars still be able to drive in about 50 years?

It may be said, but the reality is that modern cars are more reliable, run longer between servicing and have much longer service lives than was ever the case in the past. An example: My 15 year old car has 150,000 miles on it. It has had NO major engine work, has NO rust and has been extremely reliable. Suspension work has comprised of replacement of the shock absorbers at 12 years old and replacement of the rubber components in the anti-roll bars about the same time along with steering ball joints (this sounds major but is only a couple of hours of labour) in the 1950s you would expect a car of this age and with this kind of milage to have undergone at least one major engine rebuild, multiple clutch replacements and a LOT of corrosion fixing. It would have required servicing every 2500–3000 miles - comprising of an oil change plus carberetter, ignition timing, valve train and distributor spark gap wear adjustments In the 1970s things were only slightly better. What changed? firstly in the 1980s, the introduction of high strength galvanised steel for bodies, total immersion cathodic anticorrosion treatment in the factories and designs which avoided creating crevices where water could accumulate virtually eliminated body rusting and secondly the introduction of electronics in the 1990s replaced a lot of complex mechanical components which wear, with non-contact means of measuring and adjusting engine parameters. Finally, as labour costs have risen, manufacturers now tend to fit hard-to-service parts such as flywheels and internal timing chains as heavier duty components, which cost a little more at the outset but are intended to last the life of the vehicle. The least reliable cars of today are vastly more reliable than the best japanese vehicles of the 1970s (and japan led the way in quality at that time) and those in turn were vastly more reliable than their predecessors of 20 years earlier. When you investigate the claim about build quality, it invariably comes down to one factor - if a modern car is crash damaged, it is frequently uneconomic to repair - and that’s deliberate. By crushing in a controlled manner instead of stopping suddenly as a rigid body would do, the vehicle absorbs energy and protects the occupants from injury - sacrificing the car to save the passengers along with removing dangerous internal/external ornamentation has resulted in automotive death rates being 1/10th or lower than they were 50 years ago.

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