Are Some Engineers Born Without Common Sense Or Are They Sadistic?

Question

You ever come across a situation where you know even a layman would have more common sense than to design a product a certain way?

Like my Jeep Cherokee. Did you know that you can’t change the radiator coolant without taking off the car’s front grill? The drain plug is behind the front grill, for God’s sake! Was this designed this way because of a lack of common sense or did they do this as some sort of twisted insider joke? Duh! Aren't drain plugs supposed to be at the bottom of the radiator and within easy reach from under the car?

Care to share some of your experiences with design oddities and missteps?

Betito, it's a 1993. It's got the 4.0. and 5 speed. It's a great car by most standards and I've put 200, 000 miles on it.

Answer 1

I have always seen it like this, they design them however they want because they will never have to lay a hand on them. Build it and they will buy. But repairing them is not thought about in the design process evidently. After working on Ford's design for years, there have been numerous times that if I could have found a Ford engineer at the time, a 3 pound sledge would now be implanted in their skull. Ever put a blend door actuator in a Lincoln Mark 8? The transmission has to come out to remove the dash! You have got to be kidding me! I got it out with a 3 foot prybar, a lot of cursing and one broken message center, but it was worth it in the end. When I put a cylinder head on an F150 or replace the engine, it is faster and easier for me to pull the cab off of the frame to access the engine. No kidding! Pulling the engine out of the top is enough to put a man in intensive care, and make him find another career. I'll pull the body off and leave the frame sitting in the floor in a heartbeat. I wish engineers had to repair what they designed and the mechanic world would be a totally different place.

Answer 2

How about this one: when the last variation of the Camaro/Firebird was built it was discovered that the rear two spark plugs could not be changed unless the engine was removed from the car. "No problem.." said the GM engineers, as the plugs are designed to last 100,000 miles! ....... right. Someone smart has probably figured out a way to change the plugs by now, but GEEEZE! The engineers biggest problem is that they really believe that there is an engineering solutuon for every problem in the world. Which is why so many of them live in their parents basements at 45 years of age.

Answer 3

This problem happen when they are packaging all of the components into the vehicle using computer CAD. At the last minute, someone finds out that there is not enough space to place the drain plug in its ideal location. Therefore as an emergency solution, or enterim containment action, they put the plug in a very incovenient location since it is a lower priority than than Radiator harness or some other component.

Answer 4

I work as an election judge in Maryland. Every time we hold an election, there are some new procedures or policies put into place by the state or county board of elections that make no sense in the real world. For example, they used to print out what they call Voter Authority Cards ahead of time. We would look up the voters in these big books of computer printouts, verify them by their addresses, get them to sign the VACs, then send them off to the voting machines, a fairly simple process. Now they brought in these new electronic pollbooks to take the place of the printed books, and we were supposed to be able to print the VACs on the spot when we checked in the voters. Cool, except they failed to get the printers, so instead we had to ask the voters to fill out cards on which they had to write their name, their birth date and their party affiliation. However, we were told that when they came to us and handed us these cards, we were still supposed to say "What is your name? What is your birth date? What is your party affiliation?" even though they had just handed us a card on which they had written that very information. Why? Because it's the law! (We didn't do it. We just assumed that in filling out the card they had answered those questions and we only asked them to verify their address and only discussed party affiliation if the computer showed that they hadn't registered under the party affiliation they were claiming.) We realize that the people who are making these rules have never worked in a polling place. Maybe they haven't even voted. What I'm saying is that engineers aren't the only ones lacking common sense.

The folks who designed your car probably have never serviced the car themselves. Either that or it's a diabolical plot to force you to use their service departments because it's impossible to service the car yourself.

Answer 5

Auto engineers are under lots of constraints, and serviceability is important, but not at the top of the list...
We need to consider
cost
ease of plant assembly
potential warranty
potential liability
A coolant change will likely not happen under warranty, so it is not a direct driver of our designs.
Its likely that radiator was used somewhere else, and by using it in this application, an economy of scale was encountered where its use was justified. I dont know what year your cherokee is, but if it is one of the original 1984-2001 XJ's its very likely that at one point it was accesible, but due to a styling upgrade, maybe it was rendered inaccessible.

Answer 6

Oh, my word!!!! There are too many instances to begin to recount. Every dad gum time one turns around an engineer has screwed up something with the design. We used to have to dis-assemble dry cleaning machines to change seals in the solvent pump because the engineers put the thing way down inside the machine. But, at the same time you can't talk to any engineer because they know every blamed thing worth knowing.

Answer 7

engineers just dont think like regular people.. they have a tendency to look at things from a different angle..

there an engineer joke that says that an engineer doesnt see the glass as half empty or half full.. he sees the glass as 2X too large..

being in the construction industry for 25 years has given me keen insight into their issues.. there have too many times that ive gotten drawings from an engineer, and had him ask me to do things that have no place in any kind of construction..

in my opine, most of them do not have the practical experience to know these things cant be done.. it is all academics to them.. everything is very cut and dried..

in construction, the civil doesnt understand the mechanical, or the electrical, and vica versa.. this creates many clashes in my position..

did you ever consider that mechanical engineers build armaments and that civil engineers build targets?

Answer 8

Did you ever wonder which part they threw on the assembly line first and then built the car around it.

Ford usually uses the water pump to start.

G.M. starts with the heater core

Chrysler the radiator

Answer 9

I have an MP3 player that cannot be charged and used at the same time. I bought a car adapter for it and it will not play while charging.

BTW...with cars...they are being designed now that you have not choice to take them to dealer/mechanic. It allows them to put the stuff in a tigher space....leaving more space for the passengers.

Answer 10

This is because they design cars to be easy to build, not to work on. They want you to take to the dealer or get a new one. My Dodge is the same way, had to remove the intake just to replace the water housing.