Last few cars I've owned seem to be designed to prevent the owner from even looking under the hood. They don't seem to design them for easy user access anymore. But then again, I came across a computer from ASUS the other day that said you void the warranty if you open up your case. WTF???

On the plus side, you have far more to work with these days than a Haynes manual. You'll have Youtube videos, discussion forum posts on every job, 'borrow a tool' programs from stores/libraries, a range of parts-suppliers competing for your dollars that will ship to your door...

Yeah... Haynes or Chilton. Or, my preferred avenue, Factory Service Manual (the price is like $60 vs $100, ex. my Jeep Cherokee).

Indeed. After looking in the right places I was able to get the 300-page shop manual for my motorcycle. Everything is very well diagramed and OEM parts are readily available online for not much money.

In my limited experience, OEM is horrible, unless it is the only option.

This is funny because there is a brand called "OEM" at parts stores that sells chinese junk.

I am all about finding the original parts that the dealer will sell, but on the aftermarket at reasonable prices.

I meant to say: "horrible" from a value perspective. You can often get >= "OEM quality" parts from 3rd-party vendors at a much lower price than OEM.

It has gotten easier for DIY auto mechanics. I spent a year in a community college auto repair program. I took just the classes, I felt I needed. I didn't want to work as a mechanic, but open a shop. Well, that never took place. I am glad I took those classes though.

What still troubles me is passing my bi-annual smog checks. It's not just my vechicle, it's family members vechicles.

I can check most of the smog components, except the catalytic converter.(I found away around checking the catalytic converter, but won't divulge, because it might be illegial.)

The one tool I might buy if the price was reasonable is a device that measures the emmissions out of the tailpipe. I think there's a big need for portable emmission testers. The price point would need to be around $300 for my taste. I don't know if it's even possible at that price point? I'm basically just concerned with HC's.

In order to pass emmission standards, I make sure the engine is running reasonably well. I change the oil. I check all ERG. I make sure that cat is hot. I then check the voltage off one of the O2 sensors(gotta pick the right on, and be quick with the voltage measurement. The computer will throw things off pretty quick with the wrong O2 sensor dissabled.) With the 0-5 volts you read you can get a good idea of the stoichiometric burn of the gasses. You can detect wether the vechicle is running rich, or lean, but it's not fool proof.

Even with preparation, it's hit it miss whether a vechicle passes smog.

I would love to gave a home devise that measured these gasses.

I'll pass this along. All Smog shops are in CA are required to have onsite one Emission manual to show the customer.

Good shops have two references. They look at this information when they do the visual examination. Good shops usuall have Motor Emmissions for the current year, and a subscription to Mitchell Manuals. A subscription to Mitchell manuals(OnDemand5) is more money than the Motor Emission publication, but it's hardly ever Wrong.

If you fail the visual on a smog test, ask to see the refrence material they used to fail you. If it's a Motor Publication--the information might be wrong. It's filled with many errors. Most shops cheap it out and only buying the cheaper Emission manual. The Motor Emission manual is joked about among Smog Techs. They know it's filled with errors.

I kinda went on, but frustrated from dealing with a recent smog check.

At least on European cars you can read the O2 sensor voltages over the OBD2 port. $30 bluetooth dongle from ebay and you get the readings graphed on your phone. I just did that yesterday on my '02 Peugeot 307.

When you say the "right" O2 sensor I presume you're talking about the one after the cat? Doesn't that mainly tell you whether the cat is working or not? If the engine is running a bit rich and there is a bit of excess fuel coming into the cat, the cat should burn it up, I think.

And you probably know this, but there is an important difference in the voltage readings depending on whether you have wide- or narrow-band O2 sensors. Wideband is typically for performance cars.

I can recommend a odb2 dongle as well. Very interesting to plug in every once in a while. Do mind most dongles are read only though. You need a good cable to write. Be carefull if you want to tweak de ECU! Theres lotsnof info on the internet on how to tweak stuff.

$30 is way too expensive btw. On aliexpress i bought a wifi (because of iphone) dongle for $9,99 incl shipment.

They're designed to not look scary or confusing when the prospective buyer looks at the engine bay and knows nothing about cars. Extreme example: https://iedei.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/2010-lexus-ls460-s...

Plus it just looks more like an Apple product and less like their mom's shitty Camry they grew up being to school in.

I don't really get the point of having a "second bonnet" - there is already one covering the engine and everything else.

Lexus has been known to make things deliberately difficult to reach, like putting the starter motor in a place where getting to it involves disassembling most of what's on top of the engine (requiring the replacement of lots of auxillary "soft" parts like gaskets and o-rings in the process):

http://www.lextreme.com/starter.html

In comparison, most other makes and models mount the starter motor somewhere on the side of the engine or transmission where getting to it doesn't require disassembling much else.

I doubt their goal here was to make repair more difficult -- after all, some must have failed under warrantee and were repaired on their dime. Sticking the starter in the valley instead of on the side just makes the engine package size a bit smaller (and the SC was a small car).

Holy cow this is terrible. Especially given toyota starters 'click of death' when their brushes get worn.

Every failing starter I have encountered exhibited the "click of death" (turn the key and get "clicks" rather than a turning engine). I doubt it's a problem exclusive to Toyota.

PS - I drove a manual transmission Mazda truck that had no starter for 8 months. Thankfully, I live in a mountainous region, so "push starting" the vehicle by using a hill was "easy" (except when it wasn't).

You rock!

> Last few cars I've owned seem to be designed to prevent the owner from even looking under the hood.

I found I can't even rotate the tires on my current car (Sonata) because it's got no central jack point. Seems to be designed just for shops that can lift all 4 jack points at once. :-(

They are designed to look sexy in the dealership.

Most engine covers pop off without even using any tools.

Plus one for the air-cooled VW. We just bought a 1981 VW Westfalia, which has the same 2.0 liter engine as the Porsche 914 I owned thirty years ago. It's like coming home again. Dead simple, and the instructions for dropping the engine don't cover even two pages. I've always considered the Bosch fuel injection of VWs and Audis, no matter what version, to be problematic and a general pain in the ass, but it mostly works most of the time and is the only potential sticky part for a newbie.

Parts are still readily available, though anything that moves under its own power is likely to sell for more than it did new (which wasn't much in today's dollars). But you'll get smiles and waves anywhere you go whether you end up in a Bug or a Bus.

Absolutely this. The VW is the MOS 6502 of engines.