Comment on Report: Consumer Hardware Still Often Impossible To Repair Despite New State ‘Right To Repair’ Laws
solsangraal@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
does this extend to cars? one guy i know told me his subaru had to be put up on a lift and the wheel taken off in order to change a headlight bulb. i don’t care how “good” a car is, if it’s got bullshit like that, i’m buying something else
dojan@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Aye. If changing a bulb is that involved the car isn’t that good.
NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
That has generally always been true and is a function of there just being only so much space.
Actually open up the hood of your car. Take a look inside. Most of that is engine, battery, and reservoirs. In a sedan or a small SUV there just isn’t a lot of room to make everything accessible from the top. Whereas jacking it up, popping off a wheel, and reaching in for the thing you might touch once in the lifetime of a car is pretty trivial.
Back in the day? I remember my dad having the kids sit in the engine of his pickup truck and my mom’s giant ass SUV to follow instructions and work on it. But you would need a REALLY small child to do that in a sedan.
snooggums@midwest.social 1 month ago
Unless the car has LED lights, those headlights are going to be replaced a half dozen times at least. As a necessary safety feature, headlights should be easily accessed so a new bulb can be installed inmediately.
If the story is true, that is terrible design.
NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
I mean, basically any car in the past decade or so has LED headlights? And older bulbs would generally be rated for between 500 and 3000 hours of use, depending on the model. Considering people often try to avoid driving at night (… in part because of those LED headlights), once or twice over the decade or so lifespan of a car is pretty reasonable.
Also: Popping a wheel off is not really that hard and is something people should know how to do anyway in the event they get a flat on the side of the road. Finding a place you can do work on your car is a real problem with apartment life but setting the jack, jacking it up, and taking off the wheel is maybe 20 minutes of effort if you aren’t experienced with it. Then reach under, swap out the bulbs, and you are done.
Like, this really feels like the usual kind of discourse around this. People want to be able to repair stuff but don’t understand what that actually entails. If jacking up your car is not something you are comfortable with, don’t do it. Pay someone to do it for you. Same with all the people who think they are going to re-solder every single connection on a tiny chip.
Chee_Koala@lemmy.world 1 month ago
There has been an upward trend in this, so ‘that has generally always been true’ is not true. I know because I drive proof of it, an EP9 1997 Toyota Starlet. I think the only thing that would really suck is replacing the electric cable tree or bigger dashboard stuff, everything else is basically directly accessible from the hood and trunk. Everyone that has owned a car around me knows that older cars are a lot more accessible for home repairs, so I’m interested to know where you got this?