b33mer 11 Report post Posted June 27, 2020 Designed obsolescence! Why do car manufacturers use crap plastic flanges on the coolant system that only last 100,000kms and then try to sell you a replacement at extortionate prices when for my money I'd buy an aftermarket aluminium version for 5 times cheaper, and lifetime warranty? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Eagle 1662 Report post Posted June 27, 2020 So they can attempt to make money off you or get you to buy a new car. Modern cars are worse off with crammed engines bays, turbos etc and possibly even lower grade recycled plastics. At least some manufactures realized their mistake and make a genuine metal replacement version eg https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/car-parts-accessories/toyota/engines/listing-2645493285.htm. Though its pretty stupid of Toyota in first place to use one plastic pipe when all the others are metal. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Allanw 1071 Report post Posted June 28, 2020 The germans have to comply with their greenie laws of using a whole heap of recycled plastics - that's why so many of the German plastics disintegrate early. Even the underbody trays etc start going brittle and weak. I tend to replace them with alloy versions were possible. In reality - once the plastics are on their last legs, you'll usually find half the rubber pipes aren't much better - especially those on the hot side. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GlenK 59 Report post Posted June 29, 2020 My ex was German, so we travelled there quite a lot to visit her folks. They don't generally drive old cars, and there are penalties and taxes for driving an older car, and subsidies to buy a new car every 5 years. So you see lots of new cars, and not so many old cars on the road. I guess that also impacts their choice of materials as well, hard not to believe that its not built in obsolescence. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Eagle 1662 Report post Posted June 29, 2020 Germans may of started the trend but plenty of others have joined the club. Euro Ford cars for example are just are just as bad as the German stuff for plastic cooling. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
aja540i 1906 Report post Posted June 29, 2020 On 6/28/2020 at 9:11 AM, b33mer said: Designed obsolescence! Why do car manufacturers use crap plastic flanges on the coolant system that only last 100,000kms and then try to sell you a replacement at extortionate prices when for my money I'd buy an aftermarket aluminium version for 5 times cheaper, and lifetime warranty? If you're in the business of selling cars, why the hell would you make a car that lasts forever??? Also, why would you make it cheap to keep the old one going? It annoys me too, but it does make sense. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
