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Category: Test drive

Who Hurts

2024
Who Hurts
Who Hurts
Anonim

MARKET

AT THE JOURNALIST COMPETITION

WHO DOES HURT …

How do foreign cars feel in the vastness of our country? Car service worker experience.

Pavel Martynenko, Voronezh

The number of foreign cars sold in our country matches the number of cars produced in Russia. And many today are thinking about what kind of car to buy? Presumably, they will be interested to know what kind of malfunctions owners of used foreign cars are contacting the provincial auto repair shop. I want to emphasize the word “provincial”, because the living conditions of cars in the capital and in one of the regional centers of the Black Earth Region are fundamentally different. I come across this every time I come to Moscow. You drive carefully in Voronezh, dodging pits and slowing down in front of very impassable obstacles, while in Moscow you rush along magnificent (by my standards) asphalt in a multi-row stream of cars, unless, of course, you are standing in a traffic jam. It is clear that the causes of many automobile diseases are different for us. First of all, this is the already mentioned disgusting road surface. Add to this the often unprofessional service, the living conditions in the city, prompting the owner to save on everything: gasoline, oil, spare parts. So get an anamnesis.

Here I will not be able to generalize the “diseases” of foreign cars of the 90s of production - we have a scanty number of them, they are serviced in one or two workshops. Also, an overview of defects in cars of the 70s - early 80s will not work: their owners, making a purchase, as a rule, know what they are going to, and solve their problems on their own. Our main clientele drives cars manufactured from the beginning of the 80s to the beginning of the 90s, costing from 3, 500 to 10, 000 dollars, that is, the most popular in our car market. We assume that cars get here in good condition, albeit with a considerable (in our opinion) mileage.

Superiority in sales, of course, for the German brands. We’ll start with them.

FORD

If Henry Ford Sr. were a resident of Voronezh, it would be bitter for him to watch what his name’s cars are turning into on our streets. Unfortunately, the “escorts”, “scorpio” and “sierras”, as well as their predecessors - “taunus” and “granada” -are equally difficult to “emigrate” to Russia. A well-groomed car sparkling with a heavenly “metallic”, on the first trips evoking associations with flying on an airbus, often after 8-12 thousand Voronezh kilometers, it requires serious suspension repair with the replacement of shock absorbers, springs, levers, ball bearings and silent blocks. After 15–20 thousand, a series of bearings of the hubs and drive shafts comes (both in front- and rear-wheel drive models), and the steering rack is worn out. Around the same time, foci of corrosion appear on the body, often they also affect the power elements (“glasses” of struts, spars, sills). Finally, soon there is a need for a particular engine repair.

The most successful owners of the “Fords” get off by replacing valve seals and a couple of gaskets. Less lucky also change the rings with inserts. If the owner of the Ford, equipped with hydraulic pushers, traveled for a long time on the Zhiguli all-weather season, then an increasing valve knock will force him to purchase new camshafts and cam followers ($ 250 for the shaft and $ 10 for each follower).

The consolation can only be the relative cheapness of many parts. So, the front suspension arm assembly with ball bearing and silent block for a Ford Escort in a typical Voronezh car shop costs half as much as for the Audi 100, and three times as much as for the BMW 7 Series. It is significant that many owners of "fords", in order to preserve the chassis of the car for a longer time, do not use some city streets at all, developing their own "Ford" driving routes.

OPEL

In contrast to the Ford diseases common to the entire model range of the company, different representatives of Opel have their own specific problems. The “Opel Cadet” looks the most advantageous - a solid car without pronounced “birthmarks”. Of course, its owners also change the details of the chassis, as well as the camshaft with hydraulic compensators, but these troubles happen much later than, say, a Ford Cadet classmate - Escort. Corrosion resistance of the "Cadet" is very high. Unfortunately, all of this can not boast of large models of the company "Record", "Senator" and "Omega". Glasses of front pillars that have fallen into the engine compartment at the “records” of even the last years of release (1984–1986) are a common thing after a short carefree drive along Voronezh streets. The operation of large "Opels" in low-quality oil and the savings in oil filters extremely quickly lead to wear of the crankshaft liners and necks. If you regularly use "Zhiguli" oil and get involved in driving at high speeds, one day it is by no means a wonderful day to see the "hand of a friend" - a connecting rod breaking and breaking through a block.

As for Vectra, judging by the clientele of our workshop, a typical defect is a failed power steering. The rest of the machine tolerates well the central black earth conditions.

A common advantage for Ford and Opel is the ease of maintenance and repair of many components and assemblies. The average mileage of engines of these brands to overhaul is 150-200 thousand km.

MERCEDES

As it turned out, the myths about the durability of cars of this brand have very real reasons. Until now, there are models on the streets of Voronezh with the 114th, 115th and 116th bodies of the 70s, and even 60s. The condition of these cars to a large extent depends on their past lives (many get to Russia, for example, after the local taxi service) and on the attitude of the owner in the present. Saving on oil and filters, of course, leads to the same problems with engines as the Opel. It just happens with a significantly higher mileage. "Mercedes" - "three hundred thousandths" no longer surprise anyone. True, repairing a gas distribution mechanism or replacing pistons and connecting rods, for example, on an eight-cylinder Mercedes-350 SE engine is much more expensive than on an Opel Record.

As for the problems with the chassis, they arise mainly from the smallest Mercedes - the 190s, and even then at the age of ten years or more.

BMW

Although in general BMWs of any series, even in old age, are capable of delivering, as they say, “driving pleasure,” they have enough problems of operation in conditions of the Russian hinterland. One of the main troubles awaiting the motorist on our bumps is a blow with an unprotected oil pan (he takes care of all the flaws of Russian roads). In our workshop there was a client who replaced four broken pallets at the transitional BMW-528 in three months.

Another trouble is the breakage of the timing belt (on those models, of course, where it is). This is due both to the low technical literacy of car owners and many "masters", and to our poverty. Replacing the belt, for example, the transitional BMW-320i is much more complicated than the VAZ 2105. Therefore, the cost of such work is appropriate. Savings for the owner ends with a ruined motor. In our city, through garages and workshops, you can find many two-liter six-cylinder engines with bent valves and split pistons. Driving from “Zhiguli” oil in a BMW primarily affects the camshaft and rocker arms, but piston rings, liners, crankshaft journals “digest” it quite safely. Generally speaking, the BMW motor, which is jammed due to the “sticking” of the liners to the crankshaft journals, is a rarity. These engines can work for quite some time with a clearly knocking connecting rod or with loose inserts (rotated 180 °)! One of the probable reasons for such survivability, in addition to the high initial quality of parts, is the use of rotary oil pumps on many BMW models, which are more productive and reliable than conventional gear pumps.

Sooner or later, all BMWs over the age of 10 years fail on the hydraulic coupling of the cooling fan. As a result, the engine overheats and, at best, burnout of the head gasket, at worst, cracking of the head itself.

But even if all this doesn’t frighten the owners of Bavarian cars - with careful operation, the engine, like the Mercedes, can go to overhaul 300 thousand km or more, and the suspension perfectly withstands our roads. But only electronically saturated injection (injector) vehicles aged 12–15 years and older may have completely inexplicable defects in electrical equipment, which, unfortunately, are often the culprit of the owner himself.

VW, AUDI

As experience (at least regular customers of our workshop) shows, these machines were better than many others adapted to Russian conditions. First of all, thanks to the galvanized body, which in 10-12 years can be in perfect condition. Do not cause much trouble and engines, which with good oils can pass as much as the engines of Mercedes and BMW. At the same time, in terms of simplicity of design, the Volkswagen - Audi engines are quite comparable to the VAZ 2108.

But there are spots in the sun. Annoying defects in electrical equipment are haunted by cars of both the 70-80s and the 90s. Disconnecting "wipers", an idle indicator - one or two, or even the entire dashboard as a whole, a failed "stove" fan - the list can be continued.

Owners of a Volkswagen Passat with a transverse engine (1988 model, as in the editorial “Behind the Wheel”) in the glorious city of Voronezh are plagued by breakdowns of the plastic tee, infamous in the circle of car mechanics, connecting the hoses of the cooling system to the engine. Most of the "trade winds" sooner or later need to be replaced with this part. Typically, a tee collapses after a strong vertical impact from the front of the car (oh, those roads!). A similar part on the same Volkswagen Golf engines, as a rule, lasts much longer.

A special issue is cars with an automatic transmission. As you know, factory instructions impose severe restrictions on such machines in operating modes: you can not slip, carry a heavy trailer, etc. Voronezh life is a complete violation of these instructions. First, you need to drive to some Blue Lipyagov through the damp chernozem, and then take away the annual stock of potatoes from there. And, as experience shows, Audi's “assault rifles” endure these adventures far worse than others. “Narrow specialists” appeared in the city to remake these machines under a manual gearbox.

As for the durability of the suspension parts, it is, of course, much higher than the Ford, but inferior to the Mercedes and BMW.

TOYOTA, MAZDA AND OTHER JAPANES

Let the respected Japanese automakers forgive me, but all these different cars in Voronezh have one thing in common: they are good until the first malfunction. Failures considered by the owner of Opel as a minor nuisance can put the owner of an exotic car from the Land of the Rising Sun in a completely hopeless situation. If the piston rings for a 2.8-liter BMW six-cylinder engine can be bought at any time for 600 rubles, then for the Isuzu-Midi four-cylinder engine the rings cost $ 230, and they had to wait four months. But before that, a car driven from the Baltic states passed 35, 000 km in 8 months without breakdowns. The owner of the three-liter Mitsubishi Sigma paid 400 (four hundred!) Dollars only for the replacement of candles and spark plug wires.

Due to its prevalence, front-wheel-drive Mazda-626 of different generations stand apart. It’s easier to buy parts for them than on any Nissan Pulsar, but this is not very pleasing to the owners: the chassis of these cars in Voronezh rarely lives more than 12-15, or even 5 thousand km. For those who had an accident on the Mazda, it’s a revelation, for example, that the front direction indicators on a two-door coupe and

hatchback of different sizes.

Renault, Citroen, Fiat, Peugeot …

As it has already become clear, the advantage of a car in many respects determines not only the perfection of the design, but also the availability of a qualified and inexpensive service. From this position in the most difficult situation in the Russian outback are French and Italian cars. Initially “slender”, suffering from problems with spare parts, they are more or less safely operated only when they are new and serve a very “rugged” owner or person who has reliable access to the inexpensive parts market in the historic homeland of a car. It is almost impossible to carry out normal repairs, for example, the Citroen’s hydropneumatic suspension in our conditions. True, all these cars cost significantly cheaper than Japanese and German classmates.

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