The Pinto thread got me thinking

[Camino LS6]

...about other automotive issues associated with certain decades. Anyone remember the early days of clearcoat paint?

How about all the peeling Neons early on?

Or the bare Galvanized cowls of Ford Pickups in the 70s?

Maybe the rotten egg smell of catalytic converters in the late 80s and early nineteies?

Discuss.

[A Horse With No Name]

I remember people parking cars over leaves during the fall when Catalytic converters first came out. Few cars died by fire that way.

One fire down the street from my grandparetns was rather spectacular.

Chris

[A Horse With No Name]

Also...remember how piss poor a lot of GM cars ran with the E-Quadrajets.

Electronic fuel injection is wonderful. From about 1973 to about 1993 cars jsut didn't seem to run as well...and it really only has been in the last few years the OEM's seem to have gotten the tuning down.

Chris

[Camino LS6]

Almost happened to a V10 Dodge Ram a friend owned in '95 after he got it stuck in a field - somehow we put the fire out.

[Camino LS6]

Also...remember how piss poor a lot of GM cars ran with the E-Quadrajets.

Electronic fuel injection is wonderful. From about 1973 to about 1993 cars jsut didn't seem to run as well...and it really only has been in the last few years the OEM's seem to have gotten the tuning down.

Chris

Yup.

All that extra plumbing almost guaranteed vacuum leaks.

Seems to me EFI coming on the scene coincided with really stinky cat converter smells...

[Blake Noble]

How about all the peeling Neons early on?

It wasn't just the Neon. A lot of '90s model Chrysler products suffered from having the worst clear coat possible slapped on. I should post a few pics of what my dad's '99 Dakota SLT looks like. It's a nightmare. The truck only has 90,000 miles on it, but judging from the paint job you would guess twice as much. I don't understand why he hasn't bothered to paint it yet.

Also...remember how piss poor a lot of GM cars ran with the E-Quadrajets.

I could bitch all day long about an e-Quadrajunk. Worst piece of engineering ever devised by GM.

[Justin Bimmer]

How about the HT4100s in the Cadillacs. Those were cutting edge technology when they came out.

[Camino LS6]

Not really GM's fault, few of the late carb-fed engines ran well after a little age. All of the add-on junk for emissions ruined them via the hoses and leaks. EFI was a real godsend - cleaned the engine compartments right up.

[Satty]

90's Chrysler transmissions

90's Chrysler everything else

[Camino LS6]

I remember people parking cars over leaves during the fall when Catalytic converters first came out. Few cars died by fire that way.

One fire down the street from my grandparetns was rather spectacular.

Chris

Those early converters were a real nightmare - saw a few cars with melted/burned carpet!

And, when they clogged up, all of the cars sounded like vacuum cleaners... whooosh! Whenever the driver hit the gas.

Those poor, choked, engines...

[A Horse With No Name]

God, don't I know.

Car I would love to own...tan over a buckskinish interior 1976 Corvette. I've talked about it before, know the guy who owns it, run into him once in awhile in the course of my work.

Car is unique...kind of actually Like the color combo just because its so 1970's. But a chocked mill...hell yes!

Methinks this is sadly why a lot of C3 Corvettes are left to rot. There are 6 (yes six!) later C3 Corvettes rotting behind barns or behind garages or in carports within a mile or so of my house.

The C3 could have been a much better car with the right powertrain. Wish I could go back in time and give GM an LS-3 and the hardware to go with it. THAT would have set the world on fire in 78.

But don't get me started on the C3. 1978 Indy pace car...OMG...LUST!

Sorry for the derail.

Chris

[Robert Hall]

Chrysler's 'lean-burn' system. My Dad's '79 Power Wagon had a 318 w/ a 2bbl carby...it would stall and flood easily, my left turn phobia came from learning to drive in that truck...accelerate on a left turn was a guaranteed stall..

Silver and dark metallic gray paint on '80s Fords that peeled. 2 years old, 10k miles, my '86 Mustang LX was starting to peel in '88..

[A Horse With No Name]

Oh...and one of the rotting cars that sits out 24/7 is a 74 454 Convertible, blue with a white top.

Good thing I don't know the owner...

[A Horse With No Name]

Chrysler's 'lean-burn' system. My Dad's '79 Power Wagon had a 318 w/ a 2bbl carby...it would stall and flood easily, my left turn phobia came from learning to drive in that truck...accelerate on a left turn was a guaranteed stall..

Silver and dark metallic gray paint on '80s Fords that peeled. 2 years old, 10k miles, my '86 Mustang LX was starting to peel in '88..

I remember that!

Chris

[Camino LS6]

As I recall, Chrysler had major ignition problems all through the 70s, not just the "lean-burn" era.

Damp days could kill them.

[Camino LS6]

Oh...and one of the rotting cars that sits out 24/7 is a 74 454 Convertible, blue with a white top.

Good thing I don't know the owner...

That car is still worth some coin...

[Robert Hall]

As I recall, Chrysler had major ignition problems all through the 70s, not just the "lean-burn" era.

Damp days could kill them.

Ballast resistors. Never leave home without a couple spare ones. Nothing like having one fail at night on a frozen backroad in the snow. Joy, joy.

[Robert Hall]

Speaking of EFI, I don't recall my family ever having problems with them...our first EFI cars were the '84 Escort, my '87 Mustang GT, and my folks' '87 Town Car. My '86 Mustang LX (my only car back then w/ a carby) had to have to carb rebuilt twice in the 6 years I had it..

[Camino LS6]

Ballast resistors. Never leave home without a couple spare ones. Nothing like having one fail at night on a frozen backroad in the snow. Joy, joy.

Haha!

Yeah, I think all of my Chrysler products had one mounted on the firewall.

[A Horse With No Name]

As I recall, Chrysler had major ignition problems all through the 70s, not just the "lean-burn" era.

Damp days could kill them.

I remember how profoundly crappy a lot of the Cordobas and so forth ran back then. The owner of the local Chryco dealer was a good "Christian" man who was part of the religous pentecostal type group my mother belonged to. He always felt terrible that he couldn't seem to keep his customers cars from the era running right.

He was a VERY good man who tried to do what he could to help people. We could use a few more like him today.

Chris

[Robert Hall]

Haha!

Yeah, I think all of my Chrysler products had one mounted on the firewall.

My Dad taught me how to change them. That saved my hide that winter I drove that Dodge Power Wagon. It only had 30k miles in '88, but lots of issues.

[Camino LS6]

Speaking of EFI, I don't recall my family ever having problems with them...our first EFI cars were the '84 Escort, my '87 Mustang GT, and my folks' '87 Town Car. My '86 Mustang LX (my only car back then w/ a carby) had to have to carb rebuilt twice in the 6 years I had it..

EFI was a real revolution, but not without its own drawbacks.

A dead fuel pump became a "tow event" and an expensive repair.

[Robert Hall]

EFI was a real revolution, but not without its own drawbacks.

A dead fuel pump became a "tow event" and an expensive repair.

Ya...a dead fuel pump in my '87 Mustang GT required a tow and a drop and drain of the gas tank, since the pump is in the tank.

[Camino LS6]

Ya...a dead fuel pump in my '87 Mustang GT required a tow and a drop and drain of the gas tank, since the pump is in the tank.

Try that on a pickup, and sometimes removing the bed becomes a good idea.

Still, the trade-off was worth it.

But remote pumps would be nice.

[daves87rs]

EFI was a real revolution, but not without its own drawbacks.

A dead fuel pump became a "tow event" and an expensive repair.

Oh yeah.....

[2005 EquinoxLS]

My sister had a 1979 Dodge Aspen with the slant six that had Lean-Burn. It ran pretty poorly and it didnt have the power to get out of its own way. Had a friend with a 1975 Duster with the slant six but without all the Lean-Burn stuff and that one ran WAY differently. That one could actually move quite well. My Bonneville runs so-so even with a rebuilt carb since it has all the emmissions stuff. The 1985 Caprice is better but it still stumbles a bit as it is warming. Properly running fuel injection is quite possibly the best thing to ever be put on vehicles within the past 20 years. Especially here in Wisconsin where it gets pretty cold.

[mustang84]

I was a kid during the dark ages of the automobile, so I don't recall much besides the things mentioned here that I learned of long after the fact. I do remember lots of droopy headliners in 80's era cars. My uncle's '83 Dodge and my parents' '86 Ciera suffered from headliner droop. Oh, and my dad's old diesel Rabbit was a stinky little vermin.

[2005 EquinoxLS]

Yes the dropping headliner. The Bonneville has a little of that. The Caprice has it in the C-pillers but the ceiling itself is fine.

[Blake Noble]

My dad wound up ripping the entire headliner out of his '88 S-15 when it started drooping in the mid-90s.

Then there was the rust issues it had in the bed panels. I remember being able to gently push on where the rust was bubbling up and my whole finger would just slide through. This happened in the mid-90s as well.

It had a bulletproof powertrain and lasted to see 200,000 miles on its odometer, but that truck gained a lot of issues in quite a short amount of time.

Edited November 24, 2009 by whiteknight

[z28luvr01]

water-based primer that caused the paint to pop off even if you took care of the car

automatic seat belts (both the GM version and the motorized version used by everyone else)

talking DICs ("A door is a jar")

digital dashes that never survived the warranty period completely intact

[Delta Force79]

I've always had a thing for digital gauges...just always struck me as "cool" ever since I was a kid when it was all the rage.

I got one, before Honda's were the best thing since sliced bread my dad's brand new 1974 Civic needed to have the engine dried with a hair dryer after it rained because it would never start...

[Justin Bimmer]

Digital gauges in the 85 cad were awesome. Everything was digital in there.

[Camino LS6]

Remember Ford's problem with ignition fires?

Pretty widespread as I recall.

[Justin Bimmer]

Cruise Control fires too.

[SAmadei]

Remember Ford's problem with ignition fires?

Pretty widespread as I recall.

I remember that one probably the most, as it turned up over and over in more models, then in other components, but mostly since I know of a Bronco that succumbed to that fate...

I was delivering bulk newspapers at the time, and the Bronco owner was a carrier, so he left it parked on the street and unlocked, and I just put the papers right in the truck... one morning, the truck is there and its a burned out husk. I was shocked and more importantly, had no idea were to put the newspapers at 3am. ;-)

[Robert Hall]

I remember the cruise control fire thing..that was pretty recent, in the news in the last couple of years..something about brake fluid and cruise control fluid mixing or something...'80s-90s F-series, IIRC...burned down houses. Was on 60 minutes or another show.

[Blake Noble]

Cruise control fluid?

[Robert Hall]

Cruise control fluid?

Typo..I meant cruise control electronics. Tired today, got awakened at about 2am, really never went back to sleep.

[2005 EquinoxLS]

Is it me or does Ford have a high incidence of things that can cause them to catch fire?

[Drew Dowdell]

water-based primer that caused the paint to pop off even if you took care of the car

automatic seat belts (both the GM version and the motorized version used by everyone else)

talking DICs ("A door is a jar")

digital dashes that never survived the warranty period completely intact

Both vehicles I had with digital and/or talking dashes lasted well over 100k miles. The Toronado had to have it's rebuilt due to an arc from a loose connection. The Continental's lasted till the bitter end.

[Drew Dowdell]

Remember Ford's problem with ignition fires?

Pretty widespread as I recall.

Was that with some component on the distributor? My Continental popped off come $400 circuit board that caused it to stop sparking and then raw fuel was being dumped down into the exhaust. The catalytic converters caught on fire. Luckily there was a state trooper not far behind me with a fire extinguisher.

[Camino LS6]

I believe that's the issue I was thinking of.

[SAmadei]

Was that with some component on the distributor? My Continental popped off come $400 circuit board that caused it to stop sparking and then raw fuel was being dumped down into the exhaust. The catalytic converters caught on fire. Luckily there was a state trooper not far behind me with a fire extinguisher.

The ignition failure hes talking about was the ignition switch. The danger in this failure was that cars unattended would burst into flame while not running, destroying garages and homes as people slept. This was an issue because the ignition switch was always hot and a short would heat up the plastic to the point of ignition. The media seemed to focus on the ignition switch being hot all the time... which is pretty much required by design... and instead Ford improved the design with more robust plastics or parts less likely to short.

I'm not saying this was the only ignition-based recall, but it was by far the biggest.

As 2005Equinox mentioned, yeah, Ford did have a lot of problems with cars burning... which is one of the reasons I'm not a Ford advocate... even though my favorite brand also has had its share of fire problems (Fiero, anyone). The fire problem and the Explorer tire problem are caused by Ford's policies on suppliers, which require something like a 10% reduction in part cost every year due to expected production cost reduction (Something like the automotive version of Moore's law). Well, some suppliers can't meet the target, and to make the numbers work, have to reduce the quality of certain parts... sometimes with disasterous results.

Anyway, I try to solve the fire problem by always having a fire extinguisher in the car. But remember... NEVER open the hood fully if you have an engine fire, the flare up only helps the fire consume your car, and also, potentially, your face.

Edited November 28, 2009 by SAmadei