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Basil

Basil

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You could go to your local NAPA and buy a headlight for your car for $20 or a gas tank sending unit for $39.95? Those days are long gone. My wife's BMW Z4 needs a new headlight assembly. There is a "controller" that has gone bad. Cost: over $500!

Also, the fuel sending unit on my Hyundai Santa Fe has ceased to function. Cost to have a new unit installed: Over $600!

I think my next car will be a 65 Mustang!
 
My suggestion: Rock Auto.
 
You only save money by doing yourself and buying thru parts sources on-line. Headlight assemblies are not cheap anymore but there are deals on Ebay. Removing fuel tanks when full to put in a pump is a PIA, and dangerous. Might headlight assy. is $800 and fuel pump alone $500, and that is installing myself. No sympathy here. But the old Jag headlight is cheap and fuel pump a couple hundred and very easy to do.
 
I do feel your pain Bas. Had to replace one headlight on the Saab a few months ago. Controller and ballast were all right so just the bulb. $309 because the front bumper has to come off to get to it.
 
Basil said:
My wife's BMW Z4 needs a new headlight assembly. There is a "controller" that has gone bad. Cost: over $500!
Click to expand...

A co-worker held on to a car for years with one headlight due to a $1000 controller replacement cost; figured that one could pay a lot of tickets for that amount.

I do think that there's a downside to the loss of "standardized headlights".
 
Checked Amazon for you...Bosch headlight controller for 2003 BMW Z4...$282.68 - Free freight.
 
Sigh, I let go of my '94 Isuzu just a few weeks ago and I'm already missing its glass headlights. It used halogen insert bulbs, too. Replacements cost eight bucks.
 
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I feel your pain went to the parts store to buy my work truck a new battery the other day and found out the cheapest one is over $100 now.
 
Basil,

And I thought that you were older than me.
I remember buying 7" & 9" headlights for $1.00.
THIS is the same reason that I don't want
to replace the '95 Dakota with a newer truck.

- Doug
 
So what's the problem, it's an easy fix! Cheap!

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My neighbor has a Traverse? Had a burnt bulb. Had to take wheel off, remove inner fender and reach way up to change $15 bulb. Would have cost $200 in labor at a dealer.
 
In order to change the battery on my daughter's Dodge Stratus I have to do the same thing.... remove the left front wheel so I can remove/replace the battery from the lower compartment. I guess making it accessible to change a consumable item is not something the engineers think about.
 
My buddy had a Seville and they had to cut a hole in the right fender well to get to the back spark plug. They made a cover for the hole afterwards, but really, things like that are uncalled for! :rolleyes:
 
I can think of a dozen engineering "fails" in some of the older cars, too. Among them:

DeLorean camshafts R&R... gotta pull the whole power unit out.

Ferrari 308 diff crown bearings... same thing (but there's a cheat). :wink:

The venerable MGB clutch R&R... you all know THAT drill.

427 Mustang plug change... right side must get the hole in the inner fender well to access the back one.

Though I swear current engineers are trying to out-do the prior bunch to make it even more difficult. A notice on the bonnet will come soon: "Do Not Break This Seal: NO USER SERVICEABLE PARTS INSIDE."


EDIT: And Rolls has a list beyond belief. Strangest one I ever did was R&R the intermittent wiper "smart box" in a Corniche convertible. Had to take the entire facia apart, switches, gauges and all out to even see it. I think that box was the first thing put in place, before the car had the windshield and interior put in.
 
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