I found the second thing on my Dakota that I hate with a passion today.

#1 The design that some idiot came up with to put a cross member directly under the oil pan drain

#2 Found out that rather than putting good ole reliable and easily/cheaply replaceable fuses and relays, the ding bats that designed the electrical system on this truck had the bright idea to incorporate the washer fluid pump system into a solid state, non repairable FCM/PDM system.

I mean really what was wrong with the relay and fuse system. Now I have no power to the washer fluid pump since I bought this truck, and found out today that there is no real way to test it without going on a wild goose chase, or having the dealer tester.

Good grief some times I want to shoot engineers. It is like they sit down and say to each other, lets make this system this way, it is complicated as hell, does not need to be, but we want to.

The other guy with half a brain says, hey that seems unnecessarily complicated, why don't we make this a little more simple.

The rest of the group says.

Because, A that would be logical, and we don't follow logic in the slightest. B that would make sense, and what engineer wants to make sense, and C because it will work this way, and this way has the most possible points of failure, with no real ways to test it. Geez dude eff off, man, what a square, I mean really make things simple. Aint no way in hell.

Some times I think that people with the most college under their belts have the least sense. I mean I can test the wire between the two, but that is it. Miss the days when there were about 15 wires all together on a vehicle.

 

Reminds me of the logic in the design of my chevy s10. One of the upper control arm bushings on one side is .5 inches from the unshielded exhaust manifold. Most any s10 with 40k miles on it will have that bushing in tatters from the heat.

Then, the other side is less than a .25 inch away from the steering column. Open end 18mm wrench fits, but can only rotate maybe a 30th of a turn before you got to pull off the wrench, flip it, try to get it to fit again... good times. Raw knuckles.

 

They did it so we couldn't drop a Hemi in without modifying it. I don't know why either brother but I feel your pain.

 

If that was the case, you would think that they would have put a V in it or something to keep oil from turning into a 10" blade once it hits that thing...oh wait...right I forgot, we are talking about engineers, that would have made too much sense to do so they left that part out.

 

i feel yah,after having 1992+98 dakotas with the 5.2 i got spoiled!

made me angry that it all spewed out on my 08 like it did...now i gotta make some kinda something out of a tranny funnel that i can wedge up there

 

easy fix boys....i tore a piece of the filter box, made like a "V" and just set it on the brace.....keeps the oil off of it anyway....

 

work smart not hard haha

 

and i arnt even an engineer.....

 

I cut the top off of a half gallon milk container and use it as a funnel. Wedge it up there and it works perfect.

And for the filter, loosen it a turn, put a gallon zip lock bag on it and remove it. No oil spill

 

you must be and engineering major....