how many times have you heard of engines having to be REBUILT for something as trivial as a crankshaft
How many times have you heard of something so trivial as accelerator pedals getting stuck (Toyota!) in aviation? (notwithstanding that only a complete idiot is going to continue driving for minutes thereafter, and even phone somebody up telling them their car has run away, without putting the gears into neutral / pressing the clutch). That was a huge recall; much bigger than the Lyco issue, especially for its stupidity.
I don’t like having spent $14k to change the crank, but some people had to pay €40k because they left it too late…
BTW there is thus far no evidence of an engineering reason for limiting the crank life to 12 years. Only the earlier crankshafts ever broke – they had a missing heat treatment stage. There was a very small number of those. The vast majority of that AD was just lawyers covering up, and it was possible only because – unlike with cars – an AD is mandatory.
Lyco engines are far cheaper to keep going because the overhaul is much cheaper than a new engine. It is of the order of 50%. Overhauling an IO540 is probably 1/4 of the cost of buying a retrofit diesel engine.
I would also hope that an overhaul would appeal to European environmentalists 
The fact that most European engine shops are rubbish is a separate issue. It is all wrapped up in a general loss of manual / craft skills, itself the result of crafts not being “trendy” and so many kids going into finance and similar activities. The customers are mostly desperately short of capital (schools) and seek out the cheapest nastiest shop they can find. Many syndicates don’t run a proper engine fund so when the day of reckoning comes they are screwed, some members walk away and the rest are left to face the music, and they go to another shop with the lowest quote. The American engine shops have the same problem with staff getting older all the time, but at least they have the volume.
Thielert’s TBR versus TBO was a good idea. Splitting an engine, measuring all parts and machining them is a waste of human intelligence. It’s what people behind the Iron Curtain were forced to do.
That’s an interesting comment and very much in line with what I was discussing last week, and before. Planned obsolescence was a big thing in the US 50 years ago, while Europeans built cars and motorcycles in that era that would last a lifetime (I loved them, then and now). But then in the 70s and 80s people in the US basically got sick and tired of being manipulated and moved on to what I see as a kind of post-PO era Meanwhile (and somewhat shockingly to me) attitudes in Europe and particularly Germany caught up with 1968 USA, and people started driving bigger and bigger and bigger, less and less efficient cars that were increasingly made to last only a few years. Being in Munich today, the home of BMW, really and truly does remind me of the 1968 version of Detroit – ‘Now and Wow’ disposability is en vogue there, while the US has moved on and people like me who have ‘seen it all before’ (PO that is) find this particular trend a little distasteful. Even the Italians have gone in that direction and I don’t buy their stuff any more. I make pretty good money, can buy any number of things, and NONE of my preferences are disposable. Any time I can arrange it, my money gets spent on things that last.
If I do buy something disposable, it tends to be Japanese because they are best at providing value within a finite lifespan.
Silvaire, your observations are a bit difficult for me to follow, especially since BMW currently has the most efficient gasoline engines in the market, in terms of SFC and post bankruptcy Detroit focuses entirely on cheap and low tech, selling almost nothing outside its home market.
Designing products that last is the opposite of driving innovation. I for my part love innovation. Constantly improving the state of the art is what I’m interested in. When granddaddy tells me “look how good this sofa is, it’s 50 years old and still in good shape” I only think “what an ugly piece of …”.
Hence my comment about buying Japanese with about half the rest of the US public. 
I find the idea of something like a BMW X5 being ‘efficient’ rather amusing. But I’m not a car guy anymore – modern cars are a waste of money. It was rather fun when the fastest sedan around the Nurburgring was a Cadillac of all things, a couple of years back. But does anybody really care any more?
Achimha – your views are very much in line with what I’ve seen as a trend in Germany, 1960s US revisited.
I find the idea of something like a BMW X5 being ‘efficient’ rather amusing. But I’m not a car guy anymore – modern cars are a waste of money.
The X5 is built in the USA because …. its main market is the USA! I find it an appalling car just like the other tanks. Gasoline is still too cheap otherwise people wouldn’t buy those ridiculous cars. The bulk of BMW’s sales is the 4 cylinder engines and a 116i or 320i is very efficient compared to the competition. And of course the new BMW i3 is even more efficient and this is my current car. I bought it because it is a bold move and goes beyond anything else with its industrial application of carbon fiber and I like to support such moves.
Changing the status quo is all that entrepreneurship is about.
I guess you are not 30 years in age. It’s quite normal to disconnect from the “modern” world at some point and no longer agree with the perceived advantages of new technologies. Whether that is modern cars or Facebook or whatever, one day it will happen to each and every of us. Last week I attended a homeowners’ meeting and I suggested to switch communication from postal mail to email. I lost with 12 against 2 votes. A long argument started about email being unacceptable for whatever reasons and there being no value to it, etc. Quite frustrating
My job is running an R&D think tank developing new technologies, including some of those under discussion here, so I’m quite familiar with the process I’m quite happy to have learned what’s actually valuable and push for it in my stuff, not fluff. Our customers are not retail consumers and will not tolerate fluff.
It’s quite normal to disconnect from the “modern” world at some point and no longer agree with the perceived advantages of new technologies.
On the contrary – older people are less tolerant of the crap which our lives are full of. They tend to have more money so are able to buy themselves a better quality of life. Better food (organic, free range, non-farmed fish, etc) and stuff that works more consistently regardless of how innovative or non-innovative it might be.
For example my new laptop, Thinkpad X230 I7, came with win7 and immediately I put winXP on it. Because XP just simply works. I have wasted years of my life on sorting out IT crap. The previous laptop, X60S, I had for 6 years.
Are you all pulling my leg here? This can’t be real…
What an interesting argument! I tend to feel with Silvaire this time, but that is mainly because I don’t care much for the look of things, but rather for intrinsic values such as reliability and economy; and durability weighs in heavily. I detest the commercial pressure of having to buy things anew every 3 or 4 years just because they are “out of date” whatever that may mean. Can’t help remembering the old adage “if people have got everything they need, they will have to buy things they do not need”, think it was by some US president. Surely some European governments, UK first of all, have been following the traditional US mentality with a couple of decades’ slack. But it is the first I hear of a new return to sanity in the US. So much for the better! Another circle coming round.
Those really interested in the theme might enjoy reading “Truck” by US’an John Jerome (not to be confused with the UK featherbrain J.K. Jerome). Trying from memory to carry one of his arguments to our aviation scene (but actually playing the devil’s advocate): those who really want proven solid technology should flock to the diesel engine – who wants those new-fangled spark plugs, depending on high voltage, suffering from low battery voltage and humidity and what else?
Of course we are now far away from and above our aviation theme, this is becoming quite a generic discussion on technology vs. economy vs. society.
Jan – I read it when I was 13 or so and still have a paperback copy someplace It seemed to me kind of a more down to earth version of ‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’
