Archive for November, 2010

For unknown reasons, a pigtail of my Mazda Protege5′s wiring harness that connects to one of the two ignition coils (which in turn connects to two of the four spark plugs) had been so badly damaged that only a single strand of wire remained connected. Surprisingly the engine performed much as before, feeling just a bit more rough at idle. But if that last thin strand of wire broke we’d be down a cylinder or even two. So it definitely had to be fixed.

The repair shop I usually use said that they couldn’t repair it. Instead, they needed a new section of the wiring harness to splice in. Neither they nor I could find someone willing to sell just a piece of the harness. The price of the entire harness is over $300. Add labor, and we’re close to $400.

I found Matt Boesch while searching for someone to repair some rust on this car. He’s done some amazing custom car work, even installing a high-performance motorcycle powertrain into a smart fortwo. Much of his work lately involves intakes, exhausts, armrests, and other custom car parts. He’s a great guy who does things the smart way, even if it’s not the easy way.

I mentioned my engine harness problem to Matt. He said he could fix it. And did, in about 20 minutes. He took the socket in question apart, removing the metal connector. He then soldered a new wire to this connector, resinserted the connector into the socket, and the rest was easy. He’d figured it would cost $40 if it took him an hour. I paid him the $40 even though it didn’t take nearly that long. (Well, at least not for the repair. Chatting about cars added another 20 minutes.) Better than new, and it saved me over $300.

Beyond the savings, it’s just good to know there are still people like Matt around, who know how to actually fix things. He’s always looking for new possibilities for mods, so if you have a need that no one is currently providing a mod for, or have a challenging car repair and live in the Detroit area, I’d certainly recommend contacting him.

For years people have been critical of car reliability surveys for not weighting problems by their severity.

TrueDelta has had a couple of questions that touch upon severity. One asked if the car had to be towed. Another asked if the car could have been dependably driven for another week. But fewer than ten percent of reported repairs have been severe by this measure. Without larger sample sizes, we haven’t been able to do anything with it.

Recently a member suggested a more graduated measure of severity, based on FMEA analysis. Based on this suggestion, the survey will now replace the previous two questions with this one:

How severe was the problem?

Car had to be towed

Car performance impaired, could not be dependably driven for another week

Car performance impaired, could be dependably driven for another week
–includes slow fluid leaks, engine light with no severe symptoms

Feature necessary for comfort or safety totally not working
–such as anti-lock brakes, airbags, AC, power window stuck open

Major feature totally not working
–such as power windows, power locks, entire audio system
–includes water leaks into interior

Major feature working, but not well or every time

Minor or infrequently used feature malfunctioning

Rattle or appearance problem most people notice

Rattle or appearance problem most people don’t notice

So, what do you think? Should nearly everyone be able to answer this without much effort? Or will it be more extra trouble than the information will be worth?