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... so nobody at the dealer knows how to fix it?
Thats so sad but true.
Ive heard john deere and probably others do that stuff to keep farmers from disableing/bypassing safety and emission systems when one fails when they are trying to get work done.
In my opinion, they figure anyone who paid money for their product is a sucker and they'll swallow anything. Toyota blamed their "unintended acceleration" on their customers being too stupid to pull the floor mats out from under the gas pedal- and no one was offended.
www.transportation.gov
They don't know how to rebuild carbs because the last Ford to have one was an 87 F truck with a 351 or 460- 35 years ago. When I started in 1975 I didn't know you had to grind the end of the valve stems on a 1940 flathead to adjust the valves.
Having NASA spend tax dollars to help Toyota was a crime and ineffective. If they really wanted to locate the failure, they should have found some guys with saggy pants who drove cars with fart mufflers, they mess with Japanese electronic engine controls every day.The DOT and NASA agreed with them.U.S. Department Of Transportation Releases Results From NHTSA-NASA Study Of Unintended Acceleration In Toyota Vehicles | US Department of Transportation
The U.S. Department of Transportation released results from an unprecedented ten-month study of potential electronic causes of unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) launched the study last spring at the request of Congress, and...
Unfortunately, we live in a litigious society.
No offense intended, I call flat rate dealers hack shops because if a tech takes the time to do it right, the dealer effectively takes it out of his pay.
Operator error isn't Deere's worry, they will be happy to sell you parts to repair it.
Under the current system, the service manager will simply say "it's is a service that requires specialized tools and procedures that only dealerships have." I agree with you on what they're supposed to do, but do you really believe an average one does that?
I understand that this is your anecdotal experience over a long career, but even your vast number of customers, jobs, and employees are not representative of the entire field nationwide. Things vary dramatically from one shop to the next, and my anecdotal experience (also not representative of any larger trend) is completely the opposite of yours. It seems to me that all of the dealership shops are living off of your narrative that they are the only ones who know what they're doing, so much so that they've stopped bothering to know what they're doing. I recently had a dealership service manager and his technician tell me that it was completely normal for my vehicle that is under warranty to fail to start on the first try when it's cold, that this was not an indication of a problem. They both stood there an looked me in the eye and just expected me to accept that. A simple forum search reveals that this is a common issue solved by an ECU update that was released shortly after the version that my vehicle had. Every time I've visited a dealer shop I've had the unpleasant experience of being talked down to by a tech who somehow knows less than I do, it's not a good spot to be in. I don't want to be a know-it-all prick who challenges everyone in the shop, I just want to talk to somebody who wasn't sleeping during the training, or who actually looks for TSB's before before dismissing my concern, unfortunately it seems all of those guys recently retired, or got promoted out of the service bay.
You are exactly right! That is why everyone should have access to the most up to date information.
I've had exactly the opposite experience, things vary, that's why it's good for people to have options.
Customers who look at the serviceability of their vehicles in making a purchase decision are an incredibly small minority, they wouldn't move the needle in the slightest if they all left a given manufacturer and went elsewhere. In fact, it could be looked at as a good thing for the manufacturer because those are the type of customers who pay attention when their dealership does hack work or lies to them, or when their vehicle has an issue that should be covered under warranty. Knowledgeable customers are more likely to be difficult customers, they're the type of people who get on forums and let others know about widespread but little-known problems, resulting in a larger number of costly warranty claims that could have otherwise gone unnoticed by the customers until they turned into profitable out-of-warranty repairs; The manufacturers would be happy to be rid of the service manual buying crowd. Market forces are what's pushing the manufacturers toward limiting availability of information.
Knowing how to rebuild a carburetor is not a useful or relevant skill for an automotive tech to have in 2022, unless it is a specialist vintage shop. It would be like a tech at Verizon knowing how to re-spring a rotary dial, useful to somebody, but not exactly a resúmé builder.
Even if we did live in an unfortunately litigious society, how would denying anyone access to a service manual stop them from suing the manufacturer? Couldn't the same litigious boogeyman sue John Deere for failing to provide access to adequate documentation, resulting in their failed service or improper use? Nothing about any of the anecdotes that you mentioned would be helped by denying access to information. In fact, in those lawsuits the manufacturers would have a much stronger defense because they can easily show that the customer failed to adhere to the procedures outlined in the readily-available documentation. This isn't about protecting oneself from unscrupulous farmers looking to cash in with a big lawsuit, this is about extracting maximum after-sales profits from industrious customers who otherwise would have taken care of their own equipment.
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