GM's Quick Disconnect Coolant Fittings

[lennon]

They may lose in quality, but win in easy of working on. Even on newer bmw's you don't have to remove every freaking thing to change a spark plug.

which "newer" bmws? have you seen an n63?

[e30e]

which "newer" bmws? have you seen an n63?

Good point, while I was generalizing BMW's are pretty easy to work on even the new ones compared to a lot of other automakers. I would rather take a dash out of any bmw than any american made car.

Ever done plugs on a sti, thats not something I wish on people.


The GM fittings do suck ass, blew up a radiator on s10 about 4 years ago. That was not a fun job.

[AndrewBird]

I remember having to drain a transmission on a late 90's grand am. I was looking all over for the drain plug, when I realized there wasnt one. You are supposed to pull all the bolts out, and let the fluid drop all over the place.
WTF?

The reason for that is there is an internal filter that also should be replaced when changing the fluid. Pan has to come off anyway, so why bother with a drain plug? It also keeps bad mechanic from just changing the oil and not doing a full service.

And if you pull all the bolts loose except one on the end, then just loosen that one, the pan will hang from it and everything will drain down the pan without causing a mess.

Pretty much anything new though is a bitch to work on. I'll take cars older than 30 thanks.

[mrsleeve]

You do know that Hydromatic aka GM made most of the auto trannies for the e36/e46 dont you????? Good ol 4L60E's

Yes, I am aware. I also remember replacing 6 automatic GM transmissions in 5 years, while replacing zero ZF/Getrag transmissions in the same time span.

[ck_taft325is]

I still prefer to work on my e30 than any GM car. While straight forward, I really do love German engineering and can't say I've run into a maint. job I couldn't do on the BMW over my Dad's numerous GM vehicles. Not to mention I've run 3 e30's over 230,000 miles with minimal/normal maint. while at around 180,000 my Dad's GM vehicles needed severe servicing if not replacement of major components. Now in stark contrast, some of my maint. items where actually around the same price as some replacement items for his GM rides. And while I can't tow a small house, I sure do feel a bit more relaxed driving a high mileage BMW rather than a high mileage GM.

Everything has a trade off, I guess ;)

BMW > GM.

[andyman2487]

Do you know BMW uses GM auto transmissions? And mine has lasted so far 221,000 miles. And it has a drain plug.

You do know that Hydromatic aka GM made most of the auto trannies for the e36/e46 dont you????? Good ol 4L60E's

Eye ken reed gud.


I know it has been a theme in the auto industry since day one, but GM makes it blatantly obvious that their vehicles are specifically engineered to make R&R a living hell for anyone other than the teet-suckers in the shop at the dealership making a living off this fact.

[Under_Pressure]

I love my GM's, except the distributor behind the water pump on my LT1....

Ah the hated optispark!!! I had a ws6 that I converted to individual coils back then. I hated that shit also.

Working at dealers most of my life hondas hands down are the best to work on. The sister BMW dealer next door always has a ton of electrical issues with there 7's and water leaks on all there SUVs. Let's put it this way. BMW techs don't drive the special lease cars BMW offers them for a very low cost. Only people I've seen with those are the salesman.

[b*saint]

i thought this was about GM, not honda and toyota. either way, im curious. can you list some examples of the bottom quality?

Sure what part of the car do you want me to start on? How about the piece of shit window regulator mechanism found in BMW's. How about the motor mounts found in a late 90's bmw compared to the motor mounts found in an early 90's accord. How about replacing the motor mounts? The shitty headliner BMW can't figure out how to make one last. The piss poor interior panel glue found in BMW. Not one panel is falling off my 94 Honda. How about the vents that droop in the BMW till the heater warms them up to close the tolerance? How about Bosch's dumb ass fuel injection system? I swear they were like "O shit ve veed dis too? Vhats ist in da spare parts bin?"

I love BMW for the drive but I put it in the same catagory as a GM for reliability.

[b*saint]

Good point, while I was generalizing BMW's are pretty easy to work on even the new ones compared to a lot of other automakers. I would rather take a dash out of any bmw than any american made car.

Ever done plugs on a sti, thats not something I wish on people.


The GM fittings do suck ass, blew up a radiator on s10 about 4 years ago. That was not a fun job.

Plugs on an STi are wicked easy. You have to do them from the bottom and use a pivot head bent handle ratchet. Dont forget automakers make a lot of cars not you have to work on everything from below.

[Wiglaf]

are these connectors anything like the fuel connectors? I replaced I fuel filter on a ford exploder last month and the process caused me to throw more tools across the garage than anything else in recent history. even the damn release tools don't work unless you go buy the expensive metal ones.

I guess after caving in and getting the special tool it wasn't so bad but am still salty about it since I'll probly never use that tool again.

[Farbin Kaiber]

These metal ones are bad, but worse are the plastic elbow connectors to the cooling system that break every time you look at them... They are on all the 3.1-3.4 v6 family that buick/chevy/pontiac was running from 1997-2005'ish.

[mrsleeve]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Oh yes those are just tons of fun, I am a gm guy but god those things suck ass.

[SpecM]

Skafrog: glad to see you shop at O'Reillys! I just started working there two weeks ago.

And those GM coolant fittings are total BS. Dorman/Motormite makes a retrofit adapter (along with a bunch of other cool/usefull stuff) that bypasses that crap

[SpecM]

These metal ones are bad, but worse are the plastic elbow connectors to the cooling system that break every time you look at them... They are on all the 3.1-3.4 v6 family that buick/chevy/pontiac was running from 1997-2005'ish.

the whole cooling system was crap on those engines

they go through intake manifold gaskets like they do oil

[Farbin Kaiber]

I've seen them go through intake manifolds. I've replaced a whole bunch (~8 ), and IIRC Dorman makes an aftermarket replacement.