Quote:
Originally Posted by jrdz2120
Not sure if you guys are being picky or what. My 2000 ext. cab 5.3 has been flawless since new. I have 168,500 hard azz miles and no problems. It has original everything including brakes and are still a 1/4 inch thick. Also I would say I made at least 150+ passes at the track and the same on the street and enjoy killing hemis, those week toyotas , and 4.6 stangs. Guess mine is special.
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Yours isn’t special, it is actually the norm. In the automotive manufacturing and engineering world we have two explanations when trying to explain why one component, piece, part, vehicle, etc will go forever without a single problem while an identical vehicle (or component, piece, part) will suffer from many or all of the “common” problems within what one feel is a short time.
The first is to talk about the upper and lower spec limits of manufacturing. Basically, it boils down to tolerances. Manufacturers have set standards on acceptable tolerances a component must met to be an acceptable part. Of these components some will be better than others as they are closest to the engineering spec (upper spec limit) and some will be towards the lower spec limit, which isn’t bad…it just isn’t as good as those close to spec. The tighter, more consistent the tolerances are the higher quality component, piece, end product, etc will be. The more components, subcomponents, assemblies and end products that can be build with all upper spec limit parts are the best quality.
The second thing is sometimes you will find a vehicle, product, etc that will have a chain of failures of a component or many components at a lower mileage, age, etc and we call that a stack up of tolerances, which is basically a combination of many subcomponents that where built at the lower spec limits that happened to be assembled together in one unit. Think of a water pump that the mounting bosses weren’t machined to exact engineers spec’s but was still within the manufactures acceptable spec limit, and a water pump gasket that was manufactured with one the lower section of the gasket thinner than the top section but the entire gasket still within the manufactures acceptable spec limit. Once you stack these two lower spec limit parts together your failure rate potential of a leak increases drastically. …but that is what a warranty is for. Warranty is an insurance policy against low spec limit components.
Even though it is dirt old TQM principles that an engineering mentor of mine still talks about constantly, it is about the only scientific explanation most people can understand as to why a small percentage of vehicles won’t make it 40,000 miles without a water pump gasket (or whatever), while most will exceed 168,500 hard azz miles (and beyond) with no problems.