This is a thread dedicated to the engineers and accountants that decided to make you want to pull your hair out.

1. Throttle body elbow and gasket guy.
2. The guy that designed the flange of the EGR pipe to have one of the screws pointing at the transmission bell housing.
3. Whoever decided that the water outlet and the supercharger snout were to have a very tight tolerance that would make fitting one of the valley hoses akin to solving a Rubik's cube.
4. The bloke who thought foam was a good material for shock mounts.
5. The penny pincher accountant that thought plastic chain tensioners were a good idea for the 4.0 engine.

To all of these guys, and many more to come, may you rot in hell when the time comes.
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Feel free to add your submissions to the list. Maybe we can make a poll of it later in the thread.

 

Adding the person who designed this engineering **** storm.

 

And the genius who decided putting hydraulics in the windshield header was a good design for globally sold cars.

 

Let's pile on with the person who designed the unstable mounting for the memory control. Piece of wobbly crap that is.

 

To the genius who put the pipes for the gas tank over the rear end when on either side or coming off the back shelf would have made replacing the fuel pump at least a doable job for most.

 

What about the hinge mechanism for the cigar lighter cover in the centre console.

Why the f&@k would you need multiple plastic gears for slowing a Torque spring?

 

Rothwell, the cupholders made me laugh quite loudly. Not only is it a fragile piece of crap, it's also useless even when its perfect conditions because it wasn't designed to keep a cup in place unless the car were stationary.

Wayne, the fuel pump pipe was something I struggled with when I changed the pump. However, working. through the subwoofer made the job tolerable.

 

Here's the nominees as the last X100 came off the production line:




Note the two men in white coats on hand to take them away for therapy before they were let loose on the X150.

The X100 has its faults but it's still a magnificent car with an impressive survival rate twenty four years after it was introduced.

Graham

 

The small Torx bolts on the early 6HP26 transmission pan we not a great choice (this one is on ZF I suppose).

The unreachable fill/drain plugs on the rear differential are not particularly maintenance friendly to be sure.

That kinked heater return hose off the heater core with that built-in one-way valve is just not a great solution for the space available.

Let's not forget the whole pollen filter situation, with its 4-hour labor replacement procedure.

And by far the worst is that stupid stupid body style design that makes us love these cars so much and want to go through all this nonsense in the first place.

 

The various plastic components throughout the car that now turn into dust if you simply look at them wrong....

 

+1 to Fmertz

There’s a great quote somewhere here on this forum. This car is like a free spirited stripper. Great to look at and even better to get your hands on.... but underneath there’s some real problems. LOL!

 

Accidental activation of wipers, remote fuel flap, and remote boot release.
If one is happy with the dead pedal fitment, they are much taller than I am.

 

Here's one of the best signatures on the forum by Jeh:

Because its a Jaguar. And ----- even if your pushing it down the street --- Everyone feels better in a Jaguar

Always makes me smile.

Graham

 

Has everyone forgotten the ease of the Brake or stoplight switch replacement. "Giv'em a ATTA BOY." Seems to be a difficult job. Threads in past indicate it is not a pleasant task.

 

Gents and Ladies, do I ever know what you mean. I have been on my soapbox for years yapping' about auto and machinery engineers.
My motto was: He who designs things must also service these things. Then we would get more service and user friendly inventions.
My other motto seemed to be: What were they thinking??!! LOL
Thanks for listening, TM

 

I don't know about this one. Never was there another car that I could open the boot and fuel flap and turn on the wipers in one swift motion with my knees. Economy of motion.

 

We have to remember this car was designed/built during ownership by FORD(Fix Or Repair Daily). Of course even with all these problems, We still Own, Drive, and Love our X100s.Maybe we are the ones needing the Men in White jackets???????
Nah!

 

i remember Andy Rooney an American 60 minutes commentator once said that before criticizing someone's work ask oneself if you could do it.

many great creators, designers and engineers create great devices in spite of the corporations that they work for not because of them. sometimes it is a challenge to get some quality in the final product only discovered years after retirement when the truth is let out.

i have worked on many things and have a good feel for machines and materials. overall these cars are high quality with good materials and designs from a bankrupt, recently acquired company during a bad time in the country's economic and industrial history. any of the few flaws that we discuss can be found in some of the highest quality Japanese and German cars of any era. the fit and finish are excellent in many regards exceeding recent standards.

remember also that they are still running and relevant this many years later. and i can think of many much more expensive, niche, greater cache motors that astound with quality and design issues to the point where one thinks that the problems were purposefully created.

the lacking issue in any low volume producer is the ability to destruction test to very high degree. this is why the plastics and vinyl in my 91 Honda Accord look just as good as the day it was new. they probably did advanced accelerated aging studies costing millions of dollars. this is why the cowl plastic on a Toyota does not deteriorate in the hot sun. however my much newer 08 Honda CR-V, garage kept has a cowl plastic becoming brittle in a temperate climate. every so often a manufacturer drops the ball.

those guys got a lot right with these cars. achieving timelessness is no easy task. many someone's secretly lobbied and schemed to build quality in without it getting corporate-ed out. deal with that myself over the years and know the frustration.

lots of people in the development did not accept that better is the enemy of good enough.

 

Buzzkill from Captain Obvious

We were just having some fun.

Since I am regularly criticizing my own bad design decisions I am comfortable throwing others under the bus for theirs. Snowflake engineers better buckle up.

 

++1 rothwell.