Re: [DML] Re: John Delorean and Reliability.

["Robert Hook" <rob_hook@xxxx>]

[Moderator Note: This message brings up a lot of technical issues. Due to heavy list traffic, please respond only to specific technical issues. If you want to argue against Rob on general principles, please wait for a slow DML day. - Mike Substelny DML moderating team]

I originally wrote this a LONG time ago but decided not to send it to the
list. I'm going to go ahead and send it now. I've since upgraded to a
Viper and don't even try to keep the DeLorean running. For those
interested, the Viper is a great "upgrade path" from the DeLorean.

You know...I'm probably one of the longest-running subscribers to this list
(I think there were 10 people on it when I subscribed) and I've read almost
every post. I've also owned my own DeLorean for the past 5 years.

I'm sorry to say it, but I fall on the other side of the fence when it comes
to the reliability issue. I've heard people claim that the DeLorean was a
very reliable car since the first time this thread came up but...I just
don't see it.

These "minor" and "well-known" problems people talk about actually encompass
most of the car. And yeah, virtually ALL types of cars have these types of
problems but most of them have two or three, not 50 of them like the
DeLorean
does.

Let's look at the car from the front to the rear:

The front bumper warps over time due to the heat from the headlights
The radiator tank neck breaks
The cooling fans often fail for various reasons
The horns go out (mine are dead right now)
The angle drive breaks VERY often
The spare tire doesn't hold air
The fuel pump boot melts and ruins your fuel system under certain
circumstances
The fuel pump pickup lines collapse and starve the engine for fuel
The speedo cable fails often
The fuel cut-out switch (inertia switch) fails quite often
(Working from the front, we're not even to the middle of the car yet folks)
Various things go wrong with the fuel tank causing a strong gas odor in the
car
The oil pressure gauge usually reads incorrectly
The fuel level indicator is never accurate
The original clutch line gets hot and expands, making the clutch pedal
ineffective
The fan motors fail and often end up running backwards
The headlight switches fail
The dash and binnacle crack and discolor
The door pull handles (not the strap) fall out of the doors
The windows stop working (either the cheap motors fail or they fall off
track)
The ac/heat mode switches start leaking, causing a vacum leak to the engine
The doors VERY OFTEN droop and sometimes get out of adjustment
The a/c drain gets clogged, causing your car to spill cold water on your
passenger's feet (This is just about the only thing that HASN'T happened to
me...probably because the A/C never works either)
The dome lights break (my REPLACEMENT one almost caused a fire when it
broke)
The door locks get out of adjustment and don't even work manually
The headliners sag (Ok, to be fair, so do most cars eventually)
The electric door locks don't work right (and can even lock you IN the car)
(NOW we're at the middle of the car!)
The frame's protective coating cracks and actually ACCELERATES rust by
trapping moisture
The original relays fail almost 100% of the time
The fuse boxes often overheat and melt
The fuel accumulator fails and is a PAIN to replace
The automatic transmission computers go berzerk
The manual transmissions fail too (I've gone through 2 now, one of them
BRAND NEW)
The heater bypass valve comes apart and is a BEAR to replace
The clutch slave cylinder fails.
(Ok...now we're starting on the engine)
The temperature switch fails
The fuel injection system may be great but the idle system fails very often
The coils never could sustain spark to the car's redline
The exhaust manifolds come loose and leak
Bolts get stuck EVERYWHERE in this engine because there's so much aluminum
The water pump fails (not uncommon for any car but you have to take half
the engine apart to replace it in a DeLorean)
The alternators were junk and even when they worked properly, were not
powerful enough
You need a special tool JUST TO CHANGE THE OIL (Ok, so this is more of an
annoyance than an actual failure, but WHY would they do this?)
The air conditioner idler bearings seize
The header bottle breaks, usually stranding you
The muffler hangers break off
The heat shields fall apart, releasing asbetos fibers into the air
Air gets trapped in the cooling system requiring an elaborate procedure (or
modifications) to get it out
The oil pressure sending unit leaks oil all over the engine
The trailing arms chronically come loose causing a hazardous situation
The drive shafts come loose or even break
The parking brake pads fly apart during driving
The rear louvres crack and break
The cable to open the rear engine cover often breaks
The rear lights quit working very often due to a design flaw

Wow. I meant that 50 figuratively, I didn't think I'd actually find 50
things to list. That's terrible. For the most part, those are all COMMON
failures. I've had virutally all of them happen to me.

Now I know you're going to see a million e-mails defending the DeLorean.
That's to be expected. This IS a DeLorean mailing list. And they're going
to say that there are known solutions to all of those problems. That's
about like Microsoft saying that Windows 98 was great because it fixed over
100,000 bugs from Windows 95 (They released a product with 100,000
bugs?!?!?!) But would you want a good portion of the engineering fixes on
your car to come from some guy tinkering in his garage or from the
manufacturer? People here don't want to admit that the cars they care so
much about may just have been lemons to start with. To put it lightly, the
DeLorean is a VERY quirky car. Probably the quirkiest car in recent
history, to tell you the truth. The only car that could ever compete with
the DeLorean for quirkiness is an old MG or some other British car. But
even they aren't THIS bad.

Add to all these problems the fact that almost all parts have to be ordered
(DON'T try the cross-reference lists. They cause even MORE problems), PLUS
most of the parts are 20 years old anyway, and you've got a car that is
difficult or impossible to keep up with as a daily driver. If you were to
drive a DeLorean and have a mechanic keep it up for you, you'd pay so much
you could've had a really nice Mercedes or Corvette for the same monthly
amount. Plus you'd have to keep another car to use while the DeLorean is
(quite often) in the shop.

Even the experience of driving the car isn't all it's cracked up to be.
Sure you get TONS of attention but alot of it is in the form of "Where's the
flux capacitor", "Isn't the guy who made those still in jail?", "Weren't
those cars really pieces of junk?", "Can it fly?", "Hey Marty", "How do you
keep that aluminum body clean?", "You got the AMC or Volkswagen engine in
there?" or "Nice Lamborghini kit". Add to that the fact that most rice
burners
can out run the car, it rides like a horsecart and doesn't even sit low to
the
ground like a sportscar should.

I loved the DeLorean as much as anyone, but I'm afraid the love affair is
over. It's time to wake up from this nightmare of a car.