Everything else, like oil, brakes or fluid changes are basically the same as any other car. I understand that this kind of runs afoul of the spirit of this post, but there’s a reason many engines are simply replaced when they encounter some kind of major malfunction.
You are definitely correct about foreign (non-USA) makes. My wife had an Audi when we got married. I own a small toolbox of tools specific to her Audi S4 that I will never use again, but that was a 2006, so this issue predates 2013 for the makes that it is true about.
Admittedly, I try to avoid fuel injected vehicles. So I don't go out of my way to work on new things.
I do a lot of auto work, between restoring cars to repairing my own. But modern fuel injection systems run on a razor’s edge of tolerances and often getting to some part requires dismounting a turbo, which is all sorts of pain in the ass, and not something I’d recommend for an amateur.
The only cool thing is the wiring harnesses and everything are fully analog so like, you have fuel injection mechanically, i mean that in itself is cool. it's just a pain
My tractors are something I always marvel over, besides the starter you don't need any power. I have an old Cat diesel that doesn't even have an electric starter! Uses a small gas engine (called a pony engine) to start the large diesel engine, and the gas engine uses a pull start, very similar to a lawn mower engine.
They always have direct injection into the cylinder as far as I know. Maybe in the early 1900's they did manifold injection but I don't think so.
It's just a total different concept.
How the metering is done (IE How much fuel to meet load) though may have been similar, I am not sure. I 'asked a friend' on this one, since I am really unfamiliar with diesels in general.
And there are some engines that are indirect injection (called IDI). I've been on the hunt for a 90s 7.3l IDI. They're gutless without a turbo, but slap a pair of turbos on and it makes a heck of a towing machine. But I don't know as much about diesels, partly because they just never break the way a gas engine will. I've rebuilt a few gas engines, diesels just seem to be made of tougher stuff.
I have always stuck to American muscle and diesel tractors. The amazing simplicity of those machines has always attracted me. I love that I can hold a complete understand of the entire vehicle in my head. I'm sure you can even for modern vehicles, but they're not simple at all!
Newer cars have much better safety systems but have unfortunately gone all in for making things difficult.
Only a catastrophic failure[1] results in an engine replacement. For the p99 of car owners out there (especially in rust-prone areas), the engine will outlast the body by a large margin.
[1] And for some types of catastrophic failure, such as overheating damage, it's still cheaper to replace the head only.
Ironically my old Toyota is one of the hardest to really get at sensor and dealer-software changes.
In personal experience, VW manuals are atrocious to figure out while Toyota, at least around 2000 put out wonderful service manuals even if the ECU's are locked down.
In personal experience, VW manuals are atrocious to figure out while Toyota, at least around 2000 put out wonderful service manuals even if the ECU's are locked down.
It seems like one effect of this is that the temperature display can not be localized. Most everything else on a US market Toyota can be converted to metric but it looks like the AC and internal dash display for temperature can't be changed by the dealer, by knowledgeable users or by repair shops.