Rolls Royces with locked hoods?

[Mr.Blue_Sky]

Many years ago, the sister of a friend said that Rolls Royces were sold with hoods locked and only the mechanic had a key. This was to prevent the customer from tampering (or repairing) the engine so that they had to take the car to a licensed repair shop when needed.

Anybody ever hear of this?

[Valgard]

False. Here’s the Snopes link (read a ways down the article and you’ll find that they address this specific question):

Rolls-Royce Special Assistance

[Mr.Blue_Sky]

:smack:

I saw that article, but didn’t scroll all the way down.

Thanks.

[handsomeharry]

did i miss something, or did that snopes thing fail to say whether it was false or not?

[Ringo]

You’re right harry, snopes never specifically says that one is false.

[Mr.Blue_Sky]

I’m assuming it’s false since the article seems to dismiss all the other mistaken beliefs about Rolls.

[DougC]

• • • I had heard that the theft and sale of R-R’s to FSR and Orient areas was much lower than other high-priced cars, simply because Rolls had no dealers in those places and wouldn’t sell parts to anyone who wasn’t a dealer, and dealers weren’t supposed to sell parts directly to anyone also, and didn’t. I read this a number of years ago, had no way to check either way…
      ~

[gouda]

The hood of the Audi A2 is locked, only accessible by authorised service stations.

[DougC]

The hood of the Audi A2 is locked, only accessible by authorised service stations.

• • • If that’s true, it’s amazing… -that anyone would buy such a car. If I paid for a car and they told me I couldn’t open the hood whenever I wanted, I’d throw the keys down right there and tell them no deal and f@ck off.
      …
• Not that I’d be too likely anyway, the A2 appears to be a fantastically over-engineered and probably-not-cheap high-MPG minivan.
  ?
• But looking around, I do not find any indication that this is true. Could be English pages are not the language to be searchng, but anyway. I find nothing. Any cite?
  ~

[zut]

I have a hard time believing the engine compartment of any automobile would be accessable only by the dealer. Perhaps this is a misunderstanding of the A2’s “engine service module”? I’m not familiar with the car, but lookee here:

**World first: the service module **

The Audi A2 also sets new standards for ease of servicing. It is the world’s first series-production car to have a “service module”.

On the Audi A2, a hinged flap takes the place of the conventional radiator grille; the oil dipstick and filler caps for engine oil and washer fluid are readily accessible behind this flap, for maximum convenience. The service module permits easy checking and topping-up of fluids by the driver at the filling station.

The engine hood therefore only needs be opened by the service workshop. Instead of simply being hinged up, the entire hood is detached at quick-release connectors behind the service flap. To round off this highly customer-friendly service concept, Audi’s maintenance intervals have been extended to 2 years or 30,000 km (50,000 km for the A2 1.4 TDI), whichever is the sooner.

I’m interpreting this as meaning that the customer doesn’t need to open the hood, even for routine fluid refilling, not that the customer can’t open the hood. Although, to be honest, seems like a pain in the ass to have to physically pick up the hood and carry it away to get at the engine compartment.

[Cluricaun]

As I recall it, Rolls hoods can be opened by the owners, however the bolts and other fastners inside the engine compartment have a special lug shape, like some custom wheels do, and only Rolls dealers/mechanics have the correct tools to open them. The bolts are also colored so that any outside tampering will be immediately noticed, and therefore the warrenty voided. I don’t know about all of you, but only a fool would void the warrenty on a $200,00+ automobile. Also, if you can afford this car, you’re most probably not really the “greasemonkey” type anyway, right?

[Rick]

The locked hood on a Rolls story is the oldest Urban legend I recall ever being told. My father told me this one back in the 50’s when I was just a pup.

Anyway I have been under the hood of several Rolls to work on them. No locked hood, no special bolts, no paint marks.
Now the last Roller I worked on was back in the 80’s so a few things might have changed, but I can almost guarantee that Ryan’s “special fasteners” don’t exist, for the simple reason that Snap-on, Mac Tools, or for that matter MATCO sell any “special Rolls Royce” tools.
Now years ago British cars used Both British Standard and Whitworth fasteners which did require special tools to remove the fasteners, as they were odd sized. These fasteners went out ages ago (the last BS fitting I saw on any car was in about 1974, most were gone by the mid 50’s.)

Also by law, a carmaker cannot void the warranty if a customer has service done at any independent repair place. Now I do agree that taking a $250,000 car to Jiffy Lube isn’t the brightest idea, it won’t void the warranty. (Not talking warranty work here, only service work.)

[gouda]

This is the first site that Google threw up, and here is what they say:

Most special is not the engines but the engine compartment, which is sealed and provides no bonnet. Audi claims the engine is free of servicing for every 30,000 km, so access to the engine compartment is just needed at the aftersales workshop. Nevertheless, to enable refilling of oil and water, the pseudo grille, which is a black plastic cover with the 4-ring logo, can be opened to do that.

I tend to think that Audi woudn’t have gone to the trouble of sealing the A2’s bonnet, if at the end of the day, the customer could simply open it up whenever he pleased. That’d be just a huge waste of engineering, a poor waste of the customer’s time and energy, and even Audi’s money (think of all the marketing that sealed bonnet had).