New cars, A ticking time bomb.....

There was scaremongering 20 years ago when catalytic converters arrived and ecu's were becoming more prevalent.They said that the cost of replacing the cat would exceed the value of the car and once an engine management system went wrong you would have to scrap the car!
However,you can buy replacement cats reasonably cheaply and there's always people reconditioning/upgrading ecu's.
 
I think we will just have to see how it all pans out....

I doubt many will want to keep many of these modern cars on the road in 20 years time anyway due to their lack of character...





Rob
 
vpulsar said:
I think we will just have to see how it all pans out....

I doubt many will want to keep many of these modern cars on the road in 20 years time anyway due to their lack of character...





Rob
Click to expand...


Are you including 350 & 370 in there?:D
 
Old thread revival, but this has come up recently with me and my Volvo...

I have a C70 which has an auto-dimming rear view mirror. Unfortunately, when the feature goes wrong, the LCD crystals (which darken and lighten to provide the auto dimming) turn black making rear view nigh on impossible..

As such, I popped into Volvo thinking it's just a mirror unit........


Just shy of £800 they quoted me to repair!!!

Seems the mirror unit has a fancy computer which control it, and if I then change the mirror, the main ECU will not understand as the ECU in the mirror is not the one the main ECU was told it had. Thus it refuses to work, and hence the main ECU needs to be informed of the new rear mirror ECU etc etc etc...

Seems this is now common practice amongst modern Volvos - any part which has an ECU (most parts then) are linked explicitly to the main ECU. Thus if you want to change a part, you have no choice but to change it, then take it to someone who has Volvo's software (2nd hand on ebay over £1500) to tell the main ECU it's been changed. Quite a number of parts won't even let you drive the car if you change them which is just bizaare - the main ECU doesn't recognise the new part number and so wont let you turn the car on!

How to kill off independant garages... Give me old fashioned engineering anyday!
 
Lots of sotware for popular cars is now available online in various guises.
£60 will get you MK5 Golf software and a lead. It's pretty simple too.
 
Wes said:
Lots of sotware for popular cars is now available online in various guises.
£60 will get you MK5 Golf software and a lead. It's pretty simple too.
Click to expand...


Yeah, true. I've got software that will do certain things, but Volvo so far are well locked down so a lot of stuff will only read certain areas, but you can't access the ECU for a number of things. Key one being only original (or copied somehow!) software can do the ECU linking which is just mad due to cost..

Been like it for years now Volvo though, and just getting worse..

Still, we're a throw-away society and cars are seemingly being designed with that in mind!!
 
Very True,
I drive an Isuzu Rodeo Pickup. A bit prehistoric but I've not needed the garage to do anything on it yet!
 
I'm just waiting for something to go wrong with our mondeos fancy turning headlights that point the way you're steering, I bet they're not cheap lol.



Rob
 
It makes you wonder if a Dealer Extended Warranty may be worthwhile on my 370Z. I still have at least 18 months though.

That car will be a nighmare (tiptronic etc).
 
A dealer one perhaps, but these aftersales ones you can buy are hardly worth the paper they are written on..
 
Aceman said:
A dealer one perhaps, but these aftersales ones you can buy are hardly worth the paper they are written on..
Click to expand...

I totally agree mate, I don't know why people bother because most stuff that breaks they try and tell you it's wear & tear :unsure:, And don't pay out.



Rob
 
vpulsar said:
I totally agree mate, I don't know why people bother because most stuff that breaks they try and tell you it's wear & tear :unsure:, And don't pay out.

Rob
Click to expand...

Mine was a head gasket...

They'll pay for the replacement gasket, and labour to replace it, but they were sneaky in their "labour to replace it".. This labour excluded the time taken to remove peripherals to get at the head for example...

And then they wanted to see proof the car did not have head gasket failure on purchase (like I have proof of that lying around for a trade in car I paid £2k for!)..

And then they wanted proof the head gasket had failed on it's own accord.. This is because they only cover the initial fault.. So if the head gasket has failed because the water pump packed in and cause the engine to overheat, only the water pump replacement is covered....

Then to top it all off, one of the stamps in the service history was not from a main dealer (just a model specific specialist) so the warranty was null and void (my response being why on earth did you sell it me then??)..

I gave up in the end with them. Luckily it was thrown in as part of the purchase, I'd be fuming if I paid extra for it!!

In a nutshell I stuggled to find anything that they would actually cover to replace!!!
 
i have always been wary of those types of warranty/insurance and not taken any out.i only ever had one new car and it broke down but it did get fixed,it was the ECU because the car had 2 ECUs and they stopped talking to each other so that stopped the car from working .
 
I once had a warranty that covered (from what I dragged out of them) the engine either 1. Falling out 2. Falling apart or 3. Catching fire, all for NO reason whatsoever.

As for parts when these cars become 20 years old, I guess it depends on the popularity.. I'm sure if there was enough call someone would reverse engineer ecu software.. Also think about how our own tech would progress, I mean there might end up being an app on your eyephone that interfaces with the ecu and tells it you're going to shut the door. Mind you this is all if our "government" hasn't dragged us all back to the stone age
 
Don't shoot me for saying this but is this not the logical progression in technology? S30 Z drivers will know that to squeeze a few more hp out of their cars they have to spend thousands, yet for a few quid, a new car can be given an easy 20-40+ hp boost.

I look at kids in my extended family and they are computer literate and very able and they are still in primary school! :eek:

Diagnostics and so forth may become the norm for these kids when they grow up where they will use a computer devices of sorts to test everything. Imagine a small piece of kit that can connect to your laptop, run a full diagnostic, advanced tuning aids, the ability to program and alter your performance profiles yourselves, emissions management, etc, etc, designed for the home enthusiast. A home car enthusiast with computer equipment in his garage as the norm? Also, I don't see as many young people into the tinker and do stuff yourself side of cars.? Young people like cars but the vast majority are content to let somebody else mess with them whereas blokes of a previous generation would have carried out simple maintenance at home...?
 
My recent thing is asking what on earth these electronics acheive..

It's certainly not that much improvement in economy - the Zed was getting near as damn it 30mpg, my wife's brand new MX5 struggles with that but has all the wizardry you can imagine!!

Not really advancement...

Saying that though, I know which I'd rather be in in an accident...


(ok, it's huge advancement because my engine in her car certainly wouldn't get that kind of economy, but it is funny laughing at some green issues guy moaning at me a while back because I'd got something old and uneconomical, only to find I was doing more mpg than him..)
 
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