Each year, cars, trucks and Rvs get more complicated. In this new electronic world computers carry on most of the varied vehicle operations, such as the power package, transmission, brake systems, emission operate system, entertainment systems and protection associated systems.
Although computers make it more difficult for an personel to work on his or her car, some of them well make the car easier to service.
In twenty years we have gone from a completely mechanical automobile - no electronics - to vehicles that have as many as forty or fifty computers. This sort of accelerated improvement has a price. There is no standardization in vehicle computers - software or hardware. None of it is common from manufacturer-to-manufacturer, or even model-to-model.
This lack of standardization is bad for everyone. The mechanic is in trouble, because often he or she hasn't been trained to use the critical diagnostic tools. The owner pays a heavy price because when a computer fails, finding the exact cause can be very difficult. Thus, the owner waits, often for weeks, even months for the dealership to figure out what is wrong.
The dealership is caught in the middle of the demands of high warranty mend price and needing to service the customer. And, finally, the maker is under pressure to speak the façade of manufacturing cars that do all advertised.
The maker competes in a tough enterprise environment, so they must offer new and sexy gadgets to the consumer. The customer asks for these things. If a maker doesn't contribute them, the competition will.
The move toward more and more computerization in cars, trucks and Rvs is driven by positive key elements:
- The need for sophisticated machine controls to meet emissions and fuel-economy standards
- advanced troubleshooting diagnostics
- Simplification of manufacture and design
- allowance of wiring (less wiring equals less weight, equals best gas mileage)
- carry on sophisticated new protection features
- operate comfort and convenience features
- Compete in a tough enterprise environment
A new inspect of Lemon legal cases indicated that a remarkably high ration had major defects that were directly or indirectly associated to one or more of the on-board computers. Given the sophistication of the contemporary automobile, this should not surprise anyone, least of all the manufacturers.
When something goes wrong with an automobile, manufacturers want to talk about bad components, not the part of the vehicle that tells the components how to operate; the on-board computer.
Typically the maker talks about emission operate valves failing, not the Electronic operate Unit (a microprocessor, computer), and its subordinate system the Emission Controls Computer (a microprocessor, computer), which tells the emission operate valve when and how to work.
We call this slicing and dicing the defect. It is a form of watering down the defect, a sort of deception whose purpose is to disguise what is well defective, one or more of the vehicle computers.
If all it took was exchange of the defective computer, no big deal; best than replacing the whole vehicle. But, what if there is a software manufacture fault? Or what if there is basic computer hardware manufacture fault within the computer itself? Now, the maker could be finding at possible recalls. This can be a devastating price to the manufacturer.
Hardware or software manufacture problems with an on-board computer are not infrequent. Therefore, from the manufacturer's viewpoint, it has to be something else; preferably something at which mechanics can throw parts regardless of whether the question is corrected.
Another bone in the throat of customers that prevents them getting perfect service is knowledge. That is correct, knowledge. For the average mechanic, the computer, microprocessor is a new and fearful thing. They know darn well if they fool around with whatever that has a computer in it, they are going to screw up and get in big trouble.
In an article on Bmw Fuel Injection Fault Codes - these are the codes the machine operate computer generates indicating what is wrong with a particular system - the expert mechanic who wrote the article, described the task of retrieving and insight the operate codes as being very difficult: "It's a "1" on a scale of "1" to "10", "1" being most difficult," the expert mechanic said.
Still, the dealer has to get the work done. New mechanics are put to work on problems they do not understand and that they well do not want to do. Who bears the brunt of their lack of training, aptitude and attitude? Right again, the long-suffering consumer. There is a nationwide shortage of trained mechanics, so severe that dealers and mend shops recruit from prisons in the Midwest. None of these conditions bode well for the consumer.
Every Computer/Microprocessor in the contemporary automobile has complicated sensor inputs. Sensors measure things like machine temperature, Rpm, vehicle speed. Sensors may be variable, which is to say they are collecting changing values, like vehicle speed, which the computer uses to make decisions; or they may be finding at the yield of switches that are On or Off.
The machine operate Microprocessor may be associated to fifty or more of these computers and hundreds of sensors. Very few of these sensors, if defective, yield one isolatable fault. The failure of these sensors to operate properly at the proper time can create a multitude of hard to diagnose problems. Some of these problems gift a serious protection hazard to the owner.
It's not an easy thing when the brain of a vehicle, or a human is defective. Like a cancer it spreads out into other systems and affects them in unpredictable ways. It is callous and perhaps worse for a dealership to take off and replace the emission operate valve when your car begins to stall at stop signs and intersections, and then claim that all is all right now. A week later the same thing occurs and it is some other component. It is analogous to a surgeon replacing your arm because the brain isn't sending it the right commands for proper operation.
It's a tough situation, and manufacturers and dealerships do not improve it by denying such problems exist. One answer, of course, is more just testing by the manufacturer. Mandatory programs to upgrade the skills of mechanics would also go a long way to enhancing the service, protection and vehicle possession experience.
Next time the dealership tells you the Abs -Automatic Brake System- is supposed to pulse like a dying carp on the beach, step back, give them the, "I see your hand in the cookie jar, look." Ask, "How do you know it's not the Big Brain? How do you know it isn't the machine operate system Computer that's defective?"
This Lemon Automobile Brain is Damaged - surgery is Not an option