Mundane resistors out of stock, what's going on?

Cars just weren't upto the job in 02, but even they didn't need a new carb evey year. No car does, unless he has an 1890s runabout.

NT

The ethanol in the gas is hell on carbs. Especially the older ones.

That is normal on many vehicles and barely adds cost. There is stuff that wears our naturally, like batteries.

The rub is this: A battery can be swapped by picking up a new one next time at Costco and then a few minutes with simple wrenches later it is installed. When a dashboard warning shows up on a modern car that is mostly a different story. While I was waiting for a smog check a guy that did not look wealthy at all waited for a diagnosis. The mechanic came in and said "Sir, looks like the XYZ controller board is bad. We'll have to order a new one and that's $1200. Plus probably $250 in labor bacause this needs to be done by a tech with electronics cert. It'll take about a week".

A BMW driver fared worse. The electronics guy at his shop was on vacation so he had to wait more than two weeks. Plus write a big check.

Generally it is. Many friend drive Toyotas. Not much goes wrong with the older ones.

My Audi I reported on in this thread had around 200k miles when the neighbor I had sold it to sold it again. Once I told my wife that our old car might survive him and it probably will. I really miss that station wagon best car I ever had. The Mitsubishi I have now is just as reliable but can't even get close to the great gas mileage of the Audi.

So you count a water pump as regular wear and not a failure? I see now how you can make your claim, everything is normal wear if you look at it that way.

What is your point? Do you think your car doesn't have an engine computer? I know my 21 year old truck does. It also has a temp gauge that doesn't work because something is wrong in the dash panel and they only replace the whole thing! If someone would take it out and put it back I'm sure I coul d fix it myself, but I'm not going to tear my only vehicle apart not knowin g when it would be back together.

How is that different from your BMW friend? If it were a more critical iss ue I'd have to have it fixed. Even just being the temperature gauge I am o n the fence. I wouldn't like to have the engine melt down.

Oh? I guess I've just had bad luck then. 1 water pump, 1 alternator, 2 A/ C, 2 pairs of half axles (both because of the CV boots), clutch peddle brac ket, clutch, starter solenoid contacts, various rust... still running on t he original rear brake pads though.

Rick C.

A water pump on a well built car typically last a lifetime. Like it did on my old Audi.

There are things on a car that are simply not designed to last forever such as spark plus. Sometimes the water pump is swapped during timing belt replacement, not because it needs it but as a precaution and because it's cheap.

What I was saying is that when there is a large amount of electronics in cars reliability tends to suffer and repairs tend to be expensive.

It does because it's CA law. Again: It is _not_ about mandatory stuff, it is about _nonessential_ elecronics.

That is trivial: The BMW guy was out of a car for over two weeks, you are not. When the whole dashboard lights up, then goes dark and the engine sputters to a stop that means the car is not longer useful. When the temp gauge quits that isn't the case.

You can easily mount a separate gauge, under or above the dash. Simple, cheap.

Never heard of that much going bad on old Toyotas. Yes, you probably had bad luck.

I know what you are saying and I think it is wrong. Mechanical parts wear and break. Electronics for the most part is very reliable. Otherwise they would never be able to build large systems like super computers. In fact, the least reliable part of any electronics is the mechanical parts, switch es and connectors. That's a fact. Same with cars, mechanical stuff is bui lt in ways that can go wrong easily while electronics tends to either be bu ilt right or isn't and fails and doesn't get shipped.

I don't see much difference. I haven't had it fixed because I'm lazy and c heap and would have to rent a car. A bad temperature gauge is a real probl em potentially costing an engine. Same thing to me.

... If it were a more

Yeah, that's the ticket. Great thinking!

Lol, your experiences are typical but mine are abnormal. Consumer Reports must be run by morons. They pegged the A/C on the money!

Rick C.

I've seen resistive-ink boards with laser-trim tracks in the ink (covered with a lacquer). It might take such trimming to get from 20% to 2%, but it can be cheap in mass production, and work for years. Tracking should be excellent. Impossible to sollder in a replacement resistor, though.

Printed resistors with laser-trim used to be seen only on ceramic substrates, in the head amplifier of high-price hard disk drives. It's gone down in the world.

If designed well, yes. However, I have seen electronics designs in car that made my neck hair stand up. Cutting corners where corners should not have been cut.

A computer does not live outdoors baking in the glistening Arizona some or freezing in northern Alaska.

I am not the only one seeing that.

Have you personally worked with automotive electronics? I have.

Read your sentence above again. That _is_ the difference. You car war still driveable. The BMW was dead in the water. IIRC the engine still turned over when trying to start but there was not one single combustion event to be noticed anymore.

It is not unless the thermostat also fails. Pre-1970 cars often didn't even have a temp gauge. How did these people ever get anywhere?

Nothing is more reliable that a real redneck kludge :-)

Fact is, you could easily do this. The BMW driver did not have any such options.

An A/C is not essential. If that dies, so be it. Our forefathers didn't have A/C and miraculously reached their destinations anyhow. In fact, my Audi didn't have A/C either. If some controller board dies and that makes the engine, transmission, brakes or whatever not work anymore, that's a real problem.

Of course, but then look at some designs where, for example, they thought a load dump wouldn't really reach 80V (and then it does ...) or where they use electrolytics because that was 10c cheaper than others. On aerospace designs that's not done and I strongly believe that is why their electronics fail less often. I designed some.

A classic example was my Chrysler. A warning light came up with what looked like an oil symbol on there. Concerned, I inquired. "Yeah, we can fix that but this is going to be expensive. It's not pressure, it's for the oil level, so if you watch that regularly just leave it be".

Later another light came on for brake pad wear. The pads weren't worn at all, even removing thems would not make it go out so I applied the same kind of "fix". Those were just two example of many that happened in the four years I had it. Some events were "ride ending".

This design philosophy seems to be popular with non-electronic stuff as well. So I resorted to taking a good look under the hood and under the car before making any decision. At one dealer some jaws dropped when I crawled partially under the car before buying. There are major differences. On some cars hoses slobber around from hither to yonder. On my curent car they used a lot of metal tubes instead and they are solidly fastened into parallel races like you find under jet engine cowlings. Probably because that company also makes aircraft, including big ones.

r? I know my 21 year old truck does. It also has a temp gauge that doesn' t work because something is wrong in the dash panel and they only replace t he whole thing! If someone would take it out and put it back I'm sure I co uld fix it myself, but I'm not going to tear my only vehicle apart not know ing when it would be back together.

ssue I'd have to have it fixed. Even just being the temperature gauge I am on the fence. I wouldn't like to have the engine melt down.

at includes p&p.

NT

r and break. Electronics for the most part is very reliable. Otherwise th ey would never be able to build large systems like super computers. In fac t, the least reliable part of any electronics is the mechanical parts, swit ches and connectors. That's a fact.

It was once. Now it's electrolytic capacitors, followed by connectors.

ly while electronics tends to either be built right or isn't and fails and doesn't get shipped.

Not really. The Vauxhall/Opel Astra is famous for having one of its compute rs in a very hot location & not surprisingly failing. It's a mass market ca r.

cheap and would have to rent a car. A bad temperature gauge is a real pro blem potentially costing an engine. Same thing to me.

would the electronic engine control not mean the engine shut off it it over heated enough to put it at risk?

some certainly are. A lot of the ones I've read show little or no grasp of the issues. Many are nothing more than waffle designed to sell people thing s.

NT

Scrape off resistor, solder new one on. Or solder it to the tracks either side. Or if all else fails sleeve the legs & solder to whatever other component pads the resistor ends up connecting to.

I saw a fair few printed ink boards in the 80s. IIRC the ink always struck me as of uneven thickness, thicker than screen printing.

NT

they also had cast iron heads which survived the steam escaping. Ali heads aren't so tolerant.

When I was younger I always wanted a lawnmower engine in the back in case of breakdown :)

NT

Citroen did a 4 wheel drive 2CV called "Sahara", it had two engines, one each end.

I knew a ham who had a gasoline powered generator in the trunk of his Escort, so he could get full power from his L4B. The L4B was open, because he took the power from closer to the plates where the impedance level matched better that required by the whip antenna.

Drake L4B RF amplifier:

A fluorescent tube would light a few meters from this car if you just held it in your hands.

Cheers, Gerhard DK4XP

I saw a few ham radio stations in cars similar to that. The topper was a guy in a Mercedes who had just about every square-inch other than the driver's seat filled with equipment. I always thought that those guys cannot be married. Or the marriage wouldn't last long.

Bingo. That's how I would fix it especially on an older car. Though I'd probably splurge, spend $5 and get an LED gauge instead of LCD. It would likely be much better than what was in the car and show degrees instead of "H" and "C". However, when I suggested that it seems that's either too pedestrian or too redneck for Rick.