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Re: [Phys-L] Car repair

I have to agree with Jim as well. There's not much I can't do in my
garage. I'm not the average car owner though having spent a decade working
on cars in the auto electronics industry. Yes, the electronics can be
scary but they really make routine fixes easier. I don't feel like the
fundamental parts of a car have changed that much in the past 30 years,
just the shear amount of technology stuffed into our cars is WAY more.


On Thu, Apr 11, 2013 at 6:36 PM, Marty Weiss <martweiss@comcast.net> wrote:

That's part of the problem... you can't get at anything even if you can
diagnose the problem. The chip that went bad in my 2003 was way under the
engine and he had to look around before he could find it... and my mechanic
is a genius at cars. Even he and his crew attend classes several times a
year to learn the latest techniques. So, I stand by my original
statement... the average guy cannot fix his car anymore.

On Apr 11, 2013, at 6:28 PM, brian whatcott wrote:

I look on this thread, specially Jim's contribution, with great interest.
I have mended radars when that was cool and fixing computers when their
unit cost
was reckoned in the millions and fixing pretend (even some real)
aircraft system software
for some considerable time, but yes, I can find the modern car daunting.

I know that current designs are a masterpiece of continual trimming of
speeds and
combustible mixtures and ignition timing and I am willing to concede
that a big reason
for the much improved engine longevity can be laid to this account, not
to mention
the greatly improved road accident statistics, which are still a matter
of gut-wrenching
carnage on the road, day and night unfortunately.

I conclude that it takes an occasional pep-talk of this kind to get
people like me
beyond the sensor replacements (which are often misguided) and pointed
at the plugs,
connectors, ground connections that are so often responsible for
problems these days.

Talking about plugs, it is just as well that ignition plugs last so long
these days, because
just accessing them can be taxing.

Brian Whatcott Altus OK

On 4/11/2013 12:40 PM, Jim Deane wrote:
Come on! The average guy cannot fix his car in his garage any longer!
You simply can't diagnose a problem and repair the computer yourself.

I provided references to the contrary. The same kind of average guys
who
worked on cars in the 1960's are working on cars in the 2010's. Check
out
any car forum (e.g. www.neons.org/forums)--there are people helping
each
other learn how to diagnose and repair (and soup up) their own modern
cars. Some out of necessity, some out of hobby interest.

You tell me I can't diagnose and repair the computer myself, and I tell
you
that the vast majority of the time I can do exactly that. Virtually all
failures come down to sensor or wiring problems. Tracking them down
requires the same skills needed to track down an intermittent spark or
headlamp, with a large dose of patience.

For less than $30 you can buy a bluetooth interface for your car that
will
let you datalog the sensor data from your car while driving. Reading
and
interpreting that data is analogous to reading and interpreting spark
plugs
to determine if you need to change carb jets.

I do however know a lot of people who believe the claim that no one can
work on cars these days. In the face of countless people doing exactly
that, I'm not really sure how to respond.
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Forum for Physics Educators
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_______________________________________________
Forum for Physics Educators
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http://www.phys-l.org/mailman/listinfo/phys-l