'Another thing to go wrong'
Discussion
Oh come on, 50 years ago electric window and a 5th gear were 'just another thing to go wrong', hydraulic brakes and pneumatic tyres the same another half century earlier.
Every new bit of technology is just something else to go wrong until it becomes established as the norm by the next generation. Just wait until self-driving cars come along, they'll blow the mind of the average home-mechanic.
Every new bit of technology is just something else to go wrong until it becomes established as the norm by the next generation. Just wait until self-driving cars come along, they'll blow the mind of the average home-mechanic.
TwigtheWonderkid said:
On stuff like electronic handbrakes, I'd say a complicated system of a lever pulling a cable running the length of the car to a ratchet to apply the brakes has a much greater chance of failing than an electronic system.
I don't know how a lever and a length of wire could be "complicated"!I think a lot of this stuff, and electronic parking brakes are a prime example, are great on a new to 3yr old car, but once out of warranty are an expensive nightmare.
Another one is LCD instrument panels - they're going to be horrendously expensive to replace on cars a few years old.
LandRoverManiac said:
The same goes for E-Brakes - how exactly does making an item that relies on reasonably low-tech, simple mechanics (wire+lever) into a highly-strung electro-mechanical linkage improve the owner's experience of using the car? Did some scientific study somewhere show that pulling a lever rather than pressing a button really makes owning that model of car less desirable?
(I'm not a fan of the electric handbrake).
I have a friend that lives in blackburn, a town with many hills, something dawned on me(I'm not a fan of the electric handbrake).
in a car with a normal handbrake when the cable snaps the lever hits you under the chin so you know not to leave it on a hill
what happens when an electric handbrake cable snaps does the button ping out so you know it's snapped
Ved said:
I hear this from people with older cars which of course never ever broke down.
The difference between my old cars and my new ones is just that when one of the old ones breaks down I can fix it and get home whereas with a new car I have to act like a bint and call a man out and then wait while he fannies about before he has to call a truck out and the car is returned to the manufacturer to have a computer plugged into it. When I was told by BMW that I wasn't allowed to change the battery myself but had to have the car low-loaded to them to have a computer plugged in I just sold the car and ended the 20 year fiasco of modern industry t
ttism that had begun with spending £200 to have a fault earning lamp on a VW diagnosed as the fault warning lamp being at fault. The real split is whether the 'change' being implemented by the manufacturer is to benefit me as their customer or their bottom line and frankly too many of the modern changes are all about forcing me to take the car back to them for a wallet rinsing. Electronic handbrakes are a perfect piss take.
Always made me laugh how TVR would cobble together some batsheet crazy things like buttons instead of door handles or the cup thing petrol filler in the T350 and yet failed to often get the basics right. The interior door opener on my Chimaera was another example. And of course the cable snapped at some stage. And then a passenger door opened on its own as I was driving around a right hand bend etc etc. Comedy. Loved their quirks but they never made life seem very easy for themselves with some of these things.
ETM - the electronic throttle on Volvos.
Why? I have driven many of both and they don't feel any different to me.
They changed from a cable to an electronic box and after a while, it would fail.
To start with it would cause the car to rev up and down on its own etc and if not sorted, could leave you in the middle of a motorway with no power.
On older V70, S70 and C70 models, I would take the cars still with the cable where possible.
The complicated C70 cab roofs will eventually play up, too. You don't get that on a Mk1 MX5
Mind you, I really have no interest in any gadgets. They could last a thousand years and I still wouldn't care if the car had them.
Most of them seem slapped on just to justify the price of things these days.
Why? I have driven many of both and they don't feel any different to me.
They changed from a cable to an electronic box and after a while, it would fail.
To start with it would cause the car to rev up and down on its own etc and if not sorted, could leave you in the middle of a motorway with no power.
On older V70, S70 and C70 models, I would take the cars still with the cable where possible.
The complicated C70 cab roofs will eventually play up, too. You don't get that on a Mk1 MX5
Mind you, I really have no interest in any gadgets. They could last a thousand years and I still wouldn't care if the car had them.
Most of them seem slapped on just to justify the price of things these days.
Edited by Digby on Thursday 19th January 18:42
The Surveyor said:
wack said:
what happens when an electric handbrake cable snaps does the button ping out so you know it's snapped
They don't have a cable, they have an activator on each rear wheel which releases automatically, if one failed the other would still hold.Vauxhall have a system with cables (I think Land Rover do as well, but it's been a while since I've worked on one)
Ved said:
I hear this from people with older cars which of course never ever broke down.
I've had my 1998 saab for 5 years and it's never broken down. It's done 50k in that time and cost me £500. My previous incarnations only failed for minor faults that I rectified at home. In 15 years or longer I've never had to pay a garage bill and the cars cost so little the cost of ownership is appx £100 a year. Old cars have a lot going for them so long as they weren't cheap crap in the first place.BoRED S2upid said:
Seats no but some have fancy witchcraft reverse parking assist or beeping when you divert out of your lane things like that would annoy me and would put me off. How much is fancy reverse parking computer going to cost if it went wrong?
Those functions will be in the BCM. The sensors themselves are very simple. And modules are generally very reliable. The thing that might go is the wiring between the two. You sound like a complete luddite tbh...
Fox- said:
ian316 said:
the electric handbrake is the most pointless thing I've ever seen, a cable and lever on a manual one fault finding is easy, the electric one on the other hand
It's simple, easy and effective. It's just a motor that winds the caliper in and out. Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff