Are cars to complicated?

[old'un]

Are cars getting to complicated for the local garage to repair? The wife’s Vauxhall Astra is 8 years old from new, she only uses it to pop to the shops or visit her mates or sister, it went in for an MOT this week and failed on one thing, the horn, according to the mechanic at my local garage its to-do with something called a CIM? on the steering column and Vauxhall want £700 to replace the whole column and sensor, apparently it’s a common fault and not repairable (according to Vauxhall) the car is still with my mechanic and he is going to see if he can repair it, if not, then it’s a £700 bill to get the horn working.

 

Or I might get one of these…..

 

[panoma1]

Beggar that! You could get a separate push button horn wired up for a fraction of that cost........unless anyone knows better? I don't think they need to operate in any specified way?..........As long as it works! 

Edited June 22, 2018 by panoma1

[wisdom]

34 minutes ago, panoma1 said:

Beggar that! You could get a separate push button horn wired up for a fraction of that cost........unless anyone knows better? I don't think they need to operate in any specified way?..........As long as it works! 

That's what I would do.Simple 2 wires through a push button.

[old'un]

Just had some good news, my mechanic as repaired the fault, took him two days to sort it and he’s only charging me £90 including the MOT, seems it was not the CIM, but bad earth on the steering column sensor, looks like the local garage as come good…

Before I got this good news I phoned Vauxhall and was told the recall on the faulty CIM units ended April 2018 and I would have to pay the full cost of repair, they were not interested in my pleas.

 

Edited June 22, 2018 by old'un

[greenergp]

Tell Vauxhall what they can do with thier cars, i had the same sort of problem with Volkswagen and i will never buy  a VW again, 2 weeks out of warranty and it was sorry that will be £500 for a known fault.

[markm]

Having already had a major fall out over moving headlights.....

 

I look forward to hearing how much these LED indicators cost to replace.

[johnnytheboy]

Just wait until they start driving themselves ?

[team tractor]

My vans stop start broke and it took 6 days to fix. Luckily it’s under warranty but I was annoyed.

[Stonepark]

15 hours ago, team tractor said:

My vans stop start broke and it took 6 days to fix. Luckily it’s under warranty but I was annoyed.

Get your local garage to disable it, whilst technically it saves fuel (cars use very little fuel at idle) , altenator , battery, starter etc all suffer instead.

[team tractor]

1 hour ago, Stonepark said:

Get your local garage to disable it, whilst technically it saves fuel (cars use very little fuel at idle) , altenator , battery, starter etc all suffer instead.

It’s illegal to do so. It’s emissions plus a nightmare to drive without . It’s not like a normal car without it as it delays starting .

my vans 14 months old so I’m covered under warranty 

[Walker570]

19 hours ago, team tractor said:

My vans stop start broke and it took 6 days to fix. Luckily it’s under warranty but I was annoyed.

My Landies stop start did that smack in the middle of a cross roads in Leicester but I just used an electrical connector to join the two pieces of throttle cable together . took but five minutes..still there and better than the original.

The windscreen washer on my Landie broke off, so I put in two lengths of plastic pipe running up each wi[per like we used to do back in the sixties on our rally cars. Flew through MOT...it put water on the screen better than the original.  Pleased they got it sorted, just shows it is better to deal with your local garage, they normally have the time and appreciate your business.

 

I am convinced that the modern highly technical nature of modern cars is to force you to go back to the dealer and destroy local independant garages.

Edited June 23, 2018 by Walker570

[yod dropper]

A creative and industrious person I know of had his Defender fail the MOT because it leaked oil.  His solution was to fashion and fix an aluminium tray under that area.  Pass.

[Walker570]

[Vince Green]

On ‎22‎/‎06‎/‎2018 at 22:47, team tractor said:

My vans stop start broke and it took 6 days to fix. Luckily it’s under warranty but I was annoyed.

Stop start chews through starter motors and eventually wears out the ring gear on the engine which is big £££ to get fixed, its an engine out and strip down job. It virtually renders the vehicle uneconomical to repair after its a few years old. Get it disconnected.

[dead eye alan]

The answer to the question is yes. Most of the gadgets are not required for safe and economicl driveing or for emissions, such as wipers or headlights that work on their own.

[wymberley]

8 minutes ago, dead eye alan said:

The answer to the question is yes. Most of the gadgets are not required for safe and economicl driveing or for emissions, such as wipers or headlights that work on their own.

+1

And you ain't seen nothing yet. If anything is going to go wrong, it'll be the electricals - the mechanicals will get you home if you're lucky. Give it a few years until there is no mechanicals and...............

[team tractor]

4 hours ago, Vince Green said:

Stop start chews through starter motors and eventually wears out the ring gear on the engine which is big £££ to get fixed, its an engine out and strip down job. It virtually renders the vehicle uneconomical to repair after its a few years old. Get it disconnected.

It’s illegal to do that .

[spot on]

the springer pup chewed the middle rear seat belt "an instant fail " my mechanic took it out ." you cant fail it if its not there ...BUT it is noted on the mot ADVISORIES " NO MIDDLE SEAT BELT FITTED hence car is now a 4 seater .

[Vince Green]

53 minutes ago, team tractor said:

It’s illegal to do that .

What law is it breaking?

[KFC]

I used to be reasonably handy with cars. I'd buy old £5-600 bangers and keep them going til scrap time then buy another.

Last year I decided I'd had enough, because a diagnostic kit is now as important as a socket set, and took advantage of my wife working in the NHS. We got a Duster Laureate on the salary-sacrifice lease scheme and a nice car it is too.

Because of the potential problems with starter motors etc then I do always flick the switch to disable stop/start when I drive it.

Every so often though the tyre pressure warning light comes on. Never anything wrong with the tyre pressures and it's easy to cancel but I carry the handbook in the glove box because of all the various computer controlled systems which can cause a light to come on which need interpreting.

 

[team tractor]

4 hours ago, Vince Green said:

What law is it breaking?

I wanted a split charger in mine but I’ve got to spend £400+ on one else the normal split chargers stop the stop start working. I said that’s fine but the company said it’s illegal as your not paying the correct emissions tax then and vosa can fine you . Checked it out and it’s true.

[old'un]

1 hour ago, team tractor said:

I wanted a split charger in mine but I’ve got to spend £400+ on one else the normal split chargers stop the stop start working. I said that’s fine but the company said it’s illegal as your not paying the correct emissions tax then and vosa can fine you . Checked it out and it’s true.

Well I can turn the stop start off by just pushing a button on the dash, so how does that work with emissions tax?

have you a link?

[mudpatten]

I drive an 02 plate Honda CRV which has just flown through it`s MOT my having done absolutely nothing to it, other than routine servicing, for 16 years. It`s mechanical reliability, build quality and longevity  is astonishing. Almost nothing on it however, is electronic/computer driven

My wife has a 4 year old Honda CRV which has had constant electrical/compter faults since shortly after she bough it.

Are modern cars too complicated? Damn sure thay are and the problem, as we`re finding with the wifes Honda, is that many of the electronic/computer faults are beyong fixing by either local garages or the main dealers. A fault in the main computer resulted in the removal of the radio/sat nav/phone bluetooth thing which had to be sent back to Japan.

Five weeks later, returned and replaced, and guess what? It still doesn`t work!

[team tractor]

11 minutes ago, old'un said:

Well I can turn the stop start off by just pushing a button on the dash, so how does that work with emissions tax?

have you a link?

Just look on the camper forums . Loads about it.

i can turn mine off on the dash but it’s temporary then restarts next journey. 

If im honest I like the thing . 

 

Im guessing theirs a difference between a dash board switch and permanent modifications. 

[Vince Green]

12 hours ago, mudpatten said:

I drive an 02 plate Honda CRV which has just flown through it`s MOT my having done absolutely nothing to it, other than routine servicing, for 16 years. It`s mechanical reliability, build quality and longevity  is astonishing. Almost nothing on it however, is electronic/computer driven

My wife has a 4 year old Honda CRV which has had constant electrical/compter faults since shortly after she bough it.

Are modern cars too complicated? Damn sure thay are and the problem, as we`re finding with the wifes Honda, is that many of the electronic/computer faults are beyong fixing by either local garages or the main dealers. A fault in the main computer resulted in the removal of the radio/sat nav/phone bluetooth thing which had to be sent back to Japan.

Five weeks later, returned and replaced, and guess what? It still doesn`t work!

There is a small company called Auto Solutions in Bonnersfield Lane in Harrow, run by a man called Ian Stevenson. He is an absolute legend for sorting out stuff like this. a one man band who has taken the trouble to read up all the manuals and learn how it all works. He's the sort of bloke who will spend his evenings trawling through the internet to find out how this sensor talks to that sensor and what goes on. He is a true boffin

The trouble is people like him are getting rarer,  the mechanics at most of the main agents are slightly worse than useless. As the complexity goes up the ability level goes down and down.

This is a true story, for a short while I had an Aston Martin DB9, when the clocks went back or forward by one hour I wanted to reset the clock but didn't know how to. Neither did the mechanic without going to ask somebody. It doesn't demonstrate a very high level of expertise.

Edited June 27, 2018 by Vince Green