Posted by NCWayne on October 31, 2010 at 09:36:35 from (98.21.228.96):
Just reread the post below about choking an engine and all of the replies since I first saw the post the other day. It's funny to me reading how people think and feel about technology. Some think it's the greatest thing and some really don't like all of the advances that much. What's funny though is reading all of the excuses for the supposed advances made to everything....and knowing that when said advances cause problems those very same people making the excuses are the same ones cursing the cause of the problem.
Take for example the mass of wiring in vehicles mentioned below. Prime example, I talked to a guy yesterday that had an air conditioning problem in with his car. Turned out the problem wasn't the A/C system proper, but the car's main computer that controlled EVERYTHING, including the A/C. In an older vehicle without the computer the A/C system stands alone and about the only part that would cost you over $400 to replace would be the compressor. In his case a $400 plus computer was causing the problem, most likely because a 10 cent diode, etc went bad inside of it......and it wasn't repairable.... Tell me where that is a true technological advancement. Staying with the same system I worked on the boss man's truck the other week as his blower motor had quit working and he couldn't defrost the windshield. The only true advancement I saw was that to remove the blower all you had to do was bend a tab slightly and give it a quarter turn and it dropped out in your hand. As for the problem what used to be a pair of resister coils mounted inside the housing to give you three speeds had turned into a potted/doped/ or whatever you call it resister unit that had what appeared to be a relay built into it along with several other solid state components. All this to give you 6 speeds instead of just three... Funny thing when it burned up it tended to take the 7 pole female connector with it also by melting it along with the male connection to the resistor assembly as well as melting the wire coating several inches back into the main harness. This made a simple 2 minute resister swap out costing nearly $40 into a 45 minute repair because a new $80 connector assembly had to be spliced back into the main harness to complete the repair.
What you will rarely get anyone to admit is that beyond the EPA mandated crap causing some problems most technological advances are made because the consumer wants them. As for the EPA mess there is presently a lawsuit in Texas happening against CAT by several trucking companies who, from what I understood from the article I read, lost ALOT of money due to the emission related problems they were having with the '07 engines. You know the problems that you always hear about in the industry but you never hear the mfgs lay claim to..... Most other problems are caused by people wanting A/C units that will blow air a little warmer on one side of the cabin than the other, heated seats, electric mirrors, electric seat controls, electric latch releases, pushbutton start, keypad locks, electric windows, autodimming mirrors, auto headlights, auto wipers.....In other words auto this and auto that, electric this and electric that. What it all comes down to is people nowdays are spoiled....to lazy to roll down their windows manually, to lazy to turn on their own lights, to lazy to flip a knob on the mirror, to spoiled to have their butt get cold in the winter, to spoiled they have to have 1 million different seat positions and a seat that automatically adjusts to theim when it reads their key in the ignition, to spolied and lazy to stick a key in and turn the ignition when they can just keep it in their pocket and hit a button.......
It technology like that is your thing you can keep it. When your $100 window motor quits after a few years the hand crank in my '78 Jeep will still be working if I keep the gear lubed. When you have a wiring/computer problem with your car and have to spend an arm and a leg to get it towed I can still jump staight to the coil and jumper the post on the start solenoid and drive my Jeep home...
Now before I get slammed, yes I have owned newer vehicles and presently I do own vehicles from the late eighties with some of the above mentioned amenities and they have already caused me problems that I've had to spend money to fix. The reason I own them though is that I could buy something from that era to drive alot cheaper than I could a 'classic' vehicle from 10 or 20 years earlier that people didn't want to part with so easily or cheaply. Then having to spend moeny to fix something like a window that wouldn't roll down,etc is the very reason I can write this as I know the problems these things cause and the expense to repair, even doing it yourself as I do. The thing is auto this or that, electric this or that, the purpose of a vehicle is to get you from point A to point B and if it does that then it has done it's job. In my book if you break down on the way, the less complex the vehicle the simpler it is to do many repairs beside the road and get yourself moving again, at least temporarily, without spending money for a tow.....and not having to have it towed to a shop to have a $400 part changed out due to a bad 10 cent part soldered to a circuit board ought to be a good thing.....
Saddly the majority of problems with new technology is that the objects utilizing it simply don't last. Sure I see the mention of how long it was between engine rebuilds between engines in the 50's vs engines nowdays and in some cases that might be true. I do know that the old slow turning diesels in the older construction equipment will long outlive the engine in a new machine. Heck where OTR truck engines used to be rated at over a million miles the newer ones are lucky to get 700,000 miles. When you figure in that a new truck cost nearly $40,000 more than an older one did because of the newer emissions equipment plus added costs for upkeep over the years it is in service, what have you really gained. Vehicle, truck, tractor, whatever machine you choose, look around you sometime and see what the average age of the vehicles are and the shape their in. You'll see 40 plus year old cars, trucks, and tractors being restored and run every day. Thing is they were built good enough to last long enough to become 40 years old, and with enough common parts to still be rebildable and maintainable after that long. The newer stuff is built out of formed sheet metal and plastic with computers, that do everything, that are obsolete two or three years wown the road. With the older stuff a rod ball end and a rod, a cable, a mechanical latch, all of the parts that computers and wires replace nowdays, are still commonplace and are unlikely to ever be obsolete because it doesn't take some "rocket scientist" in a clean room, making $100 an hour, to make or repair them....it's something any 'shade tree' mechanic can do for himself....
In the end where has technology taken us? Technology for a real, viable reason is great. Technology for the sake of overcoming people's lazyness or spoiled nature is just a waste of resourses.........But that's just my humble opinion for what it's worth.....
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