I Think I Don't Want These Computers in Cars Anymore

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Care to explain what this means? It makes no sense to me. Read it slowly. There is something missing.
You know those memes of people overloading or overworking their trucks? That's everyone here.
 
Again, you left at least one word out.
Me? I've towed with this one, I've had it loaded over the sides, I drove it as my work truck in construction for 15 years. I hauled loads of car parts from swap meets, junkyards and people's homes. I haven't abused it because I'm not an idiot. I care about taking care of what I own.
It does not snow here. The truck has zero rust anywhere and never will.

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It is a bit dirty but this is what a California vehicle looks like after 17 years. I have driven in snow when I've driven to the mountains but I live in the valley. I've commuted plenty in the rain though.
 
I've had over 2000 lbs. It is what we used to call a half ton.
Again, I'm not an idiot. I have a 3/4 ton truck that I use for dirty jobs that could also put it in harms way.


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I've had over 2000 lbs. It is what we used to call a half ton.
Again, I'm not an idiot. I have a 3/4 ton truck that I use for dirty jobs that could also put it in harms way.


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Double the weight here for 1/2 ton trucks or 1500 series. That's not the right thing to do but scenarios like that are the norm with truck users here, I see it everyday. Dents and rust everywhere and riding on the bump stops can be seen here if you look. It's pretty scary sometimes to think about and these mother eff's are contractors or employees of of contractors, or illegal.

This here is scary, look close at the bead.(Not mine)
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This truck I saw is such a pos, when I saw this I had to take a picture.
 
I don't think that I will ever understand why anyone chooses to live where it snows and gets that cold.
California is far from perfect but it sure is comfortable.
 
I don't think that I will ever understand why anyone chooses to live where it snows and gets that cold.
California is far from perfect but it sure is comfortable.
It's easy to find someone here that does snow plowing, even I do it on the side. That's how we make money when it's cold. If someone has enough plow account to stay busy for 8-12 hours of the day, then on a good season they can make big bucks.
 
Thanks. Money isn't that important to me. I could make big money as a gigolo but I can't bring myself to fake being interested or aroused.
If I'm uncomfortable, no amount of money makes it right for me.
 
I have a leased 2024 BMW M series. The idrive is very problematic/glitchy. There are no more buttons controlling anything, everything works off a touch screen. So when it freezes (often) you cannot control your climate settings among other things. The battery in the key fob died in the first couple of months and the car wouldn't start for my wife. It started when she held it up to the steering column. Brought it in for service because there are recalls that we were never informed off and it fixed nothing. Thankfully it nevers costs us anything.......except aggravation.
 
Driving home in my 94 Ford and noticed that my speedometer stopped working. Then also noticed the transmission not wanting to down shift at speed. Yup, both are related and it's probably a bad sensor or wire and the TCM has no idea what to do. Made it home in 2nd gear and now I need to go to the pharmacy to pick up my prescription. Guess what car I'm using now? Yup! An A body Mopar, just a good old 73 Dart with 1973 tech. No computers to tell my transmission what to do.

I'm starting to just want simplicity and mechanically easy to fix cars now. I'll even take Bosch K-jetronic mechanical injection again. Thank god for my wonderful working 73 Dart and it's slow 225 slant 6. Moving backwards now seems like moving forwards.

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Check your battery grounds. There are a few of them. Clean and reinstall them. I have this problem every couple years. The reason I keep a voltmeter with all my vehicles, to check grounds.
 
The best vehicle I've ever owned, that was easy to maintain, was great on gas, everyone loved it and it was a blast to drive in any weather was my 1970 VW Beetle. I don't need 500hp or 1000hp, or a tv screen to back up. If they ever built those versions again with some improvements my guess is the econo boxes would be sitting in the car lots with batteries draining.
I do like your Hood-prop.
 
Check your battery grounds. There are a few of them. Clean and reinstall them. I have this problem every couple years. The reason I keep a voltmeter with all my vehicles, to check grounds.
I fixed it already and posted it.
I have a leased 2024 BMW M series. The idrive is very problematic/glitchy. There are no more buttons controlling anything, everything works off a touch screen. So when it freezes (often) you cannot control your climate settings among other things. The battery in the key fob died in the first couple of months and the car wouldn't start for my wife. It started when she held it up to the steering column. Brought it in for service because there are recalls that we were never informed off and it fixed nothing. Thankfully it nevers costs us anything.......except aggravation.
That sucks lol. This is the kind of stuff I don't want to deal with. These cars that have like most of the functions controlled via a touch screen or a electric switch for the gear selector are major problems waiting to happen.
 
Very true, I tried to tell them to get rid of that Equinox long ago, but dimwit is adamant that he knows all. The same evening that the thing died, he's telling me on the phone that he was at the local Chevrolet dealership that afternoon and while there a nearly identical Equinox came in on trade. Oh but it belonged to a relative of an employee so the dealership knows the car and its been looked after, blah blah blah, how many people have fallen for that line of bullshit. Why would you buy another pile of crap like the one that just screwed you? I don't get it.
Well, I talked to them on the phone this afternoon, and no surprise, they made an offer on that first thing he saw, another Equinox. Whatever.
 
I guess my point was that they come with some benefits, and if you don't want them then be ready to give those up.
I wish you could. No one makes a simple car anymore. Too bad. I'll bet people would buy a simple no computer car if one was made. Knowing our Gov. they probably would not let that happen.
 
I don't think that I will ever understand why anyone chooses to live where it snows and gets that cold.
California is far from perfect but it sure is comfortable.
Here Boston suburbs. Near the city lots to do, very Historical, beautiful beaches like Glouster, Rockport Cae Cod, New Hampshire and Maine coastline (countless beaches). Crystal clear lakes and streams, gorgeous Mountains (Appalachian trail) Some of the best and freshest seafoods you'll ever have. 4 Seasons all of which are awesome when your young and sometimes aggravating when older. Downfall now is too expensive to stay for retirement. As for winters? Hockey, skiing, snowmobiling, Ice fishing, Ever winter camp? Awesome.
Lastly Bruins, Redsox, Patriots, Celtics.
 
There is too much technology just for the sake of technology mindset in engineering. Most is consumer driven as people mostly women want more bells and whistels
 
While I agree with the no computer thing as a general idea, there are some benefits to them as people have already pointed out.

I think the thing people I know, are mostly complaining about the architecture of the systems as a whole. Everything is designed to be modular, just like any computerized system used in automation etc. Each component communicates on it's respective bus back to the core. Understanding the architecture for a particlular vehicle can make diagnosing electrical problems dead simple for those in the know. To be clear, I am NOT in the know lol, but my son is and he's very good at doing the diagnosis (he's a Chrysler tech). Hey can usually figure out what's wrong in well under an hour because he understands what the scan tells him as well as what it doesn't.

The biggest problem with them in my opinion is the lack of and open data model. While there are standards (OBD, OBD2 etc), there are fields in the data format reserved for manufacturer use for platform specific codes and they don't like to share them etc.

Being an open source kind of guy, that irks the **** out of me.

At the end of the day, at some point I feel like pulling the trigger and finding an old d100 short bed to drive around in and be done with it. All I really need is a good A/C system. lol.
 
Here Boston suburbs. Near the city lots to do, very Historical, beautiful beaches like Glouster, Rockport Cae Cod, New Hampshire and Maine coastline (countless beaches). Crystal clear lakes and streams, gorgeous Mountains (Appalachian trail) Some of the best and freshest seafoods you'll ever have. 4 Seasons all of which are awesome when your young and sometimes aggravating when older. Downfall now is too expensive to stay for retirement. As for winters? Hockey, skiing, snowmobiling, Ice fishing, Ever winter camp? Awesome.
Lastly Bruins, Redsox, Patriots, Celtics.
If you like that stuff, that is great.
I never cared for seafood. I don't like to be cold, camping isn't my thing and I'd rather play a sport than watch it.
 
While I agree with the no computer thing as a general idea, there are some benefits to them as people have already pointed out.

I think the thing people I know, are mostly complaining about the architecture of the systems as a whole. Everything is designed to be modular, just like any computerized system used in automation etc. Each component communicates on it's respective bus back to the core. Understanding the architecture for a particlular vehicle can make diagnosing electrical problems dead simple for those in the know. To be clear, I am NOT in the know lol, but my son is and he's very good at doing the diagnosis (he's a Chrysler tech). Hey can usually figure out what's wrong in well under an hour because he understands what the scan tells him as well as what it doesn't.

The biggest problem with them in my opinion is the lack of and open data model. While there are standards (OBD, OBD2 etc), there are fields in the data format reserved for manufacturer use for platform specific codes and they don't like to share them etc.

Being an open source kind of guy, that irks the **** out of me.

At the end of the day, at some point I feel like pulling the trigger and finding an old d100 short bed to drive around in and be done with it. All I really need is a good A/C system. lol.
All I want is a pre 80's w-100or 150 Need 4 wheel drive , have to pull 30 t0 40 cars up out of my driveway every winter
 
Pre-OBDII cars are much harder to diagnose. As the cars get newer, the self diagnostic gets more advanced.

Gotten a little bit ridiculous lately with the gagets, however saying you're better off with a carb car, meaning that you won't have to work on it at all is kinda funny honestly.

I know a family that drives a lot of miles, they had an 04 Accord with 435k that they bought new and never had an engine/transmission rebuild or replacement, they currently own an 07 Accord that's over 380k with the same. They just change the oil and if its really broken it gets fixed. Nevermind the just massive amounts of other Hondas/Toyotas and all brands of pickups in the 200k+ range let alone in the 300's. My friend has a 96 K2500 Chevy with 251k on it, original engine runs like a top - and it has a 5-speed we just put an input shaft in due to the roller pilot bearing failing. Real original otherwise. Even newer cars I see Rav4s and Camrys with or without Hybrid in the 400k range often.

If you are a mopar or no car guy then there aren't many models that are really known for high mileage. They've built a lot of subpar stuff the last 40 years.

Would be rare/near impossible to go this type of mileage in an A-body with a carb without an overhaul of the engine or transmission, let alone not rebuilding or messing with the carb.

Right now, and I know this is going to sound counter-intuitive to some, if you buy a new vehicle, buy a Toyota or Ford Hybrid with either company's 2.5 engine attached to it and you'll just sing past 200k so long as you change the oil. Watch a video about the "Transmission" that's there which can basically be better described as a torque splitting device than a CVT. For normal use they're keeping the fuel consumption low so you can enjoy your classic.
 
My BIL's wife has an accord with 400K on it.
Drives fine but literally every sensor that can display a code on the dash is malfunctioning.
It's like Christmas riding with her.

My '15 Renegade just turned 109K and thankfully the only sensor issue is a "license light out" warning that's wrong.

I take that back...one of the TPS monitors failed and I had to outsmart the car to figure out which one.
Whoever programmed that system is an idiot.
When one sensor goes, it disables the input to the screen from all of them.
...but the car still knows the pressures and location of the other three.
Sure would have been a LOT easier to find the bad one if I could have seen the readouts of the three that were still working.
Instead, I had to systematically reduce the pressure in all the tires, one at a time, and wait for it to tell me which one was low (but not display the actual pressure).
When I got to the one that was faulty, I got no warning.
BTW- they say "not serviceable", but that's not true.
They have 2032 or similar watch batteries inside.
 
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Yeah so 400k is 2 design lifes for a car, so regardless of if its lit up (Sensors can be replaced and they usually aren't too bad), the car still works. Testimate to the design of the car.

Electrical systems on anything TIPM days or newer at Chrysler can be a nightmare as they are generally riddled with faults so that doesn't shock me.

Usually they flash a message up and then you can hit whatever the equivalent of set/clear and it would show you the normal screen. I have only seen the TPMS failure in a GM car. From a practical standpoint 99% of people don't have any way to get the TPMS sensor out of the tire on their own, so they take it to someone with a tire machine and they wing a new sensor in it, re-inflate the tire and send you on your way. Taking it apart to change the battery (some are overmoulded anyway) probably isn't worth the labor to parts savings. Shops are probably paying $12-15 for the parts for that which in a lot of places is ~10 min of labor.
 
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