[ale] Time for this Grey Beard to stir up some stuff

[Solomon Peachy]

On Fri, Jul 23, 2021 at 04:45:16PM -0400, Steve Litt via Ale wrote:
> Most of the cars I drove were made before 1990, most had carburetors,
> and at least three had no semiconductors of any kind. The considerable
> probing diagnostics you said were required required were mostly
> preventive maintenance:
>
> * Replace the plugs if over 2 years old (gap the new ones)
> 	- Keep the old plugs for later diagnostics
> * Replace the points if over 2 years old
> * Replace the spark plug wires if over 2 years old

Cars made in the last decade or so routinely hit 100K before _any_
preventative maintainence (other than oil/filter changes) is recommended.

(Indeed, it's pretty easy to find 100K warranties today, but 40 years ago
 even 24K was unusual!)

> * Change your oil every 3000 miles

Routinely 5-10K with modern cars, though that's more due to use of 
high-grade synthetic oils. It's also routine to have no fixed interval, 
instead having the vehicle tell the operator when the oil needs changing 
(based on mileage, time, and/or severity of service)

> * Change your transmission fluid every 48K miles if automatic
>   transmission

Routinely closer to 100K, though it does of course depend on how badly 
one abuses it.

> * Look at your temperature gauge (not idiot light) every few minutes
> 	- Necessary on modern cars too

It's good practice to sweep the instrument cluster every so often, but 
realisticly, the temperature gauge isn't soemething you're going to 
specifically monitor unless you already know the vehicle has issues or 
you are giving it a serious thrashing.

(And it's also pretty easy to miss, which is why vehicles have routinely 
 had warning lights/chines for over-temperature situations.  At least as 
 far back as the late 60s)

> The preceding were usually between dead bang easy and pretty easy on
> those simple cars. And the plugs and points were cheap as hell, the
> wires were about 2-3 hours pay for a programmer. The preceding being
> finished:

You enumerate all of these things as if they are things that everyone 
should be expected to know as a matter of course, and have handy all of 
the tools needed to undertake these tasks.  Whereas, in reality, the 
overwhelming majority of folks, even when those cars were new-ish, did 
not have the knowledge/expertise or tools to handle this stuff 
themselves.  They'd take their car to a mechanic or work something out 
with someone they know who "knows how to fix cars,"

> As far as modern "excruciatingly detailed diagnostics", look up all the
> root causes possible for an PO420 OBD2 message. Careful you don't
> replace a fabulously expensive catalytic converter bank when the root
> cause is an upsteam O2 sensor, a downstream o2 sensor, an exhaust leak,
> an intake leak, a faulty ECU computer, or faulty wiring.

In other words, at worst one has to follow the same diagnostic process 
as was necessary with any pre-OBD car that failed emissions tests or was 
exhibiting some sort of driveline problems -- which for most folks is 
"take it to someone who knows how to fix cars" ....and hope they're 
honest.

 - Solomon
-- 
Solomon Peachy			      pizza at shaftnet dot org (email&xmpp)
                                      @pizza:shaftnet dot org   (matrix)
High Springs, FL                      speachy (libra.chat)
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