QUESTION New Fords And Chassis Battery Disconnect

Some posters are perhaps comparing a new car to a 50-year old car. My new old cars ran for 100, 000+ miles. So they needed points and condensor. And a timing light. But if finally when they did start to have problems, I wasn't left stranded at some freeway restaurant deciding where in the list of 500, 000 I should start to look dor the reason the engine cranks but does not fire. I spent 5 days in San Cristobal de Las Casas, finding put why a newer car would not start. Local mechanics desperately wanted to start chopping, twisting and taping jumper wires. They hit a dog and the crash relay cutout malfunctioned. What a hoser. Normally they fail when a car is straddling raulroad tracks. PTTUEY!

I never said hot roding was dead even though the government using the automotive industry has tried to kill it
Just that it cost a lot more do it

Drop the gas tank open it up, just too replace a fuel pump
Kill your fuel mileage because voltage has dropped below threshold from the alternator

Do cars start easier yes
Do they get better mileage yes
are they more reliable ... not in my opinion
I see brand new cars ..This year's model..broke down..over heating..being towed etc..
And all the press about...stuck gas pedal car crashes, GM and their falling keys locked steering crashes..and.mass recalls like never seen before

Oh yeah cars are much more reliable....NOT

Ok.off my soap box..This rant brought to you free of charge :o

Ok maybe.... more reliable than cars from the 90's ...maybe
But certainly not more reliable than the 60s and 70s

It's a question of whether the car runs or not, DOWN HERE. Up there, a Sikorsky can cargo lift a car from Fumbuck North Dakota to a dealer. I guess this discussion hinges totally on whether or not a person can dash down to the corner and pay 50,000 pesos for a specialty device to repair a car that has spent 100,000 miles jumping from pothole to pothole.

Owner repairable. I have a Spirit that NO ONE can diagnose why the thermal switch on the radiator fan is defective. Yeah, six USA shops replaced relays, harnesses, connectors, sensors, the ECU. The whole freakin' enchilada with no success. Multiples of sensors. Multiples of ECU. No fan. Code? We don't got no steenking code on any OBD and the car is old enough to vote. The Dodge dealer in the USA had the car for 200 dollars and came up with zip.

So I am SUBSTITUTING an electronic thermal control system.

I love to see CPU alternator voltage regulator control. If the gauge had a needle the wear and tear would have had it falling off and falling to the bottom of the case. It hunts more than Davy Crockett ever did. They all do. Show me, PLEASE, a CPU an ECU voltage regulator that is STABLE.

Computers are fine. Computers have limits. Some of the limits have been exceeded by a laughable degree. Why does my car HAVE TO FREAKIN' GO OPEN LOOP, lose 4th gear, have loose bowels in the electronic fuel injection department, meaning lose 20% fuel economy if a steenking voltage regulator or alternator stops charging? This is insane grade engineering. Dunce cap mentality. And newer cars are WORSE. Computers are fine. Engineering while stoned isn't...

MEX, reliability between old and new cars has been proven ad nauseam. This is not up for debate nor anecdotal. New cars are an order of magnitude MORE reliable than old one's. AND they continue to get even MORE reliable. I never heard of thousands of parts needed for ECU troubleshooting. Sounds like a hack shop to me. My GM and previous Nissan's only require one portable piece of equipment for ECU code reading AND flashing. Both of those cars could be flashed in the parking lot. KJ, is most correct, parts substitution is long gone. Codes tell me exactly what's wrong with the car and if the description is cryptic, off to the internet I go. I fixed my thermostat and a sensor (both super cheap parts) with a simple code read and forum search (sensor required the search as I didn't know where that sensor was located).

PS - Yes the in tank fuel pump is PITA but cars have been running aftermarket performance in tank fuel pumps for 30 years now. There are SO many cars nowadays that can be modified WELL beyond stock performance its ridiculous. And a lot ot this can STILL be done by guys in their garages. How does a 1000hp 4 cylinder sound to you? There MANY in existence believe it or not. Hot rodding is definitely not dead or even close. IMO, it's better than ever.

Me - I will take an electrical part any day over a mechanical part for reliability. EFI systems come in many flavors, Throttle body, Speed density, Mass air, etc...... I have to agree a "code reader" is only a starting point, check out the Chrysler DRBIII tool or the YDS Yamaha tool they are NOT simple code readers. The proper tool for the job is needed. Agreed the standard code reader is of little use.

Parts substitution is a thing of the past - at least for me - buy only what is needed. get the job completed and move on

100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

More connections does not equal more reliability. This is a fundamentally basic statistical deviations formula.

What ECU and fuel injection offers is greatly improved fuel economy, better cold, hot, low, high altitude, and high humidity operation.

When things are running right...

Code readers are NOT a means to an end, period.

Been there, done that. Code reader offers a suggestion. From there it's parts substitution, then process of elimination and perhaps it's a connector gone bad. I've chased hundreds of phantoms where a code might read bad mass airflow sensor but in reality it turned out to be an oxidized throttle position sensor connector.

"Oh, seenyore parts department man, my XXXX Superpuker Turbo won't start. The OBD code reader says code E799. I need a left side O2 sensor".

(Dueno de Refraccionaria Parts Store Owner)

"Jajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajaja!"

"Como mas de un kilo de las Centenarios! (along with a few pounds of Mexican gold coins!)"

Saddle up the burro. Yesterday Martin was fooling around with a code reader on a malfunctioning car. The reader suggested ninety-nine different problems. I showed Martin how to do a cylinder balance test by disconnecting spark plug wires one-by-one and looking for the cylinder that did not drop RPM's. He found it. Number 3.

People are too caught up in this modern******for my taste. If it's simple, make it complicated, chant hocus pocus, and charge four times as much.

A GOOD ECU troubleshooting shop has, not an exaggeration, thousands of parts for substitutions when troubleshooting. Might as well search for an ICBM missile silo down here...

Awe..well I think the old stuff is easier, because it is straight forward, easier to reach, much less smog control, and much less plastic covering things up, and much less wiring, because there aren't 99 different sensors telling a cpu something is wrong
And you don't need to tweak, if your not performance tuning
And none of this damn fuel pump inside the gas tank crap..
I've hated that idea every since it came out
IMO.. there was only one reason to do that, stop people from using a stronger higher delivery pump, stop people from making performance mods
Make it more expensive and more difficult to modify your car

Yes, MrWiz, probably should be reversed there. See, I think the old stuff is harder cause you HAVE to tweak for it to run right. There isn't much tweaking on new stuff unless you've hacked your ECU. Most stuff nowadays is just drop in and go. There's even a big difference between my 2007 and my old 1992.

Example: I have a friend that is just as comfortable working on his 64 Mustang as he is on his 2010 Nissan GTR.

If making point, shouldn't that statement be reversed
It sounds like you made it backwards

The 64 mustang is a lot easier to work on

I know lots about the mustang and dip about the new Nissan

Should it say, he's just as comfortable working on the new as he is the old easy stuff

Mena

I'm in 100% agreement with you
Nothing more than an enhanced set of tools needed for the newer vehicles. Tools aka Toys for big boys
My DRBIII and YDS interface systems come in handy along with other tools
That said the old '72 Chevy Blazer keeps on ticking as well
Same story for the several Kubota Tractors around this place with the exception of the darn locking rear differentials