Too Simple To Figure Out Dept...!?!

Had the same blend door problem on my 2001 f150. Proper fix is to remove the dash to get at it. I ended up just carving a wooden dowel to the "D" shaped shaft that moves the door to hot or cold. Put a spring on it and in summer spring holds to cold side. Winter the spring is reattached to hold in hot position, been working that way for more than 12 years.

Some things should not be, for example, using a Ford spec'ed window lift motor normally found in an enclosed space that is designed to remain dry in all sorts of weather in a space that is inherently wet just from it's location.

My wife's 2002 Ford Explorer XLT was driven over 265000 miles with out a window lift motor failure,the super dooper electronic blend door mechanism in both the front and rear HVAC systems failed, repair for the front at a reliable shop $1500, the rear failed after less than 5 years and was $625 to repair(there are only three screws to R&R and one wire connector). I have never had a mechanical blend door failure in a vehicle with an armored steel wire control cable operated from the dash. Stuck once in awhile but a little oil and they would work for another five years.

Technology is great and I'm sure provides great savings just by existing. But look at a receipt for dinner at your favorite restaurant, 6 or 8 inches long just to total 4 or 5 numbers. How big were they when they were hand written? And when I use a credit card, I get three of them, one to sign, one to keep and one that is the itemized list of our order.

K.I.S.S. is still a great business plan.

Yes DrewE that is exactly the point. When I built the BORG I had to muck my way through hundreds of points. I insisted on reliability. Therefore incandescent and fluorescent pilot lamps were chucked in favor of LED.

Wind up Intermatic Timers are found in gas station bathrooms because of their reliability. Thousands of cycles are shrugged off. A cam over mil spec snap action selector switch will last three lifetimes. Same with the premium rotary 10 turn potentiometers.

Finally inside the Megawatts upgrading to Panasonic capacitors and 80 ampere 200 volt Schottky diodes over 20-amp 100 volt originals makes all the durability difference in the world. Improving fan flow by 200% is the final kicker. PROOF? Seven years 24/7 flawless operation.

When my thirteen hundred dollar Norcold cost me more than a thousand dollars just to access warranty repairs and a Norcold factory tech spent more than a week scratching his A$S trying to figure out why the unit and two new cooling units had intermittent plus continuous other continuous problems -- it was the end of the line. The Danforth compressors have been flawless for 26 years. I tend to get cranky when a 1957 Servel refrigerator operated flawlessly for six years but a 1992 Norcold was a failure. The Servel definitely needed air circulation enhancement inside the Vestfrosts do not.

The Atwood 10 gallon MANUAL hot water heater has never failed to light with a match. Heaters are sort of exempt as I do not have a basement and all the plumbing I have is buried deep in insulation. I chickened out of cold weather.

20 years. no heater, no AC, no refrigerator, no hot water control malfunctions. Because everything is manual. ZERO repair cost, zero driving to a repair warranty station, no lost days, no lost hours -- ever since I wised up to the zoo of automatic system control.

Like I mentioned, look at the list of forum topics. I meet travelers who chuckle and reveal they too have chosen to retrograde to the land of arising from the recliner and getting the job done manually. You should see the failure rate of some of that electronic hoo-hah down here after rough roads and Mexican campground power gets through with it.

Interesting...computerized engine management units are not lazy living, but electronic fridge management units and digital furnace management units are. I'm afraid I don't see the obvious differences, other than Mex likes one but not the other.

For what it's worth, the digital thermostat I installed in my RV works much better and more reliably than the analog one it replaced. It doesn't short cycle, it maintains the temperature more precisely, and it's easier to read what it's set to and harder to knock off whatever setting you want. The electronic fridge controls have given me not one hint of trouble; when turned on, it keeps the temperature of the fridge and freezer correct, whether I have 120V power or not. The electronic ignition on the water heater has likewise been trouble-free for me. The power entrance step has needed some cleaning as it tends to get mucked up with crud from time to time, but at least it's stable even if the ground underneath isn't perfectly flat.

I wonder if perhaps some here are comparing cheap, poorly designed and constructed electronics with well-designed and well-built non-electronic equivalents. The difference isn't in the electronic vs. non-electronic nature; it's in the cheap vs. not cheap nature. There are a lot of crummy electronic gizmos out there to be sure.

My 1986 GMC started at -30F first click. The trick was to use DELCO glow plugs and No 1 diesel = to today's ULSD.

Engine management systems Engine control units are not "lazy living", can you differentiate? Nor are life saving airbags, CO detectors, backup cameras, or geopositioning devices.

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BB_TX wrote:
Yeah, like cars and trucks. In “the old days” if your car developed a miss you spent a few dollars and an hour changing the points and plugs. And you could sit on the fender with your feet inside the engine compartment while doing it.
Now you need a computerized diagnostic analyzer to quiz the vehicle computer for idas about what might be the problem and what might be the fix. And when you open the hood you might be able to see part of the actual engine.

Still new cars are better..
My 08 Silverado starts at -30 on first click without even using block heater.
And 100 $ code reader tells you exactly whats wrong if anything..
My biggest repair in all these years was 150$ air bag sensor..

There's another nasty trend starting. I was reading some tech literature for a new Mercedes 7-speed automatic, the one used in the Sprinter with 4 cylinder diesel engine. The transmission computer is inside the tranny case, not a new development. What's new is that the transmission is VIN-locked to the vehicle. Not even the dealer can change it. This makes it impossible to swap in a used transmission and/or transmission computer. Must buy a new or reman transmission from Mercedes.

Our Edge had a problem this spring. The computer that controls the rear hatch malfunctioned and would drain the battery in about 8 hours in addition to not allowing the hatch to open.
Why does at rear hatch on a car require a computer to operate it? Needlessly complex.
Ford replaced the computer, and the battery after enough complaining. But the cost of that had to get covered somehow. $.01 on every 2019 Ford I guess.

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
With a lighter.

A lit stick (from a fire started by rubbing sticks or lightning ...) seems more appropriate.

I first saw this coming in 1993 when a word processing program cost three hundred dollars and ninety nine percent of it was horrendously complicated needless **** When WORD came along it was much faster on the same computer.

The thing is WARRANTY ISSUES cause car and RV manufacturers to up new unit prices by a bunch.

Would you like your new water heater to come with Alexa or outdated Bluetooth control? Did I hear the snap of ears perking up?