For people buying busses

[Zephod]

Right now you can get busses devoid of electronic crap. I'm not a fan of any of this electronic crap they like to cram into engines these days.

As an example, in my daily life I drive an Xterra. In the 11 years I've had and driven this car, the things that have failed have been the crappy electrical garbage...

Windscreen washer pump
Fuel level sensor
Oil pressure sensor
Cam shaft sensor

The only guys in town with a cam shaft sensor were the flaming dealers. By the time I was out of there, they had had to be told very firmly no to a whole shopping list they wanted to do. One other customer had walked out when they'd tried a shopping list on him.

My eventual cost $329 for a $1.28 Hall effect sensor in a fancy plastic mount!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[CrabbyMilton]

Well unless you want to walk or buy a horse and buggy, electrical components on vehicles have been the norm just about forever now. I don't know what the problem is why some people have so much trouble with certain vehicles but I have had next to no trouble electrical and electronic areas and I've had mine since new in '04 and now has 156000.

[Oonrahnjay]

Well unless you want to walk or buy a horse and buggy, electrical components on vehicles have been the norm just about forever now. I don't know what the problem is why some people have so much trouble with certain vehicles but I have had next to no trouble electrical and electronic areas and I've had mine since new in '04 and now has 156000. 

      Ditto on my '03 TDi Jetta with 440K miles.  Of course, the ventilation system that I rigged up so I didn't have to use the A/C -- using boat extractor fans and computer pancakes -- has had to have brushes replaced in the motors a few times, but that's not "electronic"!
      YMMV!

[Ed Hackenbruch]

Just last year i bought a 92 Ford Ranger....first time that i bought anything newer than the 1980s. In another decade or two maybe i will buy something from this century. 

[j.m.jackson]

I daily drive a 1988 International S1654 MDT. 7.3L IDI diesel. No electronics on it other than the alternator. Trouble free driving, for sure. But like everything you have to maintain it. I've replaced the water pump and fan clutch in the past 10k. Also have to keep antifreeze SCAs up or the cylinder walls will develop pinholes into the water jacket, and the block will be junk. Also have to keep an eye on glow plugs as ether is a no-no, and know that you're going to need an injection pump and injectors every 100k miles. Those are the breaks, but they are known.

Now, to be fair, I drive things until the wheels fall off. My DD International has 207k (retired uhaul), my wife's '02 suburban has what, 225k, and the 5303 has who knows how many miles on it. I just retired a '99 tahoe with 249k, blown head gaskets.

[Zephod]

I daily drive a 1988 International S1654 MDT. 7.3L IDI diesel. No electronics on it other than the alternator. Trouble free driving, for sure.

I drive daily a Thomas (freighter chassis) and the electronics have glitches whereby fir no reason all the lights on the switch console will flash on fir half a second.

The led tail lights are terrible - always having to be replaced


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[j.m.jackson]

Those are quality issues. When people buy from the lowest bidder (chinese), I'm not sure what they are expecting. Especially on the solid state LED devices, the LED almost never dies (unless it's overdriven for brightness). It's the PCB and solder. Also, the RHoS regs that look the Pb out of solder didn't help either.

[luvrbus]

Lol I see buses and trucks with a million miles on electronic engines and never had problem 95% of the problems that do accrue are owners fault that have made some modification or wash the engine on a regular basis but it can be frustrating chasing a bad wire BTDT    

[Zephod]

Those are quality issues. When people buy from the lowest bidder (chinese), I'm not sure what they are expecting. Especially on the solid state LED devices, the LED almost never dies (unless it's overdriven for brightness). It's the PCB and solder. Also, the RHoS regs that look the Pb out of solder didn't help either.

I know my school district buys parts only through approved suppliers. They don't buy dodgy parts off eBay.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Zephod]

Lol I see buses and trucks with a million miles and never had problem 95% of the problems that do accrue are owners fault that have made some modification or wash the engine on a regular basis but it can be frustrating chasing a bad wire BTDT   

I never ever had problems with my older non electronic vehicles... my Bedford HA, my Suzuki Alto FX (1983) etc


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[j.m.jackson]

You think their suppliers aren't getting the stuff from China?

Look and see if you can see who made those lights on the back of your service bus that give you problems, it should be stamped in the plastic on the outside.

[CrabbyMilton]

You can bash China all you want and I won't stand in your way and will applaud. However, at times you have to take the perspective from the masses who don't care where their stuff comes from just so long as it's there in front of their face.
It does fly in the face of logic that well established companies elect to use crappy suppliers, put their name on the product, and then are surprised that they have PO'd customers. Can't really say it's greed since you can't make money if nobody is buying your product and the factory closes because everybody knows you stink.
Then you have a company like BCI. Looked like a beautiful coach but horrible quality. Then they say that the Chinese are supposed to be such brilliant people and come up with crap like that.

[richard5933]

Older vehicles have fewer problems with electronics because they have fewer electronics. Pretty simple.

Of course, having fewer electronics means that there are fewer of the convenience features that many people have come to expect.

Personally, I am okay with our 1964 PD4106 and its mechanical electrical system. The other half, of course, is somewhat difficult to keep happy when we're surrounded at parks and campgrounds by all the RVs with the latest and greatest toys and automated systems.

Having a vehicle with no electronics is no guarantee of problem-free driving though. My '84 step van is built with a Grumman body on a Ford chassis and has no electronics, no PCBs, and no computer chips. That said, my first year with it was plagued by constant problems with the electrical system due to corroded and worn contacts, terminals, relays, etc. With no on-board diagnostics the process to repair was purely one of hide-and-seek looking for problems. Took the better part of a year to get all the bugs worked out and for all the gauges and lights to work properly. My 4106 is doing better, but there has still been a fair amount of seeking out electrical problems.

And, when you have a vehicle with no electronics there is always the added time necessary for manual adjusting and calibrating - things an electronic system can auto correct on the fly like adjusting the combustion for altitude and oxygen content. Kind of six of one vs half dozen of the other...

Regarding electrical parts made in China...they don't have the market cornered on badly made parts. Has anyone ever owned a vehicle with Lucas electric parts on it?

Richard

[akroyaleagle]

My Eagle is non DDEC. I wish it had that.

When you are dealing with a 6.5mpg engine versus 9mpg (or better) it's like spending money for rear end changes, probably not worth it for the miles most put on their conversions. If you have a fleet of commercial vehicles a .5mpg improvement in fuel costs adds up pretty nicely at the end of the year.

Mechanics with much knowledge of DD two strokes is like finding repairmen for intergalactic vehicles, there aren't many of them. There are a lot of whiz kids that can plug in a cord and quickly pinpoint a problem.

I too never bought new vehicles. The last new pickup I bought was a 05 extended cab Silverado 4x4, best fuel mileage at 65mph was 17.5mpg. I bought a lightly used demonstrator 14 High Country crew cab 4x4. Best fuel mileage was about 20mpg. This year I bought a new 17 High Country Crew cab 4x4 that gets 24.5 routinely at 80mph, (The new speed limit in South Dakota) The best ever on a fuel tank load was 31.5!

All of these were 1500s. The 05 had the 4.8 liter v8. The two Hi Countrys have 5.3 liters.

Electronics enable my new truck to operate as a v4 when v8 is not needed. The only indication of whether it is operating as v4 or v8 is the little indicator in the dash panel changes. There is no sound, power or other indication either direction.

Electronics! Any questions?

[Zephod]

The more links in a chain, the greater the chance of having a link fail.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk