suffolkpete wrote:I would agree up to a point, diagnostic software is available for popular applications. I was able to buy the diagnostic hardware and software for all Peugeots and Citroens from the mid 90s to the present quite cheaply. It doesn't help if you need to replace a large sub-assembly containing a lot of custom made electronics though. That's the reason you see so many sound looking cars in scrapyards. Corrosion isn't the reason any more, it's failure of an expensive electronic bit of kit.
Fair comment, but just as DIY enthusiasts learned to service and repair their cars in years gone by, so the newer generations of cars' owners can, and in many cases do, learn the skills required to repair those and keep them running reliably. Discrete components may seldom appear in today's ECUs but ICs are another example of modern technology becoming more and more affordable and repairing control units is also viable, the most difficult aspect of that task is often finding the right chemical to dissolve the unit's potting medium where one is in use.
The most recent ECU rebuild I've done was on the unit from a Rover 75 Diesel, a well-known source of trouble as a result of their location and the fact that they could be more waterproof. A replacement unit from a breaker would have cost around £40 tested and warranted (for a month
) which may well have been economically viable on the car in question as it is otherwise in perfect condition. However, the chips inside that box came to a grand total of €8 from a supplier in Germany that's always at least 50% cheaper than Maplin or Farnell, fitting them came to one hour of labour, charged at a mere £35 to the garage where the car had been taken by the RAC and the total cost charged to the customer by the garage was the hour's labour at their rate (£60) plus the parts at cost, meaning that the total came to less than it would have done had that used ECU been fitted, the work could be warranted for a full year (and should last a darned sight longer since I use real solder and make sure that the box can't leak) and the car survives.
Some cars will always end up at the breaker's and this has always been the way, but human beings are resourceful creatures so, as interest in a particular car grows and it suddenly becomes "classic", "retro chic" or just cheap and quite good to own, then there will be a bunch of people prepared to preserve the car and as interest develops, then techniques, materials and the will to do it suddenly appear.
Look at the real mini; it used to be, back when the car was relatively new, standard practice to remove the engine/gearbox unit to change the clutch, but one day, someone realised that in fact there was simply no need to do it that way and suddenly the labour cost fell from the thick end of a day to under an hour. This was reflected in the desirability of the car to the DIY enthusiast and the situation is similar with many of the soldering jobs that were previously thought unviable for the home repairer on more modern cars.
Yes, the 41st year exemption will - as the Tory party promised us way back in the mid '90s - be a rolling one, this is what the federations and the biggest multi-make UK-based car club are telling their members as a result of their being consulted during the decision making process. The only downside to this is that we can't vote for a coalition and neither of the present coalition's parties is likely to be elected so when we next have a change of political direction, then the rolling exemption could be halted yet again as a party that hasn't made the promise initially is under no obligation to maintain it and after all, who would sooner have the fiasco that is outwith the remit of this board than pay a little each year for their VED?
