I think it may be lost forever …
(Waiting on a delivery from Ford, apparently)
I went to pick up my van as 'fixed' last Wednesday and (much to the mechanic's embarrassment) the engine management light lit up when I started it. It seems to be a problem with the electrics, but they are stumped as to what.
Reading up online it could be myriad things that are wrong, and it's not like I can make them find out what more quickly. It's been with them almost a month now. So what to do?
A month to the day after leaving it with them, my van has finally been fixed: Corrosion on some ECU pins, apparently. Giving credit where it's due, they properly diagnosed things rather than simply replacing components because the computer told them they were faulty. The only part needing paying for was an unrelated bolt they noticed was missing, the rest of the invoice was solely for labour.
@pete@masto.hypertelia.com It's a problem on older vans, for sure.
Until last year I owned a VW Transporter that gave me christmas tree vibes as we were setting off one-time for a camping trip... DSG fault, Diff Lock fault, 4wd system failure and some utterly pant-wetting noises coming from underneath.
No idea how now, but I traced it back to a connector block in a rear quarterpanel which felt worringly damp. I dried it with a heat gun then split the connector to find tonnes of corrosion on the pins. Had to buy some weird things that looked like a combination between tweezers and a nail file... but a few moments of scrubbing per pin cleaned them right up.
Clipped it back together and started the van... no lights and everything was back to normal. It ran fine for the next 8 months or so till I sold the van.
@Fishd@infosec.exchange Good work! They do seem a nightmare to work on, this is a Transit Custom. The bloke was saying that modern vehicles have something like 5 miles of wiring which they make as thin a gauge as they can get away with to keep weight down, which then means they burn through double-quick if there's any issue that causes a heat build up. I'll stick to tinkering with bikes.
@pete@masto.hypertelia.com He's right about the wiring though. Saves them a fortune and costs us the earth.
@pete@masto.hypertelia.com The thing that bewilders me is, all of this wiring is to support a few dozen little devices that monitor and control various other bits and bobs ... yet when you take it to a garage and say "this light came on" they usually end up saying something like "well, it's not on right now so I don't know what to say"
I had an argument once in BMW about a Mini I briefly owned ... "the light was turned on by a computer. The computer turned it on because a sensor told it something was wrong. Plug in a laptop and ask the computer what sensor it was" ... he was stunned.
I also ended up with a VCDS device that allowed me to plug into VW group vehicles and query them from my laptop. Just about the best £200 I ever spent. Want comfort opening on your electric windows? No problem. Want to change the way your indicators flash? Sure thing. No paying the stealership for every change.
Pete