Circuit City

I remember when I was around the age of 14, the hot rod fever hit me pretty quick and hard.  At the same time, I always had somewhat of an affinity for things electronic.  So when automakers began putting complex computer control systems in most vehicles around 1980 and 81, well, I guess it was just destiny I wound up doing this for a living. 

As mentioned before in this blog, there can be several reasons why a vehicle refuses to start.  Sometimes, they can be easy to find, sometimes not.  It's all a matter of clues.  Electrically astute readers will look at this photo above and identify pretty quickly the malfunction on this circuit board.  This board happens to control spark and fuel for a 90's era Mitsubishi.  This failure likely occurred due to poor battery maintenance.  (Mitsu controllers were sensitive to this) - See photo below for a closer look at the failure.

You can see one of the capacitors leaked electrolyte and caused a trace to trace short circuit which in turn, took out a clamping diode just above it.

Fortunately, controllers built these days are much more robust against failures such as this.  If the car you own was built after 97 or 98, this kind of thing is a rarity.  Here's a list of controllers and corresponding vehicle manufacturers replaced over the years myself

Ford 81-95 : 4 or 5 replaced

Ford 95-on : 1 (customer hooked battery backwards)

Chrysler 81-95 : 5 or 6 replaced

Chrysler 95-on : 1 (customer jumped started backwards)

GM 81-95 : Too many to count (really!) - Poor quality builds

GM 95-on : 1 (computer would not shift transmission)

Honda 81-on : zero

Toyota 81-on : zero

Nissan 81-95 : 1 - was stolen along with stereo (really!)

Nissan 95-on : zero

Mitsubishi 81-95 : 9 or 10 - for the same reasons in the photos

Mitsubishi 95-on : zero

As you can see.  Times have changed for the better.  Just as technology has changed our lives, it has changed our cars as well.  In the future, I will show some examples of how these changes play into the day to day operations of being an automotive technician.