Progress?

[redsturgeon]

My 2016 BMW had a power steering failure a month ago. It was diagnosed as a failure of the power unit in the steering rack. Whole new steering rack required and ordered from Germany. Just fitted today and I have my car back as good as new. 30 days of a replacement car being charged to BMW at £65 per day plus parts and labour...possibly a £3000 total bill!

My 1999 Mercedes ML had a power steering failure yesterday, a belt had snapped...£19 for a new one. Five minutes for me to fit.

John

[sg31]

Maybe technology has gone too far, increasing sophistication just means more expensive repairs.

My Mercedes is about 4 years old, it has developed an intermittent fault with the wipers, the switch doesn't control the wipers as it should, turn them on and sometimes they won't start, when you turn them off they keep going, sometimes on normal wipe speed they will go into fast speed even though it's not raining fast. In short generally unpredictable operation of wipers and an intermittent fault.

I took it in to a automotive electrician expecting a new switch to be fitted. That was my first mistake, they couldn't find the fault, the wipers were working fine.....yes it's an intermittent fault. It could be the rain sensor, it could be the wiper motor, the stalk or the CAB unit. Ball park figures for these items. rain sensor £50 -£120, motor £150-£250, stalk £200, CAB unit, £600-£1300.

I've got an after market warranty on the vehicle so I shouldn't end up paying personally but when did wipers get so expensive. Why is intermittent wipe so essential, it wasn't that much of a problem flicking the switch on and off if there was light rain, I never even noticed I was doing it.

I hanker after a simple car with not much to go wrong, no computers or gizmos just simple basic engineering. Morris 1000, Landrover or the like. Even the Landie is all sophisticated these days.

What is the simplest car on the road?

[redsturgeon]

What is the simplest car on the road?

http://us.caterhamcars.com/cars/seven-270

John

[bungeejumper]

I've got an after market warranty on the vehicle so I shouldn't end up paying personally but when did wipers get so expensive. Why is intermittent wipe so essential, it wasn't that much of a problem flicking the switch on and off if there was light rain, I never even noticed I was doing it?

I doubt that there's a car on the road that doesn't have intermittent wipe. Simple, reliable, cheap. Where it gets complicated is that Mercedes have hooked it all up to a magic sensor on your windscreen that introduces a whole new range of opportunities for errors to occur.

Why, I bet you've already broken the terms of your user agreement in any number of ways. You've left that rain sensor out in frost conditions, haven't you? You've used a cheapo brand of windscreen wash that's mangled its sensitive little circuits and scrambled its little brain. But most of all, you've been driving in the wrong kind of rain. Shame on you.

A Morris 1000? A nice idea, as long as you could get one with power steering, ABS braking and a heater. A radio would be nice as well. And nipping outside to top up the carburettor dashpots with oil once a week would bring you nearly as much pleasure as dismantling and re-greasing the leaf springs at regular intervals. Oh, for the long lost joys of simple motoring.

BJ

[sg31]

What is the simplest car on the road?

http://us.caterhamcars.com/cars/seven-270

John

With my back? I wouldn't be able to get in it and if I did I wouldn't get out again.