I spent some of today* servicing my car. My car is fairly modern (1999), and *loaded* with sensors and ECUs.

Despite this, I was perfectly able to service it.

This made me think of this post, or more specifically the comment:

They decided to put chips in them and everyone got scared.

The thing is, there’s no reasson to be scared. All the developments have made things easier, at least for routine work. Take a mini. (A proper mini, not the BMW thing) One from say, 1980. Do the manufacturer’s service on it, and repeat every 6000 miles. Don’t forget your grease gun (hah! hardly anyone knows what one is these days!), a dwell meter, a timing light, feeler guages etc. Revel in adjusting points and valve clearances. This will take you a long time. It’s not hard, but there’s a lot to do.

Now contrast with a modern car. Change oil, change filters, check a few bits and pieces.

I’m only picking on the mini here because it’s the polar opposite of today’s cars. Designed in the fifties, still going (just) in 2000. I’m not suggesting the mini is inferior, just very very different.

This argument goes the other way when the fancy engine ECU goes mad though, and you need several hundred pounds worth of equipment to get a fault code out of it. Any halfway-decent (or even mediocre) spanner-monkey can fix the 1980 mini- it’s all very basic, proven stuff.

*actually, yesterday, as I’m really typing this on Sunday.