Diagnosing and replacing a car battery is no big deal,
but I learnt a very valuable lesson that I want to share with other car owners.
And that is ...
Don't be fooled by technology
(Sensors, ECU fault codes displayed on your dashboard, car diagnostic scanners etc)
and don't let someone use technology to fool you.
Yesterday after driving for 20 minutes, I parked the car and waited for about 15 minutes,
and when it was time to leave, the car wouldn't start.
When I turned the ignition on, the ECU showed me several faults
With 8 years experience owning 2 Audis I knew it was impossible to have so many faults
I did a scan using my gadget and app
No fault codes, even though the display on the dashboard shows me there are faults
I suspected a dying battery, as the headlights would come on,
flicker and go off in a few seconds.
The horn worked, so did many other electrical components.
But this is where many get fooled, and get their cars towed to a service center.
I ignored the towing suggestions of others, and asked for the battery to checked first.
Got the car jump started.
The ECU still showed me faults, but fewer faults like
electronic stabilization control, brake fault, steering malfunction etc.
All of these would scare anyone into towing their car to the service center
☺
But I wanted to know the source of the problem
Got a detailed battery report for FREE
Clearly, the battery was dying, and not powerful enough to start the car
Confirmed that the charging system was good
Got a new battery
No faults on the dashboard
Common sense stuff I learnt:
1) The faults that the ECU displays on your dashboard can mislead the owner
to take their car to a service center
and you could end up repairing or replacing parts that have actually NOT failed.
This can be time consuming and very expensive!
2) The more technologically advanced a car is, the more sensors it will have.
And several components like the throttle pedal,
use sensors that are highly sensitive to tiny voltage fluctuations.
So a dying battery could trigger a malfunction in any voltage-sensitive sensor,
the sensor will send signals to the ECU saying there is a malfunction in that component,
the ECU will send signals to the dashboard to you and me,
saying something terrible is wrong with your car.
Once again, don't be fooled by technology,
and don't let someone like a technician with a computer,
use technology to fool you
☺
I have 2 suggestions for car manufacturers:
1) Instead of the Owners manual that is provided in a book form,
provide a tablet with diagnostics software.
This will be more useful and it will also occupy less pace in the so called "glove" compartment.
2) On the dashboard, provide a digital battery indicator that shows battery usage,
just like what we all have on our phones
No comments:
Post a Comment