I would like to know where you got the information that a Model A Ford had no oil pan. I absolutely will not accept that as a true statement without a link to some irrefutable source. Hell, the model T had an oil pan and it predated the model A by quite a while. Why would Ford stop using something as basic as an oil pan? On the dirt roads common in the era of model A Fords, I doubt that an engine without an oil pan would survive a ten mile drive.
Plus, speaking as a 1960s-1970s era factory-trained Volkswagen mechanic, I can assure you that Volkswagens with air cooled engines often had air conditioners. Volkswagen dealers sold them as after market accesories. I have installed quite a few of them myself and have serviced many more. A radiator is NOT required for air conditioning—does your home air conditioner require a radiator?
According to this site, the next rev of the BMW 7-series, due in mid/late 2001, will have brake-by-wire technology.
One hopes the software controlling this wasn’t written by Microsoft – the 7-series weighs over 4000 pounds, so it could cause a lot of damage if it hits something.
I probably have the model wrong, but the early cars had no oil pan because they had no oil pump. I obtained the information from a very rare book shown to me by an elderly man on the repair and servicing of the early cars. He was old enough to have been born in the 1890s. It described the automatic oiler and showed pictures of several types. They had the bottom of the motor sealed with a cover.
A/C.
Right. I was thinking of the condenser in front of most radiators, air cooled and the compressor powered by the engine. I totally forgot that an electric fan could serve the purpose. I’ve not looked into a VW in years, so I’m unaware if they have gone to a water jacket or not, recalling how one of their biggest selling points was the air cooled engine.
From my Vanagon experience, I believe that VW diesels have always been water-cooled and that they stopped producing air-cooled gas engines around 1983.
If the rear wheel brakes grabbed first, the brakes in question were horribly out of adjustment. The next time you apply the brakes in your car, observe what is going on: The front end drops. If the rear brakes grabbed first, the rear end would drop. Personally, I have never seen this condition and for a period of about four years, I worked in a very busy brake and front end shop. You might also consider that master cylinders are designed in such a way that the front wheels apply first. If the front wheels are digging in, it is probably because one is attempting to stop too fast from too high a speed. As to “the pin bearings inside” I presume you are speaking of the bearings inside a constant velocity joint. It has been a long long time since I had one apart but I don’t recall any that had pin bearings—all the ones I repaired had ball bearings. By “pin” I presume you mean what most mechanics call needle bearings. At any rate, I promise you that constant velocity joints fail far fewer times than the old style “U-joints” did.
Also, you mentioned earlier that early automobile engines had no oil pan so that the oil went in from the top and ran out the bottom, then when I asked about it, you said no, the engines were sealed on the bottom–if they were sealed, then the oil wouldn’t run out, now would it?
That depends on the suspension geometry of the car; BMWs tend to “squat” (i.e., the entire body drops a bit) – this supposedly gives more control. The first time I made a sudden stop in my '97 740i, the squatting threw me a little, but one gets used to it quickly.
Mr 2001- VW still makes the aircooled beetle in Mexico. The latest models have fuel injection, but otherwise it is exactly the same car they sold in the US until 1968. Later US beetles had a better rear suspension that never made it to the Mexican car, but everything else is still about the same. I have a 1983 beetle and I can fix just about anything with a handful of tools. On the other hand, it seems to need a lot of fixing. But we live at the end of a mile of VERY rough dirt road, which destroyed the front end of my wife*s new Jetta (FWD) in 6000 miles, while the old beetle just rattles along.
I really shouldn’t state sweeping generalities, should I? But the main point is this: If, on a passenger car, the rear wheel brakes “grab” before the front wheel brakes do, there is a problem with the braking system. Unless the car is used in stunt work and the intent is to be able to lock one rear wheel, thereby facilitating the ever exciting 180 degree high speed turn. And I should exclude ABS equipped cars as I have no experience whatever with them–I have never so much as driven one so they may well be an exception.
As opposed to what happens when the timing chain fails in a car that does have a camshaft? (And don’t tell me a timing chain never fails. They do fail. My 1977 Cadillac Fleetwood had some teeth worn on its timing chain gear, which allowed the chain to slip and caused the car to “stop, dead”.)
There’s an old saying: The fewer moving parts it has, the fewer parts there’ll be that can wear and break down. That’s why we use capacitor discharge systems instead of “points” to send current to the spark plugs nowadays. That’s why we have distributorless ignition. And that’s why Volvo is introducing camless valve timing.
“But wait!” I hear you cry. “The solenoids are moving parts! They can still wear and break down!” Ah, but if a solenoid breaks down, that only renders one of the cylinders useless. Your Volvo can still limp to the service station on the other three. If your camshaft gives out or your timing chain (or timing belt!) wears down, all the cylinders will fail.
How often does the computer in a car fail, really? I’ve never heard of it happening. It seems like that’d be a big problem even today, since it doesn’t just control your mixture but also probably your automatic transmission and (for faster cars than mine) your boost pressure.
Tracer- we did- got rid of the remains of the Jetta and bought a 94 Jeep Cherokee. Rattles even worse than the beetle but doesn’t mind the potholes. But it’s got fuel injection, so you need a fancy computer to figure out what’s happening when anything goes wrong. Yesterday I took the carburetor off the beetle, stripped it down, cleaned it out, and had it running again in 32 minutes.
Sidetrack: they have engine changing contests at VW shows. Two guys drive up to a line, unhook everything, pull the engine, put it back in, and drive out. I think the record is under three minutes. You can’t even find the engine in three minutes in most new cars.
The key word in your OP w.r.t. this topic is “might”. Auto tech enthusiasts and poorly educated and overly-enthusiastic automobile writers have been speculating on drive-by-wire for decades.
There is no real, over-riding reason for drive-by-wire to exist for the steering or passenger cars. It does not save weight, or power, or fuel economy. It adds cost, complexity, and potential catastrophic danger. It does not add any significant level of safety to the automobile.
How large would the civil awards and sales/marketing losses be if Ford had a problem with Explorer’s that had random “steering computer failures”? Billions? Tens of billions?
And about automobile tech fads:
Remember when the Honda Prelude came out with 4-wheel steering in the 1980’s/early 1990’s? Automobile editors crowed from the rooftops that soon every car would have 4-wheel steering. Well, we saw where that went.
Remember the press raving over the Lotus “active suspension”, which would allow a car to lean into a turn? And how very soon, every car on the road would have this? Well, same story. Remember the 4-cylinder turbo craze? Especially with Chryslers? I remember profound statements from Chrysler that their cars of the 1990’s / 2000’s would all be 1.6 liter intercooled turbos, because that was the only engine that made sense, etc. And remember rear wheel drive being “dead”? Remember the “last” Corvette convertable ever made? Things change very quickly.
In short, don’t worry about some of these “just around the corner” things that the trade magazines and the Discovery Channel put out. I think in the case of steer-by-wire, we are a very long way away from seeing that on your showroom floor.
Anthracite, very good points–I sold quartz crystals to Borg-Warner in the 1980s. They were working on an electronic steering system back then.
Mapache, I watched a guy win a $20.00 bet by pulling a VW Beetle engine, replacing the clutch, re-installing the engine, and having all lines connected with the engine running in under five minutes. I would not have believed one man could do it but I saw it done. I paid the $20.00, too.
