I saw a post some weeks ago about someone who couldn't move thier car from a stop! I discovered that when your auto trans has a problem it goes into a "safe" mode and registers the issue for the Techs to check later. Although the car still runs, it will not move. Apparantely, you should shut off the engine, put it in park for at least 10 seconds and then restart the engine. You should now have use of reverse and second gear so that you can limp home or to a DC dealer. Sorry, I didn't see this earlier. Maybe it will help someone in a fix.

 

That's how the post ended .Thanks anyway.maybe it's also to see how people drive ?Possibly a warrenty computer watch ?

 

Dan: Do you think they could possibly put any more computers in a car? Pretty soon we won't need mechanics, just computer geeks. They'll push a button and the car will fix itself.

 

Or not!

Pete

 

I meant the computer stores the info for possible poor driving or racing or ?In case of exspensive warrenty issues.

 

I was a backyard mechanic as a kid, helping the older guys in the neighborhood overhaul their engines and learning from them. I used to love working on cars. Then the electronics came out and it was a different story. There was no standardization, no computers capturing electronic codes, and trial and error swapping of parts was often the only way to figure out what was wrong. Since auto parts stores would not take returns on electrical parts, diagnosing a problem often meant finding someone else with the same model car so you could swap parts with them. I learned to hate working on cars. However, now everything is standardized and the error codes are so accurate and comprehensive that diagnosing problems is fairly easy again. Most auto parts stores will run a scan for free. I am beginning to enjoy working on cars again. The biggest difference between then and now is the cost. Electronic parts can be very expensive. There was a time when I never would have considered an extended warranty on a car. However, with all the electronics on cars now, mean time between failure of the auto electronics can make an extended warranty well worthwhile. (Though, I do miss the days when you could limp home on bailing wire and duct tape.)

 

Not if they start putting Windows computers.... that's when I'll start riding a bike!