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ABS, HDC TCU etc - "Forked Tongue or Fact?"

Hello, All!

Out with the missus in her Disco II on Saturday and all of a sudden Three Chimes and the ABS, HDC and TCU lights all lit up. Tried clearing the buffer by disconnecting the battery, but to no avail.

She rang the garage this morning and they sent out their "man who can in a van", an auto electrician with more computers than you can shake a stick at. He was out there in the rain for nearly an hour, phoned his Head Office and although could find no faults went through the clearance procedure and he pronounced (fingers crossed) all was now OK.

He came in and we started chatting and I retold the tail of how I had noticed that one of the Brake Lamps was out when we'd stopped at the Bank earlier on Saturday. After an hours trip round the market we'd then got back in the car to go and buy a new bulb. The illuminations started as we parked later, a few minutes up the road.

Seems my chauffeur had neglected to tell him this. "That's what caused it" says the man "The Bake light failing fooled your computer"

Now I'm not an expert but I do think this is a bit far fetched. Was he right or was he "speaking with forked tongue"

With best regards, Not So Clever Trevor.

Reply to
Not So Clever Trevor
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Not So Clever Trevor uttered summat worrerz funny about:

If the filiment was arcing then I guess it could send no end of dirty signals into the puter. Anything is possible in a Landie.

Lee D

Reply to
Lee_D

There was a post about this some time ago which I think was caused by fitting the wrong bulb or something like that.

Martin

Reply to
Oily

aye - it'll be in the archive I suspect.

Frankly it seems like a particularly daft modern day myth, but then so does the idea of letting computer(s) run a car in the first place.

One thought - if this really were a proven cause/effect then checking the brake lights should have been part of mateys fault finding procedure.

Reply to
William Tasso

Ah but the bulb had been replaced. Clever things these transputer thingummies. The old [2year old] Range Rover had its brake pad wear warning lamp light up the other day. My local geezer put a new set of pads on but, as any BMW owner will [obviously] know, the warning senders are seperate little units which, once worn, have to be replaced. He didn't have one of those so he snipped the wires and twisted the ends together, as any competent mechanic would. However, the dash warning light and message did not extinguish and continued to warn of worn pads. Luckily he 'does' a few BMW's and told me not to worry, that the computer takes a while to learn that the pads had been changed and that within 10 miles or so it would have convinced itself to the extent that it could be sure as sure could be that new pads were fitted and that it was safe to turn the warnings off. 'This is a load of bullshit' thought I. However, some five miles later and two engine starts, what do you know, the damned lights extinguish and all is well again.

Respect to computers.

Huw

Reply to
Huw

"Huw" wrote :-

Artificial intelligence you see. :-)

Martin

Reply to
Oily

In message , Not So Clever Trevor writes

Utter rubbish on a Disco II !

The Disco II has no bulb failure sensing.

There is no point clearing the lights on the dash without reading the fault codes. That is the only way to find out what was / is wrong.

Find an independent with the right equipment if you don't want to take it to a main dealer.

Reply to
Marc Draper

Marc Draper uttered summat worrerz funny about:

I'm no expert but I still feel that a fizzing filament can upset a computer, bulb failure sensor or not.

You are right however reading the fault codes would be the best course of action, though I'd guess the "more computers than you can shake a stick at" kind of suggests the OP's auto electrician would be wise to that. You don't have to go to a main dealer to get fault code read.

Lee D

Reply to
Lee_D

You would have thought so wouldn't you. If he had read the fault codes then he might have given the OP a more accurate reason for the lights coming on....Even if it had been one of Wabcos more ambiguous codes.

Reply to
Marc Draper

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