[V8] V8 Digest, Vol 65, Issue 9

[rmwoodbury at roadrunner.com]

---- v8-request at audifans.com wrote: 
 > Date: Sat, 7 Mar 2009 14:41:42 -0700
> From: Dave Saad <dsaad at icehouse.net>
> Subject: Re: [V8] A question for the smartest of the gurus out
> 	there...
> To: V8List Fans <v8 at audifans.com>
> Message-ID: <6633D71D-5B3D-4FE1-B4AC-302628B17924 at icehouse.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes
> 
> Mine both look like that too.  But I don't get any codes so I am just  
> leaving them alone.  If they still work and the actual cable part is  
> still intact, you might try some of that universal cable shield that  
> is all over new cars.  It is basically a split flexible plastic tube  
> that you can insert wire into.
> It is pretty cheap too.  Any parts store should have it.  Just be  
> careful when inserting your cable into the tube - you will probably  
> want to hold the split open with some tool so as not to damage your  
> cable while inserting it.
> 
> What is it with audi and rubber/plastic parts anyway?  It seems that  
> any rubber or plastic part under the hood gets brittle and cracks.
> I have never noticed that on any other car I have owned - even when  
> they get old.
> 
> Dave
> 
> 


Well, it's true, the Germans LOVE their little rubber and plastic gizzies that they carefully engineer to sit directly above the exhaust manifold. That way, at precisely sixty-two point zero eight seven, the little rubber gizzie MIT plastic base part will decompose at a rate of point oh three millemeters per hour of operational use at precisely 2675 rpm or more. 

It is obviously from experience, a scientific fact. It is also an historical fact.  The big tank battle at Kursk was lost because the German Panther and Tiger tanks, although far superior to the Soviet T-34 in terms of fire power and accuracy, suffered a significant failure rate of the little rubber and plastic gizzies that connected the fuel lines to the engines, mounted the engines themselves, and even held the aiming perisopes in position.  The tank failure occurred at precisely a ratio of 87.45 Russian tanks to one, while the numerical ratio was precisly 87.47 to one.  Such are the accidents of history.

You know, of course, the biggest single difference between the Japanese auto engineers and the German one's?  Well, you see, in Germany, the auto engineers look at an automobile issue, and figure out a way to make whatever the part is out of rubber and plastic.  Then they design a way to mount it using 43 different procedures, and 17 different sized screws and nuts.

The Japanese look at exactly the same part or process, and figure out a way to make the part out of old Sony radio cases and mount it using only 37 separate procedures. Then they invent two fasteners that will hold it precisely in position. 

Of course the Japanese fasterners require use of a special tool that no one in this country has....