[Vwdiesel] Recall Campaign?

[James Hansen]

In an ideal world, you would actually own the car you buy, and have some say
in it's maintenance, but yeah shops are no longer in the business of
allowing the owner to participate in the maintenance for a variety of
nonsensical reasons.

I had a right rear brake locking up on the truck (1991 3/4 ton 4X4 ext cab
GM with a 6.5 and banks turbo) when I was in Phoenix last winter, far from
tools etc.  I pulled into a GMC dealership, and bought a half hour of
service from them- asked that the offending wheel and drum be removed so I
could see if the wheel seal was leaking, or a bearing was going south, etc.
and to stop there so I could see it myself.  I tried to stay with the
vehicle, but the scowling belligerent mechanic refused to work on the truck
while I was present.  After waiting in the service room full of happy suits
drinking coffee and vacuuming dougnuts from the table for an hour, I
demanded to see the truck.  I got there in time to see all four wheels off,
both rear drums, as the mech was starting to tear the front calipers off
(they were NEW, along with the rotors)  He launched into a long dissertation
as to why I needed new stuff on all four corners, that the front rotors were
shot, and the pads were so worn that it was "throwing the truck into abs
lockup" and "what kind of shittty pads did I have on the front anyway".
yeah.  Dad had just had new rotors, and pads installed at the GM dealer in
town here before I left, and new rear shoes.  It's also single channel abs,
off the speedo sensor, to tell if the driveshaft stops turning or not,
nothing more. I pointed this out to him, that abs on a 91 gmc 4X4 is single
channel abs, and can't lock up a single wheel.  also that the pads were GMC
NEW pads and shoes, with under 2000 miles on them and the front rotors.
"Put the wheels on thanks, I see the wheel bearing and seal are fine."
"Please don't f*** with me, I don't like it."  The service writer almost
peed himself laughing.


  I would hazard to say that software updates are an optional thing should
you wish it to be so, on computers, cars, internet refrigerators, etc.
I really love that mandatory probing you get for the $90 bucks to do
"diagnosis"... if that's what you call reading dtc's. So what is the 70/hr
for? shop towels?  oh yeah, they charge for those anyway...

Never had Uwe's stuff be interrupted before, so unsure what they are getting
at exactly.  Uwe figured out the whole shootin match I'm thinking, so I
doubt very much they would ever keep him out of the ecu for long.  I recall
reading an article entitled something like "automotive hacker" where they
describe him as a hacker gone mainstream commerce. It was pretty good.  If
vwoa wants to screw with Vag-Com, they would be shutting down 3/4 of their
dealers shops as well.  Every dealership that I know has the mandatory dusty
vw scantools, and a couple laptops with Uwe's software that they use all the
time.  His works better, and costs a tiny fraction of the VW boxes.

I'm really glad I have my own shop.  Own two cars in a lifetime, and you
could pay for your own shop and tools these days.
-James

-----Original Message-----
From: vwdiesel-bounces+jhsg=sasktel.net at vwfans.com
[mailto:vwdiesel-bounces+jhsg=sasktel.net at vwfans.com]On Behalf Of paulr
Sent: Saturday, November 27, 2004 5:26 PM
To: VWDiesel List
Subject: [Vwdiesel] Recall Campaign?


Got a recall notice from VWoA Wednesday.  It's for a campaign
called "Emission Service Action VS".  It's described as "Reprogram
Instrument Cluster Relay Switching Software".

The recall letter states that

    'Volkswagen has found that the instrument cluster
     switching relay software in the affected vehicles
     may require reprogramming (reflashing). A random
     data communication problem may exist in certain
     vehicles.  If this occurs, it could cause communication
     with the diagnostic scan tool to be interrupted'

and further that

     'In order to correct this condition, we will electronically
      update the instrument cluster relay switching software.'

Car runs fine. Vag-Com works fine.

Is VWoA trying to prevent use of Ross-Tech's Vag-Com program?
Would make sense for VWoA to lock out Vag-Com and protect their
scan tool revenue stream! **

Won't be able to ignore this one -- the timing belt needs
replacement soon  :-(    Would expect that the dealer to do
this service when I bring it in.  Don't think I'd have any
choice...


Regards,

Paul

2000 Golf TDI

** Dealer automatically writes in $99 at every service call
    to read out scan codes - no questions asked...

--
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Paul Reich                Electrical Engineer

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