RE: Does the Year 2000 bug affects Audis???

["Buchholz, Steven" <Steven.Buchholz@kla-tencor.com>]

> >... contemplating restoring my old '78 Fox so that I won't have to worry
> >abut Y2K or those new EMP-based automotive disablers that I've seen ...
> :-)
> 
> Electro-Magnetic Pulse?  Please.  All the engine electronics are shielded;
> 
> you'd have to generate one freakin' big pulse to even cause a blink on a 
> sensor wire.  We're talking knifes-in-the-kitchen-drawer-cartoon-style 
> pulses.  You've been watching "Viper" too much :)
> 
... I'm sorry to say that such devices DO exist ... and they DO work.  They
have been developed as a means to disable the cars of scofflaws that run
away from the cops.  They have to be in proximity of the car to be able to
make a pulse strong enough to get the necessary field strengths to damage
the electronic circuitry ... the one I saw was triggered by the suspect's
car running over a trip wire.  

Effective shielding in cars?!  ROTFLMAO!  Haven't you seen the installation
instructions for the cell phones that Motorola makes?  They explicitly state
that the unit should be mounted on the opposite side of the car from the ABS
controller to reduce interference.  Those wires from the OXS and the
WOT/Idle switches look really well shielded to me ... NOT!  I'd bet it'd be
a piece of cake to damage the ignition driver built into the coil of most of
the newer Audis.  Then we can talk about the funky ways that grounding is
done in cars ... it doesn't take too much trying to develop enough voltage
differential in the ground circuits to cause circuits to be damaged!  I
don't think that I'm the one watching too much TV ... Viper? ... never seen
it ...

The latest that I've read is that the EMP-based auto disablers have fallen
out of favor ... it seems as though they found out that when the engine
shuts down it can cause difficulty for the driver to control the automobile
... imagine that? ... :-)

Steve Buchholz
San Jose, CA (USA)