My BMW 118d is now 14 years old and has 450,000 km on it. So a defect is not surprising. The imprecise error message, on the other hand, is. Even the workshop couldn’t make anything of it.
Many years, many kilometers
My car is old and it has been driven a lot. For me, a car was and is primarily one thing: a utilitarian object for getting around. So I don’t wash it every Saturday, and while a dent is annoying, it’s a side effect of use. But what’s important is that the car is practical, reliable, easy to maintain, and durable.
My BMW 118d largely met these criteria for 14 years. It offers a little less storage space than I would have liked, and it lacked a trailer hitch (and a 1200 Euro retrofit was too expensive for us). That’s about it for the criticism. For almost 14 years, the vehicle drove us over 450,000 kilometers around the world, and for the most part without any problems. Wear parts yes, but usually later than expected. Last year, the first major repair was due for just under 1,000 euros, at which point we were already thinking about its economic viability. But even that defect was not unusual and the car was otherwise in good condition, at least technically.
Something with the steering, or something
Until four months ago, when the power steering suddenly failed. First sporadically, then permanently. Always with a mocking “pling” and a generic steering wheel symbol in the display. The workshop we trust then looked at the car and was somewhat desperate. Yes, it’s the power steering. But they couldn’t say whether it was the servo motor or a control unit. Unfortunately, the interface only showed a generic error message: Problems with the power steering. They even went to the trouble of checking all the contacts, they work. But is it the servo motor, the control unit for the servo motor, or one of the other four control units? The car simply wouldn’t reveal that.
But regardless of whether it’s the servomotor or the control unit, a repair including the spare part costs at least 1,000 euros, if they replace the right part on the first try. Otherwise, double that. A pile of money for a vehicle with 450,000 km and 14 years under its belt.
Why so unclear?
Luckily, we can temporarily borrow my mother’s car. Also a similarly old 1-series BMW, but with “only” 50,000 km and a convertible. We’re just realizing on our camping trip that a convertible is not for us. And surprise: On the highway near Naples, it goes “pling” and a steering wheel symbol appears. Description of the error? “Something with the steering”. And my mother’s car even has a proper system with a display. Can’t it be more specific? Especially since the steering was working just fine. Okay, after restarting the car the error was gone, but still:
Why so unclear?
My CPU can output the voltage, the applied current, the temperature, and what do I know for every single core. In case of an error, I see exactly where there are deviations. And the cars? There’s an error somewhere in the steering and all related systems. But I’m not telling you more. Why not? Shouldn’t it be quite simple to know which part the error is occurring in? The error is being generated, after all! And couldn’t you just install a few more 2-cent sensors and detect problems earlier and report them more clearly? Servomotor needs more energy to turn because it’s not well lubricated? You could surely read that out and display it if you wanted to.
But I suspect that car manufacturers have two reasons against it: First, it would save trips to the workshop, and second, it would then be visible to everyone how the vehicle is constructed – and how well.
Well, so you’re left with nothing. A new vehicle with even more technology and even less transparency. The lobby is doing its job well.
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