Northstar coolant loss

[Bill Lewis]

> >I'm sure this addressed first.. If it wasn't and they wanted to make money
> >from service, this "safety factor" wouldn't have been included.
> >I am sure this is for the "I never change my oil/coolant/transfluid/rear
> >axle fluid lazy ignorant worst case car owner".  99% of the owners will
> >never have to take advantage of this feature... But, if 75,000 miles down
> >the road, a radiator hose bursts 100 miles from civilization... I'd rather
> >be in that cadillac than a ford that will burn up in a few miles  ;-)
> >Later,
> >Dave
> 
> But I'd prefer it even more if radiator hoses which didn't burst at 75,000
> miles were used.

When I was a kid, radiator and bypass hoses were always blowing, and you'd
fix it with a roll of tape from the trunk and limp back to civilization.
Water pumps on Ford and other products would go bad slowly, and the coolant
would leak out over a period of weeks.  Nowadays, it seems some things have
gone the wrong way.  Due to the increased underhood temperatures imposed by
modern emissions control, hoses have gotten much better.  But when the
waterpump on my wife's Caravan went bad and dumped out all the coolant
in 1/2 mile, I was not impressed.

Although I'm personally devoted to DIY_EFI, I'm somewhat worried by the
addition of high tech to cars.  When your ultradrive transmission craps out
and you limp home, you better not stop at the first hillbilly town and
expect them to hook up to the on-board CAN bus and figure out what's wrong.

.../Bill

-- 
Bill Lewis - wrl at access.digex.net