Guest Column: Technology and Tinkering with Cars

This continues a new category of posts: Guest columns where friends and readers share how technology is reshaping their hobby – fishing, basket weaving, rugby – whatever.

This time it is my frequent partner-in-crime, Brian Sommer. The picture is of the Sommer family - dad, brother and him - scavenging a car.

Here he is on how tech has helped - and hurt - his hobby of tinkering with cars. Actually he does more than tinker...read on

"I don't 'restore' cars - I resuscitate them. I give them a new lease on life. I take vehicles with a major component failure and make them live again. Along the way, I've rebuilt 27 engines: 2 for Corvettes, piles of VW Beetle engines, an Opel Isuzu and even my Dad's '64 Ford pickup. I've put wrecked cars back together and I'm quite at home in a junkyard.

Technology has been good/bad for my hobby. I'm really glad to see innovations like electronic ignition, fuel injection, etc. and I even marvel at the elegance of new technologies like electronically controlled variable transmission (ECTV). The latter is this super simple replacement for a transmission that has the effect of giving you an infinite mix of gears and great fuel economy. Computers started showing up in cars in the 1970s. These early 'brains' were the electronic control modules that controlled when the spark should fire for each cylinder. Like laptops today, those babies got really hot under the hood of some cars and the circuitry wouldn't work again unless you put a big bag of ice on them. A hot Texas summer drive may have required the car owner to buy a couple of bags of ice just to get back home.

I like the new technology. It means I don't have to do a tune-up for 100,000 miles. I used to replace the points on my older cars every 3,000 miles. Newer cars get far better horsepower and fuel economy because of the uncanny precision possible from the on-board ignition computer and the array of sensors that provide it excellent feedback. Your car 'knows' if your fuel is watery or low on octane and adjusts for it. It can detect the impact of altitude changes and make adjustments that a carburetor can't. Now, most cars can provide diagnostic codes to you or your mechanic and give you clues as to why your car is misbehaving.

Today's cars now possess at least six processor units and some have many, many, more. Mechanics don't diagnose much anymore. They don't need to. They don't need to listen to the engine, feel for unusual vibrations, etc. Their diagnostic tools tell them what's right and wrong. Even if a mechanic wanted to fix a car the old school way, they're really limited unless they have some big money to buy the diagnostic tools new cars need. SOA hasn't hit the auto industry yet as standards for many of these diagnostic aids are vehicle or brand specific.

Newer cars need newer tools to service them. My old air conditioning tools worked on an older generation of refrigerant. Many parts are not designed to be repaired. Mechanics today replace sub-assemblies like headlight housings, throttle-bodies, etc. These sub-assemblies come with all of the wiring, lights, sensors, etc. already in them. Sub-assemblies are fast to install but very expensive. One headlight housing for our old Volvo cost more than the last Beetle I bought. There's something wrong when I can buy a truck for less than the price to replace the clutch within it.

A few months ago, I got to help my best friend pull the motor on a kit car of his and replace the clutch. Man, did I miss the simplicity of machines like that. We had the motor out in 15 minutes and the clutch changed in 5 more. We were done in an hour and hadn't spend hardly any money. We didn't even get real greasy either. Last week, I contemplated pulling the motor out of one of our cars. I wanted to re-ring the engine and get the heads machined. Technically, I know I can do it. But, when I called my brother, he told me to walk away from that idea. He correctly reminded me that I'd only fix one issue on a car that is developing problems on a daily basis. Plus, that engine rebuild is a killer. He was right. I don't have the time, space and money to rebuild an engine in car that that is barely worth what the rebuild would cost.

Yes, new car tech makes cars run better, deliver more horsepower, operate more efficiently but it also makes these cars a lot harder for car owners to service.

I miss the old tech."