As the years go by, technology advances at an ever increasing rate. In my youth we did not have TV until the early 50's. These days I see people camping out to get the newest I phone which will be replaced in 6 months and has only minimal improvement over the last phone. It seems we are heading for the day when our communication will be through a chip implanted in our head. Like texting and emails haven't severely diminished social contact already.
Recently change was brought home in another way. I got a 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee LTD with all the bells and whistles. Regular use of the manual eventually made me proficient in finding and using most of the features. A look at the engine made me realize many of the items were not familiar. It made me recall the cars of my youth and the fact that one could repair most things by yourself and almost climb into the hood. Now it's all run by computers.
An interesting event occurred with the new Jeep and the 2004 Jeep that I still had, I had not used the older Jeep in about 5 weeks and it would not start. A neighbor came over with cables and we began to prepare for jumping the car. I moved the new car into position and opened the hood. WE looked in and I said " WHERE THE HELL IS THE BATTERY?" After a couple of minutes, we noticed a red plastic cap and a Black plastic sleeved pin along the firewall marked + & - . These were the terminals and we hooked up the cables. (Still don't know where the battery is)
The older Jeep started right up but if I took my foot off the gas it would conk out. Tried it a few times with the same result. Decided to call a friend mechanic for his advice. Here's the shocker to me. He said the car has a throttle memory and you will have to ride brake and gas for about 10 minutes so the computer resets. Man am I out of touch with the crazy engineering of todays cars. Ah! for the good old days
No comments:
Post a Comment