I'll second that. Why is it that Lucas electrics get ragged on
constantly while Bosch, VW Bosch in particular, ends up smelling like
your girlfriend's neck?
I have never, not once, not even close, been stranded by any of the
British cars due to electrical problems. The generator on the early
B gave up the ghost silently at night in the garage. Replacement is
painless. You can trace wires from one end to another, and there is
no electrical part that requires major disassembly to replace.
Now let's take a look at Germany's revenge for Dresden. The Bosch
manufactured fuse blocks are true pieces of art. They consist of
three printed circuit boards, using four screws to hold them all to a
piece of black plastic reminescent of what's found under a pair of
Hostess cupcakes. There are little plastic spacers between the
boards. Borrowing from Scott Fisher, using printed circuit boards
"is probably the biggest case of dickheaded tech-gratia-techis
whiz-bang ]<ool-toy overkill that I've heard of in about twelve
days." To compound this, everytime I've seen this set-up, the bend
in the cardboard windshield vent (we're harping on Wolfsburg here, I'll
use windscreen when it's appropriate) is right above the fuseblock.
My 80 Scirocco ate three fuseblocks in the year I owned it (ending
when the damn thing thankfully (and literally) threw itself into a
ditch)) before figuring a rip in this vent was blowing hot air onto
the fuse block and warping the boards to the point they were cuddling
up with each other. My 77 VW-wannabe 924 has the nice feature of
collecting water in its heater system when it rains. This is fine
until you try cornering, at which point the water sloshes to one side
of the car, finds the connection between the air hose under the dash
and the vent, where it leaks out, dribbles back down the hose to its
lowest point (you guessed it, right above the fuseblock) and drips.
My solution for this was putting an umbrella over the fuseblock, so
the water just drips on my feet.
I don't remember how many times I had people look at the Scirocco to
figure out why it died of electrical failure intermittently without
provocation. The problem still existed when the insurance company
paid me off for the carcass. I tried replacing a variety of parts to
get the 924 to stop dying intermittently. When I couldn't find any
solution, I took it to a shop that replaced the same fucking parts,
and, oh yeah, the Bosch CIS/Ignition module to the tune of $400. The
car still isn't reliable enough to drive it to the corner store.
Lucas, Prince of Darkness? Feh.
Bosch, Patron Saint of Tow Truck Drivers.
andy
banta@abingdon.sun.com
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