The car started overheating as I drove to work yesterday. By chance I rolled into a highly reputable shop, and last night I drove out with a new water pump. But a few miles up the road, the alternator light came on. Coincidence? Sabotage? You can bet I was back at the shop this morning.

Well, now I need a new alternator. They had to move the alternator to get to the water pump. When they put it back, they hooked it up right and the belt tension was good. Good, but different. You see, the alternator was old, maybe not optimal, but functional. It was accustomed to a certain load. The belt tension changed, the load changed, and something inside fried. All unintended, the end (I hope) of a chain reaction started by a bad water pump.

Does the code in an old computer behave like the guts of my old alternator? I hope not.

-- Thinman (thinman38@hotmail.com), November 24, 1999

Answers

Thinman,

Hello. IMHO, it depends on: 1)When the companies finish their remediation; and 2)If their "compliancy reports" are accurate.

If the company has already finished their remediation and #2 is true, then most potential problems should already have occurred or are occuring now. (As we're seeing being reported right now.)

However, if the companies don't finish their remediation until the last minute OR won't finish until after 1/1/00, then of course, there will a heck of a lot more failures...

Personally, I'm interested in what happens after the "software/hardware freeze" is lifted after 1/1/00. I'm wondering how the remediation will interact with "new" technology being presented. Will we be introducing more glitches? Again, just my opinion.

-- Deb M. (vmcclell@columbus.rr.com), November 24, 1999.

I was just about to post my own car story relating to (I think) unexpectedly interconnected systems.

A couple of years ago I was driving through the desert when suddenly I started having car problems. My radio didn't work, my windshield wipers stopped working, the car stopped idling (I even had to keep my foot on the gas to shift gears or else the engine would just stop), some of the guages quit. I couldn't figure out what would cause such a hodge-podge of problems. I called my dad who is a major car guru and it turned out that I had blown a fuse!

It was a simple fix, but I did have to find the right type of fuse and know which one to replace. Fortunately my dad knew the car intimately and he walked me through it. I don't remember exactly, but I believe I had to switch a good fuse from another spot to where the bad fuse was because I didn't have any extras and there was noplace for me to get parts. Without my dad's expertise I would have been up the creek indeed.

We're all connected... (New York telephone.)

Cel

-- Celestine (maxcel@swlink.net), November 24, 1999.

Funny you shld have the problem. My water pump went out two wks ago. I had the guy replace AAL belts and hoses, do a tune-up, etc, while he was in there. Yesterday I had a tire go boom at while at Warp Factor 7 and now I'll replace that one and the opposite side. Had the other two done earlier. If you need work done pn the car, DO IT NOW.

-- Mr. Mike (mikeabn@aol.com), November 24, 1999.