Most aircraft are "black box" changes and then a depot level or inshop will swap internals. Remember way back when VW was still pumping cars out in the US (PA I think) and they could hook you up to a proprietary tester that would test the entire electronics to see what was wrong? That was great for them, sucked for mechanics as it took work away from the neighborhood mechanic and made it where only VW could do these tests. Many GM and Fords have specialty testers and even though there are aftermarket units they cost too musch for mom and pop to justify for the family car. I think there should be a built in system that the OWNER can use in these cars. My 86 Aerostar has a digital dash and it does offer a built in test but unless a mechanic tells you or you have the "shop" manual from Ford (8" thick) you won't know it's there. -----Original Message----- From: owner-classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org [mailto:owner-classiccmp@classiccmp.org]On Behalf Of McFadden, Mike Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2001 11:26 AM To: 'classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org' Subject: Now we are into cars and planes Cars and planes are computers My cousin informs me that 60% of all non mechanical repairs on cars are computer related. The car comes in and some gadget will not work, they try swapping parts until it works or if unable to solve it swap the car's computer. They don't have the expensive equipment that will simulate each device and then test the circuit. The manufacturer's test the returned parts and 40% turn out to be OK. Maybe that's why there are no more "service stations" any more. I seem to remember that some legislator wanted anybody who claimed to be a "service station" to offer service. I know McDonnell-Douglas was testing the same thing for fighter planes. Most of the time they swap boards. They have developed test benches that test the boards. I remember that computers were swapped in the planes and then off you go. How would you survive a disk crash? It's interesting that were haven't yet heard of any computer virus problems with cars and planes. Mike mmcfadden(a)cmh.edu

"McFadden, Mike" wrote: They probably don't use disks. I know that older jets, like the F4 Phantom... not sure about newer ones, used core memory. Chad Fernandez Michigan, USA