I have contacted the local dealers here in Phoenix and US customer service with questions regarding the chips in my late model Cadillac, Honda and Volvo. The responses were poor and I am disappointed with their answers. Honda and Cadillac promised to fax me a compliance statement but nada have I received. Will it be necessary for me to buy a horse and go hunt these people down? Otherwise, I have barrels from Pepsi, a generator from Sams, food from the LDS cannery, ammo from Walmart and misc from everywhere. Plus some extra cash and a little gold and silver and a friend out of town with a farm. I thank Ed Yourdan for writing the book that got me started. I'm sharing it with others. And I thought only S King could scare me!

-- Ronald Banks (phxbanks@webtv.net.), August 05, 1998

Answers

Would someone please explain why they think a microprocessor in an automobile would have a Y2K problem? I do understand about dates used to calculate time spans, but don't see why this would be the case in any processor used in an automobile.

-- Buddy Y. (buddy@bellatlantic.net), August 06, 1998.

Out of all of my Y2K concerns this is without a doubt the last on my list. Any chips that are time sensitive would have to be reset each time service is performed, as the battery is always disconnected for safety reasons. If any of these chips actually run anything other than the clock it would be news to me.

-- Uncle Deedah (oncebitten@twiceshy.com), August 06, 1998.

Cadillac phoned today with no answer but said I could contact them later if I still had a question. I printed out 50 pages from the net regarding this specific subject (chips in cars) and shared with the 3 dealers. I read that many chips have their own batterys and many track real time even tho it is a feature not necessary for a particular application. If any such are in the power train or fuel injection, by "accident" then it would be of some concern. I feel I can survive if the dash clock does not work but I will kick the chip out of my car if it does not work. And posting to a NG is last on my survival list.

-- Ronald Banks (phxbanks@webtv.net), August 07, 1998.

If I have posed a dumb question I would appreciate a smart answer. If it is not a possible problem then why is it not? Should any wish to examine other thinking on this subject you can start with www.garynorth.com transportation forum 7/2 Noncompliant chips in cars....7/27 No insurance for cars that won't start in 2000 because of a chip failure.

-- Ronald Banks (phxbanks@webtv.net), August 07, 1998.

If a circuit board has its own battery, then removing the battery will reboot the system. Of course this may not be trivial, since removing and replacing the battery may involve soldering.

I think that if there is one area where workarounds will be found quickly it is automobiles. I have a friend who is a mechanic and he knows how to get an engine running with the sensors off-line.

-- Buddy Y. (buddy@bellatlantic.net), August 07, 1998.