Autos

From Miiu.org
Jump to: navigation, search
1984-1996 Jeep Cherokee 2 Door, a great example of a resilient car

Contents

About Resilient Cars

The resilient cars page is dedicated to sedans, SUVs, and trucks that are incredibly reliable in design and engine build, that have a minimal amount of engine-integrated electronics, and are relatively simple from a mechanical standpoint. Most resilient cars can be repaired with a simple set of tools and a basic understanding of mechanics and wiring. Most of these cars were made in the mid 80s to late 90s, a stable period of automotive technology focusing on mechanics, not engine integrated electronics. This page should help inform and guide people on learning about, buying, and maintaining resilient cars.

How To Classify or Meet Resilient Car Status

A car's resilience is derived from a number of aspects. First and most importantly, the car must be proven to have an incredibly reliable engine. Secondly, the car must be reliable in body and chassis design. A car that is not reliable is not resilient in any respect. In addition, the car must be able to be fixed and tuned with simple tools and a basic understanding of mechanics and wiring. This limits most resilient cars to the late 1990s and earlier, based on the complexity and intricacy of their engine integrated electronics. Most of the time it comes down to how much of the engine is controlled by the engine control unit, or ECU.

Engine Control Units in Resilient Cars

The basic engine integrated electronic component is called an engine control unit, or an ECU. Because resilient cars do not have advanced ECUs, they are easily fixed and tuned. A simple example of this is idle speed control, which in all new cars, is controlled by the ECU. The idle speed is controlled by the engine RPM. The RPM is monitored by the crankshaft position sensor, which is connected to the ECU. So, if the idle speed is too low, one would have to change it by tuning the ECU, which is an involved process. To tune an ECU, one would have to have an in-depth understanding of engine electronics and possess the knowledge and tools to tune an ECU. This is however, not the case in resilient cars. In resilient cars, the idle speed can be controlled mechanically by rotating a screw connected to the throttle that will increase or decrease idle speed.

Adjusting idle speed is just one of many great examples of what makes resilient cars resilient; a simple mechanical adjustment or fix, as apposed to an intricate process requiring advanced electrical work or years of experience.

{It may also be possible through various open source/DIY ECU projects such as this http://www.diyefi.org/ to get rid reliance on the oem ecu completely and rely on readily available hardware components and simple open source software. This would effectively make many new cars much more resilient.}

Why Electric Cars Aren't Resilient

The arguments against classifying electric cars as resilient are:

Where and How to Find Repair and Replacement Parts

One of the easiest, fastest, and most effective ways to find parts is online. Amazon has one of the largest and most user friendly parts libraries online, and it can be searched in an either general or specific way. Users can search one, a combination, or all of the following aspects; make, model, year, and trim level of a car. All one has to do is either use the auto search tool (entering all car information), or just search the make and model (i.e. "Jeep Cherokee") in this link: http://www.amazon.com/automotive-auto-truck-replacements-parts/b?ie=UTF8&node=15684181&ref_=sa_menu_apa16#?_encoding=UTF8&tag=miiuorg0f-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957

Listing of Resilient Cars

This section is currently under construction.

SUVs


Sedans/Wagons


Pickups


Vans


Other

Retrieved from "http://www.miiu.org/wiki/Autos"
Personal tools
Namespaces
Variants
Actions
Navigation
Toolbox
Advertising