"Michael Chare" wrote in message
...
On 06/05/2021 02:25, Rod Speed wrote:
"micky" wrote in message
...
In alt.home.repair, on Wed, 05 May 2021 15:16:19 -0400,
wrote:
On Wed, 05 May 2021 13:10:37 -0400, micky
wrote:
The wires in my Toyota are much thinner than the wires in any of my
American cars were. I've had GM and Chryslers built from 1950 to
1995,
and Toyotas from 2000 and 2005.
I'm not saying they are too thin, just thinner. Do you know why?
I see two poassible reasons.
1) Increased efforts to save money and help the environment, by using
thinner and thus cheaper wire. Perhaps wires in American cars are
thinnner now too??
2) Japan and the Japanese domestic auto industry after WWII was short
of
money and had to economize any way it could. Thinner, cheaper wires
were one way, and now, even though they are making plenty money, they
see no reason to change.
3) Copper is expensive.
4) Weight. Every pound counts towards EPA fuel ratings. Seriously.
IIRC, domestic cars use mostly 20Ga wire. I don't remember but
Japanese may use 22Ga. There is a *lot* of wire in a car.
So you're agreeing that the Japanese use thinnner wire than the
Americans do?
Do you think it had to do with post-war poverty in Japan?
Nope, it took them quite a while before they did cars after
the war and they included stuff that was optional on the
local cars to get people to buy unknown cars.
Have the Americans made their wires thinner than in the 1990's?
Dunno. I've added another newsgroup, Jim in there prefers
american cars, not sure if its recent ones tho.
It matters only when I'm trying to splice wires, and I have to be more
careful not to cut the wires while stripping the insulation. But the
wires are so thin that there have been connections I don't try to
make,
because, where it's difficult to reach a wire, up under the dashboard,
for example, that makes it even more likely I'll cut the wire and
makes
it harder to repair it.
What I know is that my VW has LED lights at the rear and the wires going
to these lights are thinner than what would have been used in the past for
incandescent bulbs. The lights are controlled by a Can Bus signal. Car
manufacturers have had problems buy computer type chips!
How old is the VW and how do you find the reliability ?
I have always bought those new, a Beetle and a Golf in 73 but lots
complained about small bits falling off in the 80s and 90s so I avoided
them when I replaced the Golf in 2006 with a Hyundai Getz which never
had a single warranty claim and no bits failing at all until just recently
when there is some problem with the windscreen washer bottle which
wont fill anymore which I havent got around to fixing.
I did have a few problems with the Golf, one head gasket problem
under warranty, one alternator diode pack failure, the bonnet
release cable broke, indicator relay failed, used quite a bit of oil
and it wasnt a leak.
The more recent than the beetles have always struck me as a
bit more complicated than they really need to be.
But some nice stuff like the current Golf even helps you with
the reversing camera when backing with a trailer. That would
be quite handy, I cant even see the trailer when its empty
with the Getz. Planning to replace the Getz with something
since it has no cruise control at all.