I drove up this weekend to Jay Peak Resort to visit with friends and get in some early spring skiing. This required a trip over the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and crossing narrow and cell-coverage-free Franconia Notch.
Easter Sunrise Services at Jay happen at the top of the mountain, at 4000′. Which means boarding the tram with sleepy kids at 5:30am. A long day later, and off to home.
So when my son said: “I don’t get what Easter is all about,” I, of course, let my wife handle it.
Climbing back over the White Mountains, the gusty winds were taking most of my attention, and most everything my Jeep Grand Cherokee could give. It had been running roughly since we left Jay an hour earlier, and I figured it was the change in altitude that the fuel injection/computer was adjusting. I shifted focus from the road to the rpms to the gas-mileage computer to the road.
And I distinctly heard my wife say “… and then he rose from the dead…,” and my son saying “Like a Zombie?!?” That momentarily had me divert my attention.
When I looked back, I saw that the dreaded Check Engine light was on. And I remember thinking that light has got to be the stupidest thing still installed in a car. A remnant from the 80’s when sensors started to appear in cars and computers were still the size of cars. A dual state device that is telling you either everything I’m checking is A-OK or whatever the opposite of that is.
Nonetheless, I still figured it was the change in altitude that the computer was adjusting, and when I crested the mountain and started down, the engine seemed to smooth out a bit.
That’s when I heard my son say “But what does that have to do with the Easter Bunny?!?” Apparently, this conversation had been going on for an hour, and we finally had gotten to the root cause of the question.
Root Cause. Hmmm. Why a light? Why such a limited way to display the state of the car? Why isn’t there a LED display that says:
“Engine Misfire Detected”
or better
“Engine Misfire Caused By Density Altitude. Adjustment Needed”
or better still
“I’ve just picked up a fault in the AE-35 Unit. Its going to go 100 percent failure within 72 hours.”
2 lines could tell you everything. A Synth voice could speak it over the sound system. A little paper clip could pop up and say “It looks like you’re about to write a check for repairs….”
That’s when I noticed it was Blinking.
Apparently, there have been some advances in Check Engine Light technology in the last 30 years.
It turns out that once the light starts to blink, you have about 10 minutes before whatever was going to fail, does fail.
Seems like this is a good opportunity for someone to design the 3rd generation Check Engine Light. Maybe something that changes color, like they had in Logan’s Run.
Stuart
