An incredible CAN bus diagnosis video - well worth a watch

[R129 UK]

I must confess, I was hooked from the first couple of minutes and really rooting for the guy to find the cause of the issue:

 

[TerryA]

Very Interesting. That guy has a lot of talent plus patience. What I learned from the video is you must almost have a degree from MIT to work on a modern car’s electrical gremlins.

Thanks for posting.

 

[emerydc8]

Wow. Consider it a disposable car if it breaks. Glad I’ll never have to deal with this nonsense.

 

[Efraim]

I also enjoyed watching the video where the guy really investigated the issue not only changing components by guessing. Kudos for him.

 

[R129 UK]

Wow. Consider it a disposable car if it breaks. Glad I’ll never have to deal with this nonsense.

As long as you never intend to own a car designed from the 1990s onwards you should be able to escape CAN.

That said, there are a lot of benefits to having a CAN network on a vehicle notwithstanding these "freak" issues which cause a small number of owners extreme trouble.

 

[Efraim]

As long as you never intend to own a car designed from the 1990s onwards you should be able to escape CAN.

That said, there are a lot of benefits to having a CAN network on a vehicle notwithstanding these "freak" issues which cause a small number of owners extreme trouble.

And we all in this forum are fond of the very first car with CAN.

 

[gsxr]

The simple, early CAN in our 034/036 actually works very well. The usual problem with newer cars is they have far more modules, and far more complexity, which combine to cause far more difficult problems when things don't work as expected. This started roughly around 2000-2002 with the introduction of the W220 and W211 chassis. The 129 and 140 were the last of the "simple" systems, IMO. Moving into the teens and 20's, everything just got ridonkulous.

 

[R129 UK]

The simple, early CAN in our 034/036 actually works very well. The usual problem with newer cars is they have far more modules, and far more complexity, which combine to cause far more difficult problems when things don't work as expected.

Yes, I was referring to CAN 2.0 from 1991 not K-Line or other earlier releases.

 

[emerydc8]

As long as you never intend to own a car designed from the 1990s onwards you should be able to escape CAN.

That said, there are a lot of benefits to having a CAN network on a vehicle notwithstanding these "freak" issues which cause a small number of owners extreme trouble.

As Dave said, the CAN on our cars has very few problems, but when the manufacturers sought to create rolling entertainment centers the number of modules and complexity got way out of hand. Add to the mix that modern cars are basically surveillance devices at levels we’ve never seen. Eventually they’ll have a module that simply decrements your bank account if you do anything the three cameras watching you don’t like; and another module notifying you of your court date for the auto-citation your car just wrote you. If we accept this level of intrusiveness in our lives by purchasing these cars then we deserve to be slaves.

 

[Lowman]

Diagnosing canbus systems is "easy",and not really as complicated as the people not knowing this stuff, seems to think it is. Its a fantstic way to run different systems in cars,as it requires alot less wiring,
You do need a scope in your toolkit though, But us diag techs have scopes.Thats why we are diag techs
That said, Diagnose Dan is very knowledgable for sure. Make sure to check out Scanner Danner also, Great guy .

 

[R129 UK]

Diagnosing canbus systems is "easy",and not really as complicated as the people not knowing this stuff, seems to think it is. Its a fantstic way to run different systems in cars,as it requires alot less wiring,
You do need a scope in your toolkit though, But us diag techs have scopes.Thats why we are diag techs
That said, Diagnose Dan is very knowledgable for sure. Make sure to check out Scanner Danner also, Great guy .

Agreed, what scope do you use? I’m tempted to get something myself.

 

[AMG5PT4]

Hard to anticipate a scraped wire hitting a metal frame being the cause of all those electrical issues.

This sends chills down my spine as I continue the restoration of my 85 AMG Widebody. The paint shop removed 100% of the wiring from the bulkhead to the tail lights and bundled up the wire looms into one big wad and draped them over the steering column. My job has been to figure out what wires go where and the correct routing. Not fun. Pulling wires through the A piller openings into the doors I wonder if I have scraped insulation off wires…

 

[Lowman]

Agreed, what scope do you use? I’m tempted to get something myself.

At this point, we do not have a properly good scope where i work. ITs an older handheld scope. Unfortunatly I cannot recall which brand it is. Ive dealt with Pico before,which is really good.

 

[Lowman]

Hard to anticipate a scraped wire hitting a metal frame being the cause of all those electrical issues.

This sends chills down my spine as I continue the restoration of my 85 AMG Widebody. The paint shop removed 100% of the wiring from the bulkhead to the tail lights and bundled up the wire looms into one big wad and draped them over the steering column. My job has been to figure out what wires go where and the correct routing. Not fun. Pulling wires through the A piller openings into the doors I wonder if I have scraped insulation off wires…

You would be amazed.My most " crazy" experience with stuff like this is, When i worked at the Mercedes Benz dealership many years ago, i worked on a w463 G55 Amg,with a intermittent SRS/Airbag warning light coming on.After countless hours trying to replicate the fault when it was not there,doing every test under the sun,I decided to trace the wiring physically, and what i found was crazy. ONE wire for the SRS system,had been caught between the seatframe and the floor, when it was assembled at the factory. So after x amount of years, the wireinsulation was coming appart, shorting out against the frame of the seat and floor of the car. And if i remember correctly, i think we got all the diagnosis covered by the factory.As we were able to confirm that this wiring issues was made by the factory.