Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) Evoque digital issues.

A friend bought an early Discovery new, and specified wind up windows. When it arrived, you could only use the manual window winders with the door open because it fouled the side of the seat.

Regarding EV's, when range is so crucial, and reduced range in cold weather a factor, surely the common sense approach is to minimise weight and electrical add ons???

The trend is in the opposite direction. Make them as lardy as possible then chase range with better tech.

Whilst without question ABS was a major safety improvement, there was a time when it was less common place I used to look out for the cars fitted or not fitted with ABS especially in commuter traffic on motorways and adjust my driving style having regard to those non ABS cars around me, feathering the ABS brakes on my car so I triggered the brake lights flashing on and off so I didn't collect a non ABS car up my backside.

Some cars today especially powerful performance cars are not safe to drive at speed without the aid of traction control etc as the cars are inherently un-balanced and require computer monitoring of their dynamics to remain safe.

John as ever you hit the nail on the head, in that my good lady was run over by her Evoque and suffered two broken legs in a set of circumstances beyond it`s programming capabilities, as I was not there I have only a rough outline of the way the situation arose, though suspect stop start may have played some part to allow a machine with no seated driver to move off (all be it on an incline) with all the risks and damage that ensued... Fortunately my good lady though gentle soul is much tougher than she might appear so healed in double quick time.. BTW she still really likes her Evoque... Go figure as our American cousins say..?

Sospan, yeah the story of that which the on-board digital systems require in sequence to allow movement of your car by a few feet rings true, but in my good lad`ys case it seems an open door and no one seated in the car no safety belt clipped home did not prevent it from rolling backwards.... Hmm.. Controlled by logic.. Who`s logic..?

Yeah for sure I come across as a grumpy old man though having been involved in leading edge tec for a number of years pre-retiral, I learned enough to know when it goes wrong it can go very wrong. Very wrong..? That might be when Tesla has to recall so very many cars or the then latest aircraft fall out of the sky killing I think it was 300 folk, kinda puts two broken legs into perspective.... but then when that is seemingly blamed on pilot eror it took another of the same type of kite to fall out of the sky before the cost to the company no longer became the most important aspect...? Quite a few failures all down the line of legislation inspection and approval shown to be flawed...?

Following a fall before Xmas, when I slipped on sheet ice on some steps and hurt my back, I'm struggling to get back into the Morgan, so it's unfortunately up for sale on consignment. I'm secretly hoping it doesn't sell and my back improves, but unfortunately living by the sea is not kind to stored cars. Sue wont drive the Morgan, its too heavy for her and she hates manual gearboxes / clutches, and we still have the other Merc Cabriolet for when we need a 4 seater

No matter what happens with the Morgan, I need another convertible car I can easily get into for now, so I've just purchased a petrol 2019 Mercedes SLC, which the wife can also drive when we go touring. It is loaded with extra's for example it monitors your body language and if it feels you are drifting off to sleep it alerts you, it has intelligent lighting so the headlights follow the steering input and go around corners and ultimately dips when on main beam when a car approaches and can switch from left to right hand drive (no more sticking patches on the headlights), plus lane control, autonomous braking and a whole lot more and of course the obligatory (for me) electric memory seats. Its staggering the amount of driving behaviour detection and intervention built into the car, some very useful, others very much a case of the nanny state.

I'm not yet ready to forego my Morgan motoring just yet, I could have just put the SLC money and my trad towards an automatic CX which the wife could drive, but I waiting to see how things improve with the brakes and radiator issues and wait and see if any new issues with the MY23 models develop.

Very sorry to hear about your back John. I really hope you get full recovery. I once drove my friends Merc home from Somerset and we were highly amused when I leaned forward slightly to scratch my calf and the whole dashboard display changed and lit up with a message telling me I was tired and should stop for a break.
Rather different from my younger days when one might find oneself so tired at the wheel one would close one eye at a time to try to rest them...and the car didn't seem to care at all!
Roll on (not literally) your speedy recovery.
Nick

Our F54 Cooper D Mini now has servicing performed by local garage. I was concerned before making the decision that onboard service history would not be updated but assured that their OBD2 compliant tablet for which they pay a considerable annual update fee would cope with this. The service was completed and their tablet recognised our specific car so codes for new oil, fuel and air filters were successfully entered to onboard system. Nowhere in the menu though was an option to update service history.

At a recent recall for EGR firmware update I asked our local Mini dealer if they could also refresh service history as they could see that a service had been done by way of the recorded replacement filter codes. I also queried why we currently get an admittedly brief message on startup that service is overdue from 2019? despite present history showing it was serviced (by them) in 2020 and 2021. Although they did also perform a full health check FOC, as that was also showing as being overdue, they pointed out that service records are held by BMW in Germany and only official Mini/BMW dealers had the necessary permissions to connect with same for service updates. Not surprisingly the annoying service reminders (now showing in red) at every startup remain. I was told if they perform the next service though (at approx three times the cost) onboard service history would be corrected.

I think they might be spinning you a yarn Richard.

If they did the service then you should give them a little squeeze to correct the error they have created which could affect the value of your vehicle for which they are liable and so they might like to resolve the issue if they want to be considered for future work. Perhaps drop the line "Mini customer service told me this was an error by you and you should resolve it". It takes them 1 minute and the cost would have been factored into that service so they have already been paid for it!

Snap-On was a customer of mine and we did some work on their mobile devices, tablets, laptops etc. Most people know Snap-on for the toolkits but in fact they make most of their business in the dealer/manufacturer space. I believe that the tablets are able to read the vendor specific codes rather than just the default warning set OBD provides. So if a third party garage takes one of their devices and a "full" subscription to the software then they can resolve most codes. I don't think this interfaces to the service record computer back in most makers HQ/Bunker/Cloud.

The local MB franchise near me (Tony Purslow in Basingrad) sold out a couple of years back and the new lot were less engaging. Tim Purslow (brother) started as an independent just outside town not long after. They have the workshop computers. Separately they also pay for an account on the MB service system, as a result they are able to update the service record.

I think this situation is true for most of the electronic logs ? I think there was an action in the EU to stop the manufacturers from blocking access to the system which was considered anti-competitive. Instead they price it up (annual or per-transaction) and require gates (certified engineers, use of parts etc) to make it difficult. In some ways I am pleased because it means you can still retain some provenance without being scalped by less than effective main agents.

I think the inference Alistair was that even official dealers cannot update the onboard service history directly, it has to come via a link to BMW records in Germany. This fact is documented elsewhere and can only be circumnavigated by an independent dealer paying to have BMW check out their work standards, prohibitively expensive in most cases I would guess. I take note of your mention of EU interaction but it doesn't seem to have filtered through to BMW yet.

I didn't make it clear but earlier services performed by our local official dealer have been correctly recorded in the onboard history. There is a further field in the engine maintenance menu that records health checks though and it displays as not being updated since 2019, strangely reflecting in the current service warnings at startup. This is my only justified gripe but since they did a detailed and documented health check last week FOC I felt not too much to complain about.

Sorry to read of your software issue Richard, such a situation highlights for me the way that digitisation can virtually vaporise one`s technical ability if they do not have access not only to a reader/programmer but one with the specific line of code, in this case re-set service schedule programming.... Frustrating or what.. Talk about trapped in a process..?

I had concerns when I thought along the lines of allowing my garage owning friend to plug in his OBDII reader to our main dealer serviced and repaired Evoque, in the off chance that there may be a created within the JLR software, a record of unauthorised access created with whatever issues that might create at some future time.... But then seven or eight weeks wait to just get it booked in on a now seven year old car.... I was not quite patient enough for that sort of carry on.

Task completed in perhaps an hour at circa £20, Looking at the BACK of the discs they were in need of replacement... which I again did myself, replaced the pads while I was at it.... Looking at the corrosion on the bleed nipples... I really do wonder if the brake fluid changes were performed, though all the brake flexibles were replaced as the result of a recall perhaps a year or so ago, but Looking at those nipples my guess is the guys had their own process relating to replacing the flexibles that did not involve touching the nipples in any way, not even with a wire brush... Hmm..? Given my suspicions, it seems that it may just be possible that the RECORDED service history, may have more bearing on a vehicles resale value than the actual service work carried out (or not)on the car...? All of which may be fine if the car is still under a manufacturers warranty system and service failings cause a breakdown. But then there is the inconvenience factor... If you had the patience to read through my rambles you deserve a medal given the lack of punctuation and therefore possible multiple interpretation, however the degree of inconvenience and expense is recorded in relation to the Evoque there seems to be more down to dealership failure on a number of levels as it seems might be the case to others frustrated with one marque or other...?

Richard, seems unavoidable evolutionary processes may determine that I am becoming caught up in the gravitational pull away from ICE in terms of the family barge propulsion, and at risk of being sucked into the sheer convenience factor presented by fully adopting digital fully electric motoring..