I've just collected my new Zafira (2.0DTi) and the handbook states that a mobile phone can't be used in the vehicle without an external antenna. What planet are they on? While I'm one of the few people who doesn't carry one about as a matter of course, I might have a passenger in my car and it wouldn't even occur to me to ask him/her "are you carrying a mobile phone ?". Surely it's the responsibility of a maker to harden their systems to comply with current norms? It's possibly not so critical in a diesel, certainly if their commercial vehicles are built to the same standard there would be an epidemic of white van men looking at their immobilised vans.
Gordon Webb
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> an epidemic of white van men looking at their immobilised vans.
bliss!
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Why do they have this warning? Excuse me sounding daft, but you don't say...
Is it because they feel the electronic emmisions will play havoc with the electrics in the vehicle? Or is there another reason?
If the former is correct, then you are going to have GREAT fun as you switch between reception areas, and the 'where are you' signal automatically 'finds' your phone ...
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Can't or shouldn't or mustn't?
3 shades of meaning at least! Just think what fun the radiation could have with electric mirrors, electric seats let alone the ABS ECU etc!
I remember owning a Carlton CDX K plate that several times suffered malfunction to the Cruise control from transmitted radiation. The only way to clear the problem was to stop and power off the ignition. (this was obviously a precursor to Mr Gates and the Reset Button).
Once caused by a cell phone in a passing car! and once passing a high powered transmitter site whilsy on a German Autobahn. (This must have been a significant problem for other car users since there appeared to be an adhoc Faraday Cage (a crisscross of wires suspended over the motorway).
I tried taking the issue up with Vauxhall but guess how far I got!
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well i am ok in my lada :-)
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I loved that old Vauxhall Carlton... See you at Christmas.
DB.
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I notice in my local Japanese import auto dress-up store (they only have Japanese stuff and you would not believe the vast variety of things available that you never thought of, 4 times the size of Halfords) that they carry a rather neat magnetic stick-on raked back matt black antenna about 9 inches long, designed to be placed on the outside of the car. This is supposed to capture and strengthen the cellphone signal when it is weak or perhaps shielded by the vehicle (so the saleslady says, I don't speak Nippongo too well). Perhaps therefore the condition referred to does exist where a vehicle might need such a thing because of its design. My cellphone works fine so does my wife's, I drive a 2001 US Ford pickup, she has a same year Ford Lynx, both full of electric gizmos.
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Fair point, I didn't specify Vauxhall's remarks very well. Here they are (highlit in yellow so they mean it):
"When used in the vehicle interior, mobile telephones and radio equipment (CB) with integrated aerial may cause malfunctions in the vehicle electronics on account of the high-frequency transmission energy. (Underlined) Mobile telephones and radio equipment should only be used with an aerial fitted to the outside of the vehicle."
I'll check with my local dealer to see if they have had any instances of failures due to mobile phone use. Are other makers as ill-prepared for the modern world?
The turbo diesel engine presumably has its own electronic engine management system so I can't safely assume that it's as immune as, for example, an older basic Isuzu unit would have been.
A Lada would have no trouble in this department (I've owned a Lada wagon in the past and it gave me good service before it threatened to rot out, an honest-to-god cam chain drive was nice) but most of us have not chosen complex vehicles because we like them, we just don't have any choice in today's market.
Can you imagine the hassle that'll come with the hydrogen economy?
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I have heard of the electronics of some cars being affected, allegedly, by mobiles. This has sometimes needed a reprogramme by the dealer. But, just look around you; so many people use them without car kits, and one so rarely hears of the problems, I suspect it's simply over caution by the car makers - or an excuse to blame something else for an electronics glitch?
Regards
John
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My J Reg, BMW came with the same warning. I only had it for about 6 months, but I used the phone a lot and never had a difficulty.
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I think that there has been a suggestion that radiation from a mobile telephone could cause the airbags to go off. Perhaps someone who knows about this will post?
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If the point of the warning is electronic malfunction, rather than safety, how do you stop the guy in the next car or the pedestrial on the pavement using theirs?
Could radiation cause a "drive by wire" accelerator to jam open, for instance?
I like the story about how the Yanks made fun of the Russians combat aircraft reliance on valve technology when their own was micro-electronics, until they realised that valves would keep working when subjected to the electronic pulse of a nuclear explosion, whereas computer chips would throw in the towel.
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I note that www.bt.com/mobilestore/mobile_faqs.htm#q5 seems to dismiss the possible interaction between mobile phone and car electronics. It says basically that vehicles electronics systems are designed to be unaffected by higher signal strengths than a mobile phone will generate. It doesn't say whether this extends to pocket held phones or to ones with an external aerial.
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I think its probably a liability thing.
It'll be incase something does go wrong because of a mobile phone and an accident results from it. Vauxhall can simply then say 'read the manual, we told you so' instead of having to get into a very expensive court case.
The ECUs will have been designed to use different frequencies than mobiles - when was the last time anyone heard of an ECU effecting a mobile phone? If they worked on similar frequencies you'd hear interference and distortion.
Mark
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I think its probably a liability thing.
It'll be incase something does go wrong because of a mobile phone and an accident results from it. Vauxhall can simply then say 'read the manual, we told you so' instead of having to get into a very expensive court case.
The ECUs will have been designed to use different frequencies than mobiles - when was the last time anyone heard of an ECU effecting a mobile phone? If they worked on similar frequencies you'd hear interference and distortion.
Mark
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I think its probably a liability thing.
It'll be incase something does go wrong because of a mobile phone and an accident results from it. Vauxhall can simply then say 'read the manual, we told you so' instead of having to get into a very expensive court case.
The ECUs will have been designed to use different frequencies than mobiles - when was the last time anyone heard of an ECU effecting a mobile phone? If they worked on similar frequencies you'd hear interference and distortion.
Mark
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