Why Electrical Failures Are Becoming More Common in Newer Cars

 Modern vehicles can now be termed as ‘electronic guinea-pigs’ that have dramatically changed from rather simple, mechanical contraptions to highly complex, electronic-induced systems in a short time of less than five decades. This dramatic technology revolution has offered numerous advantages such as safety, ease of use and fuel economy, but also a few new problems, namely, the electrical breakdowns that are notorious in modern motor vehicles, unlike older machines that were purely mechanical, simple and free from electronic issues.

 This article will try to explain why electrical failures are more likely in more recent cars, what challenges these issues present the mechanics as well as the drivers and what is being done to address them.

The Increasing Complexity of Vehicle Electronics

 The most significant cause of these electrical faults has got to be the greater complexity of modern motor cars, as so much of what actually took place mechanically in the past is now achieved by more complex electronics. The driver can expect most of the features of the car to depend on electronic systems such as:

 Infotainment systems: Interfaces with touchscreens and radio, infotainment and navigation functions, Bluetooth connections, and onboard voice recognition all require electronic control modules to work.

 Sophisticated safety systems: systems such as automatic emergency braking (AEB), lane-keeping assist, adaptive cruise control, and blind-spot monitoring rely on an array of sensors and computers.

 1) Electronic control units that control powertrain/engine management (engine performance, fuel injection, emissions control, gear shifting) and provide maximum efficiency and performance, while consuming as little fuel as possible.

 Comfort-oriented features: Heated leather seats, power windows and door locks, automatic climate control These as well are electrical systems. 

 Such innovations do make driving more comfortable and convenient, but they also add more potential failure points. You can think of them as ‘failure fields’: the more electronics you add to anything, the greater the chance that something will go wrong.

1. The Proliferation of Sensors and ECUs

 Today’s vehicles have multiple scores, often hundreds, of sensors and electronic control units (general-purpose computer chips on a chip), each measuring and controlling some part of what’s going on inside the car. The components communicate with each other over a controller area network (short: CAN bus) of which the different subsystems of the car are parts.

 But with so many systems speaking to each other, a glitch in one sensor or ECU has the potential to interact with several others until they begin sharing symptoms and snowballing into wider problems. An oxygen sensor that’s going bad, affecting engine performance, might also set off the check engine light, impacting emissions control and fuel economy. As today’s cars get loaded up with ECUs responsible for concentrations as trivial as the proper inflation of tyres – and for controlling such important functions as the week-long seat memory adjustments that millions of drivers now rely on – electrical gremlins seem a much more likely cause of disruption.

2. Reliance on Software and Firmware

 If cars are essentially computers on wheels, they will always be dependent on software and firmware to run correctly. Most modern vehicles run on thousands of lines of code for everything from the mechanical inputs needed to run a fuel injection to the ones needed to operate a windshield wiper. If software fails to perform a function, or becomes outdated, this can lead to electrical ghosts and other issues that wouldn’t affect older, more mechanical cars.

Common software-related electrical issues include:

Glitches in infotainment systems, causing touchscreens to freeze or fail.

 Failures in ‘driver’ aids, such as issues with lane-keeping assist or adaptive cruise control.

Incorrect sensor readings that cause warning lights to illuminate unnecessarily.

 The manufacturer will give an alert from time to time with a software update to tweak these problems but, most of the time, it requires a visit to the dealership and rarely cures it in full.

3. Battery and Charging System Strain

 To run all that equipment requires much more electrical power than the electrical system in cars of decades ago. This additional load can push the car’s battery and alternator to their limits, leading to battery failure, alternator failure, or charging system failure, all of which can lead to general electrical failure throughout the vehicle.

 Newer cars use their battery to power not only the starter motor but all the on board electronics: cameras, sensors, and data-gathering computers that are always on even when the car is turned off. Parasitic battery drain occurs when electronic components continue to draw power from the battery while the car engine is idle, which is one of the newer problems with modern cars. In turn, the batteries in newer cars could wear out early, resulting in electrical failures.

 Furthermore, as hybrid and electric vehicles (EVs) with electrical systems that are even more intergral to vehicle functionality become more prevalent, a failure of the battery or charging system can cripple the entire vehicle’s functionality.

4. Environmental Factors and Electrical Systems

 High temperature, moisture and vibration are even more likely to knock out a car’s electricals. It used to be that old-fashioned mechanical systems made of tin and rubber, sometimes reinforced by iron and plastic, were relatively impervious to such rough conditions; now a car is filled with highly vulnerable computerised technology, such as a diagnostic module or network control unit.

Common environmental causes of electrical failures include:

 Corrosion: Moisture can cause problems with the electrical contacts in connectors, sometimes leading to electrical shorts, and more commonly caused by poor contact between components.

 Heat: High heat, especially due to an engine bay that gets excessively warm, can make wires and electrical components brittle or crack over time and break.

 Vibration: All that jouncing up and down can shake apart electrical connections or deliberately stress wiring harnesses, causing intermittent electrical problems.

 Cars might be well designed to deal with these conditions, but with every model in existence having many electrical components, some are bound to give out over time, especially if they get exposed to their full ambit.

5. Increased Use of Wiring and Connectors

 As a result, modern vehicles require vastly more electronic parts than their predecessors. The miles upon miles of wiring that this setup requires create many, many more potential points of failure. The trouble is, a single bad connection can cause problems for more than one system because, in many places, the wiring supports more than one component.

 A wobbly wire in the steering column might activate the airbag, honk the horn, or make steering harder; and shaving off millimetres to reduce the car’s weight can result in less durable wires or cheaper materials that fail more often as time goes on.

6. Manufacturing Defects and Recalls

 With carmakers racing to incorporate new technologies into their cars, some systems with electrical components could be released before they’re fully tested or with a defective design. In many cases, problems could cause widespread electrical issues that force carmakers to issue recalls. Shoddy electrical wiring, defective ECUs or improperly designed software could cause malfunctions ranging from small inconveniences to major safety problems.

 Indeed, the very fact that automobiles nowadays have numerous, often recent, costly recalls related to electrical issues underscores the fact that vehicle electronics are getting more and more complicated. Many recalls are triggered by conditions that show up after a vehicle has been in use for a while, with real-world conditions allowing an accurate manifestation to emerge only after weeks or months.

7. The Push for Autonomous Features

 The more capable any one part of the car becomes as an electrical system – as something that controls how the car reacts or responds – the more the others need to keep up. Systems such as automatic emergency braking, lane-keeping assist and adaptive cruise control rely on a high-speed flow of signals from sensors in the car to control modules around the vehicle’s perimeter.

 These AI- and machine learning-fuelled systems also happen to be quite susceptible to faults involving electricity. A short in the ground, a glitch in a single sensor or other system, and the autonomous feature malfunctions. As manufacturers continue to push the envelope on automation, the systems involved will only get more complex, probably resulting in more electrical failures unless more robust defences are developed.

How to Mitigate Electrical Failures in Modern Cars

 While some of these electrical failure have become more of a common thing, there are actions vehicle drivers can commit to into driving to reduce these faults and maintain their automobiles since needed:

 Regular Maintenance: Perform preventive maintenance checks and replace or charge the battery. Check for problems with the wiring and with software updates.

 Environmental Protection: Protect your vehicle from environmental extremes as much as possible. Park it in a garage away from extreme moisture and heat. Apply protective sprays on exposed electrical connectors to prevent corrosion. 

 Software Updates: Autos are, typically, one of the last things people think of updating electronically. But a vehicle like the one shown has anywhere from 50 to 100 processors and electronic control units, many of which rely on a central computer. It is essential that these be updated to account for bugs or fixes in the actual automotive code.

 Have it diagnosed by a pro: Unless you are a professional, your car’s electrical problems need to be diagnosed by a trained mechanic. Modern vehicles often have sophisticated electrical systems that require specialised diagnostic tools to determine the exact cause of an electrical failure.

Conclusion

 When a modern-age vehicle has an electrical failure, it’s often justified for the owner to be worried. The simple fact that today’s new vehicles are highly complicated in terms of the number of electronic components created additional problems on the owner’s side. Modern cars that both look and drive so well are produced using thousands of electronics components and electronic modules. Those who drive and operate new vehicles are certainly the beneficiaries of countless electronic devices fitted to the vehicle. These devices greatly improve or enhance vehicle operations from the comfort and convenience for the driver as well as for other passengers.

Unfortunately, with the increasing complexity of electronic devices used in modern vehicles come heightened risks of potential failure or malfunction. The more electronic components used, the more ways there are for a problem to arise. As a result, the likelihood of unexpected vehicle malfunctions has also increased. A common cause of electronic failure are various types of transistors actuating switches.

In order to mitigate the likelihood of having an unexpected electronic failure, the owner of the vehicle should understand the most common causes of such failure and take necessary measures of prevention. While modern automotive technologies are very promising and serve as an comfort, reliability and ultimate safety when operating a vehicle, these new technologies bring new challenges that need to be addressed.