Hi Spook,

You hit the nail on the head. Complexity, time, and temperature.

A childhood memory has my dad explaining the choice in replacing the ringer washing machine. He advocated choosing a modern one with the fewest "bells and whistles" versus the feature-laden models with more to go wrong. I give him credit for inspiring my passion for repair.

Perhaps, as a result, my PC is 15 years old, the fridge is 35, my car is 40, the clothes washer 44, the dishwasher exactly as old as I am, and my understanding of electrolyte formulas even older.

I've had to repair control boards in more modern appliances for my kids. One fridge made it 5 years before puking a solid-state relay. Following your suggestion of keeping a spare control board in cold storage would have helped me with our kitchen range. It is more modern, and its control board has a dimming vacuum fluorescent display - a part that is always custom to the model, and may have a shorter life expectancy than juicy capacitors.

So, with infotainment systems relying on quickly-changing technology, what incentive do auto manufacturers have to make the rest of the car last? None I can figure.

Don't you have a Regina-fueled car? Maybe you could provide the OP with that voltage check if Amarin cannot.




--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart.