Rebuilding the Black Box: It Would Be Disastrous by Terry Haller It is a young industry —the rebuild- ing of on-board computers and circuits. Maybe it will grow to an enormous size, maybe it will never amount to anything worth worrying about. But right now nobody knows. Some large- scale remanufacturers are involved in the “Black Box” trade. And as we have seen, so are some small-scale opera- tors. But it is still pioneer territory for most readers; though, to be sure, many are talking among themselves and wondering aloud if it’s for them. In our desire to present all sides and views in what may become the decade’s most controversial rebuilding issue, RENEWS has interviewed many different authorities. In a field as new as automotive electronic controls rebuilding it is difficult to find spokes- people who can draw on reams of research data. Instead, most of these authorities must draw on their experi- ence. This can vary from the very profound to the very shallow. But regardless of the profundity and sub- stantiality of the views they are the views that will govern the destiny of this neophyte business segment. We want to report on one of the more informed judgments. It comes from a rather seasoned automotive veteran, a person who has had careers in both the manufacturing and supplier side and in the service arena. It comes from a man who is now a senior executive in a major firm in the automotive industry —a man who requested anonymity in order to permit total frankness. His views, though strongly negative, are must-reading for all rebuilders. However, we wish to stress that the ball game is not yet out of its first inning and the final game stats have yet to be assembled… RENEWS: Our readers rebuild alternators, generators, starters, etc. and their premise could be that if a black box can be rebuilt maybe they should be taking a serious look at it. RESPONDENT: That, without try- ing to take a stand on the issue either way, will be disastrous. That’s some- thing that I’d say the average rebuilder would not be qualified to do. RENEWS: We are just exploring the subject. At this moment you could say most are not qualified. But we want to explore the terrain and see how difficult it would be to do and what kind of equipment you would have to buy, what kind of problems you are going to face in getting the proper data, manuals, etc. RESPONDENT: You know this puts me in a very awkward position because some very important OEs strongly dis- courage tampering with the black box. Please don’t quote me on any of this, but from a marketing perspective we can certainly appreciate why the OEs and their key suppliers would say that. However, there is another level to this which I’ve since become interested in: Our thinking can go all the way back to the halls of science in Germany where these things were designed and researched. Because I studied many of the original tests I was perfectly attuned to the results of the tests that rejected rebuilt chips. Back in Germany when they were sourced from rebuilding labs and then sent back for evaluation, the results were most discouraging. For a variety of reasons they didn’t work and it left one open for speculation about why anyone would want to rebuild these if they understood how their quality was so badly rated by the tough tests the OE subjected them to. I’m talking as an engineer now, not as a marketing person. RENEWS: You are talking about rebuilding the actual on-board computer? RESPONDENT: Yes. Just dipping into the circuit boards and replacing faulty connectors or chips or whatever it is that made it malfunction. You know, even if the rebuilder had the facility and could source components of comparable quality we’re dis- cussing an issue of extreme cleanliness and extra care. The average rebuilder might find working with these circuit boards and things of that nature almost impossible. The net outcome could be a low quality product which leaves the motor in a very risky position. I’m not trying to discourage rebuilding but I am really dubious about the aftermar- ket’s ability to rebuild components which have to be built in an absolutely sterile environment. RENEWS: What kind of problems would impede the successful rebuild- ing of these things in your experience? RESPONDENT: I’m only telling you this on the QT and if you will respect that perhaps I can share my perception with you. I think that the problems that some of the OEs experi- enced were things like replacement components having poor quality as far as power governance is concerned. That was the number one problem or one of the chief problems. In the aftermarket it is very difficult to source the electronic components which have the level of quality that today’s complex power plants require. Chips must go through rigorous tests before they are applied to circuit boards, etc. You then need to have a work environment that is hospital- clean with very sterile and ideal condi- tions which I doubt can be duplicated