Cars overloaded with electronics

[JSH]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

My new (used) 2021 Pacifica hybrid recently bricked due to "high voltage negative contactor stuck closed". I scoured the interwebz to figure out how I might fix that problem to no avail. Finally I signed up with AAA, had a tow truck haul the van to the nearest dealership, and they charged me $200 to "reset the contactor", whatever that process is.

The "right to repair" doesn't include having a vague idea of what resetting the contactor entails, apparently, and also apparently isn't covered by the 100,000 mile hybrid component warranty, even though the contactors are attached to the battery and not a serviceable part.

So a wrecker company made some money, a Chrysler dealer made some money, and the Chrysler corporation made nothing on your repair.

Right to repair has been a thing for more than a decade in the auto market. It means that Chrysler provides independent shops with the same technical materials and tools available to a certified Chrysler dealer. You could buy those tools too if you wanted to pony up the funds.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Piwoslaw

[Conspiracy theory - start] Governments are on the OEMs' side by introducing laws which favour frequent replacement with brand new models. Other than incentives for big companies, which help bring down the initial up front cost, there are laws about penalties for emissions. Some of these laws do not even check whether your car is presently tuned properly or not, they only limit your access to certain city centers based on the emissions class (eg EURO4, EURO5, EURO6) of your car when it was produced - and this class more or less implies how young your car is. It does not matter how dirty it runs now, or even if you've blocked your EGR and removed the DPF.
So this leads to absurd situations where a properly tuned and perfectly hypermiled EURO3 car would be classified as "polluting" and would be restricted from entering many areas, while a 2024 fuel-guzzling 400hp V8 would be labelled as EURO5 or EURO6 and would have no problems with polluting those areas restricted to others.

It's far from being a conspiracy theory. New (and more expensive) cars are usually an easy source of tax revenue for governments with all those licensing fees, VAT, whatever...

[Piotrsko]

There's probably some you tube channel or equivalent to reset/replace that relay. From my surveys of stuff you can probably replace the whole relay too after an annoying search process for it.