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Carquestions continues his investigation of the GM HotShot heated windshield washer fluid units.
10 Comments on “GM Heated Washer Fluid Investigation Part Two...”
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@ carquestions…
you shouldn’t be thanking us, we should be thanking you. very well done report, interesting and informative. nice job and thank you!
Couldn’t agree more.
Excellent report, and it would appear that mounting orientation is critical. Perhaps if the unit was on its side, the condensation would run out the drain hole next to the other terminal? I believe the responsibility should lie with GM, though, to test the units in the real world, not just in the lab or under ideal conditions.
How about cleaning off any corrosion, then sealing the power conductors with silicone?
Just another example of why I am affraid to fly or take speed trains.
It’s bad enough that my car can suddenly take control of itself, but at least I am on the ground and have a fighting chance!
These same engineers or designers or quality control, who ever is at fault, are the same working on airplanes.
And it’s another reason I am not on the newest AirBus A380 or will be the 787.
These things need to get the gremlins out.
There have been many books on the subject of engineering disasters, that show (over and over) engineers and designers catching potential disasters at the last minute (yay!) or finding potential disasters and fighting to get the issues fixed or the products delayed, but management overriding/ignoring their concerns and proceeding.
This is one of the reasons we have whistleblower laws, at least in the US. Engineers typically obsess over getting things right and safe — nobody wants to be responsible for injuries or deaths, and besides, engineers ENJOY getting things right and safe — against the constraints imposed by management for time-to-market, budget, and plain old incompetence.
Why does the video keep bringing up that the parts are made in China and then say that the manufactures aren’t at fault? Design wasn’t done in China.
@Steven02
The videos appear somewhat stream of consciousness, so observations are just observations. Were this to be condensed into a report those observations may not have made it in. Given the spate of quality control problem from Chinese companies the last few years, that observation would have seemed significant before the final observations about the corrosion and the water trap theory was made.
When you design here and manufacture a world away the disconnect that results prevents problems from being identified. Engineers designed it, the Chinese dutifully made it according to plans, but testing gets done in your driveway.
If manufacturing and design were done in the same building the people with slide rules would have a greater chance of catching faults in the product. Maybe not this problem, but quite a few.
This is the price we pay for outsourcing and cost reduction.
Manufacturing also includes making prototypes. These go back to the engineers before a final version is released. I don’t think that this is really the problem.