[Paddlewise] FW: Cars that crash when the millennium arrives

Those who use American-built 1990-94 Jeep Eagle Talons to haul their boats (or do other things) may find this useful.

It is the first time I've heard of a car having Year-2000 problems. (And the market for such "embedded" computers is ten times the size of the personal computer market!) I plan to be safely at home New Year's eve 1999 - with candles, firewood and a shotgun (registered of course). In the meantime, I'm checking the 'yak for Y2K compliance!

Ken Lalonde, kayaking soontobe
Alberta, Canada

-----Original Message-----
From:	Declan McCullagh [SMTP:declan_at_well.com]
Sent:	Wednesday, April 22, 1998 3:44 PM
To:	politech_at_vorlon.mit.edu
Subject:	FC: Cars that crash when the millennium arrives

[This is an excerpt from Peter Neumann's excellent RISKS digest, at
http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/19.68.html#subj4 --Declan]


                              The Risks Digest
       Forum on Risks to the Public in Computers and Related Systems
      ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy, Peter G. Neumann,
                                 moderator
                            Volume 19, Issue 68
                           Thursday 16 April 1998
                                      
Y2K and the eagle talon
  
   
    Dug Song <dugsong_at_monkey.org>
    
   Wed, 15 Apr 1998 20:46:03 -0500 (EST)

>Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 20:18:52 -0400
>From: Josh Rivel <jrivel_at_dti.net>
>To: geeks_at_umich.edu
>Subject: GeeK: interesting implications of Y2K non-compliance

I'm on a mailing list related to Eagle Talons/Mitsubishi Eclipses/Galant VR4's
anyway, it seems the code in the ECU's for the 1st generation of those cars
(1990-1994) has an interesting problem with Y2K compliance.

The following excerpt was written by Todd Day <today_at_dsm.org> who is the
list moderator, and ECU (Engine Control Unit, aka car computer) wizard.

 [All you guys with 1989-1994 DSMs might want to take another car to the
 parties on Y2K eve...  or arrange for a tow truck.  1995-98 ECUs seem
 to be Y2K compliant, as far as I can tell (an OBDII requirement).  If
 you don't want to be seen at the party without your DSM, for $100, I
 can fix your ECU so the overflow problem won't happen until 2089.

 I've set my ECU to the bewitching hour, and the results aren't
 pretty.  The overflow causes a mask bit to be set which prevents the
 spark plug in cylinder 3 from firing, but doesn't stop the fuel flow.
 The fuel flow in that cylinder actually doubles due to a side-effect
 of the spark bug.  This creates some pretty spectacular backfires, I
 must say...  One hell of a way to welcome in the new century.

 Oh yeah - this bug happens at December 31st, 1999 at midnight (or
 January 1st, 2000, depending on how you look at it) in the CENTRAL
 time zone.  That's because the cars were all built in Illinois.  So
 for you East Coasters, it will occur at 1am, and West Coasters will
 experience it at 10pm.

 -talon mgr]

Josh Rivel  Senior Network Engineer  Digital Telemedia, Inc.
http://home.dti.net/jrivel

   ---------------------------------------------

[...]



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