Modern vehicles feature more electronic components than ever before. There are so many ECUs, sensors and software programmes that it can be difficult to know where to start when a car enters the workshop with a problem.

However, despite the increase in electronics, most modern cars will still feature the basics. The alternator and starter motor have been a feature of passenger cars for decades, and quite often, electrical issues can be attributed to them.

So when it comes to vehicle electronics, are they really as complex as we think they are? Or is keeping an eye on the basics the best way to be?

Looking at the basics

The alternator has a lot of work to do, especially in modern cars, when it comes to keeping them powered. But how has it developed over the years, to ensure it can keep up with the demands of vehicle electronics today?

“We started off with the basic alternator and over the years we have actually improved it,” commented Mike Sadler, Assistant Manager, Aftermarket, at DENSO. “We went to stage three, and now to Segment Conductor.

“Now, rather than have circular copper wire, we went to angular. This reduced coil resistance but also gave us a more compact solid-state winding. That led to the alternator reducing in size and reducing in weight by 20%.

“Not only did it raise the output, but it was also less load on the engine to actually drive the alternator. This means that emissions were also taken into account, alongside the electrical output,” Sadler added.

Development in the alternator market has meant it should be one of the first things that should be checked when it comes to vehicle electronics issues. A faulty alternator is going to reduce power into the vehicle, which could impact other electronic components.

Considering remanufacturing

Should the alternator fail, replacing with a new OE quality component is a good idea. However, the vehicle electronics sector is also open to high-quality remanufactured components.

But why should workshops consider reman when it comes to replacing the alternator or other vehicle electronics components?

“There are two aspects to reman, with quality being one of these,” highlighted Harnek Bhogal from Autoelectro. “But the other part is the availability. So, a customer brings a car to a garage, and the repairer needs to change the alternator or the starter. It is no use to that repairer if there is a back order on the part that is coming from Far East. That means the car is sat on that ramp taking up time and space that the garage could otherwise use more efficiently.

With reman, because we rely on a surcharge product and the call for it, if there is ever a one-off opportunity or there is a slight delay, we will have an old core that we can just remanufacture within that sort of date and push that through the production line as a high priority order

“The other aspect of that is quality. We have total oversight over the components that we use in our remanufacturing process, the engineering and the workmanship that goes into the products and the testing at the end of it. We have every opportunity to ensure the quality of the products, whereas if we were just buying from a factory in the Far East, we would have to do a lot of testing.”

Testing complex vehicle electronics

However, we cannot ignore that the modern vehicle features multiple ECUs, controlling everything from infotainment to ADAS, and even acceleration and braking.

“Vehicle electronics have changed over the last few years, we have come from a nice, simple 12-volt system with a live and an earth, and shifted from hardware-centric to software-defined vehicles nowadays,” stated Chris Hill, Technical Training Manager at LKQ UK & Ireland.

“Vehicles relied heavily on mechanical components with isolated electronic control units years ago. That has changed again over the last few years, so now we are looking at more software-driven vehicles. So we have centralised computing platforms controlling many of the functions. We have over-the-air calibrations happening.

“So technicians need to be conscious of what they are working with. We have shifted from mechanical to digital diagnosis. We need more advanced diagnostic tools, and need to go further and deeper when it comes to searching for electronic faults. There is much more to take in, meaning training is essential.”

Overall, however, vehicle electronics are simple to understand with the right training, and focus on the basics. Investigation is always required, but while we sometimes consider electronics complex, they really need not be.