Car Management With an Engine Control Unit

Every motorist is seeking the best performance from their vehicle, particularly in these days of rising fuel costs, but at the same time greater usage of transportation. Before the introduction of an engine control unit, mechanics set the air-fuel mixture, ignition timing and the idling speed of a vehicle and these were controlled by mechanical and pneumatic influences. One of the earliest recorded attempts to utilize an automated device, for simultaneous management and multiple engine control was in 1939 and was created by BMW, in their "801, 14-cylinder radial" engine.

An engine control unit, generally termed the power-train control module (PCM) is designed to control a series of actuators to ensure high performance levels of an internal combustion engine. This is created by a multitude of sensors from which data is supplied to the ECU, with the related values interpreted by multi-dimensional maps, commonly termed "look-up tables". Based on the results, the actuators of the engine are accordingly adjusted.

Cost effectiveness is now a priority for many individuals and businesses, with additional equipment being purchased, to a great degree as a needed item or to affect greater monetary savings. In this connection, consideration should be given to rebuilt and re-programmed units, which carry warranties of one year on "OEM" computers. For cost conscious buyers restricted by imposed budgets, but seeking value and quality at the best prices, this could be an opportunity for significant savings.

Inter-related with engine control units, or engine control modules, depending on the manufacturer, is a transmission control module (TCM), often termed a transmission control unit (TCU) or a transmission control computer (TCC). Due to the various programs of ongoing improvement established by the vehicle manufactures striving to lead of maintain a position in an extremely competitive marketplace, continual vehicle electronic enhancements are placed before owners and drivers. Besides the foregoing devices, there is a body control module (BCM) and a brake control module (BCM, specifically designed for vehicles with an ABS braking system.

Combined with the engine control unit and the supporting electronic devices, an average motorist or transport manager, could be forgiven for wondering if the investment in buying a new vehicle is a positive step or will it be rendered obsolete the following year! It would therefore, be an advantage to consider upgrading present vehicles to extract maximum operational cost savings by seeking advice from a specialist manufacturer of high quality and highly competitive priced devices.

Fuel consumption is always difficult to control and it is therefore incumbent on a driver to use a vehicle as economically as possible. However, road conditions influence a driver's ability and the solution becomes reliant on the performance of the vehicle. This is shown with an engine control unit (ECU) which will calculate the engine load at the existing RPM and determine whether to open the valve early or late and to what degree. This induces the best opening and timing, with the combustion as precise as possible, as opposed to a normal camshaft.

The optimal opening and timing are always reached and combustion is as precise as possible. This, of course, cannot be achieved with a normal camshaft, which opens the valve for the whole intake period, and always to full lift.

A wide range of automotive controllers and sensors is available at www.carcomputerexchange.com

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Dealership Online Reputation Management

I've attended over a dozen NADA conventions and there are always vendors hoping to sell you the magic behind Happy Customers. From sending fresh baked cookies to monitoring your phone calls, there are many different ways to improve the Customer experience. This year's convention introduced me to companies that will help you with your On-Line Reputation.

A Dealership can build a reputation on the Internet, unfortunately, just like the factory CSI scores, it's usually the unhappy Customers who speak out. So it's not difficult to develop a bad reputation, even when you haven't earned it.

Before you can do anything, find out where you stand with your on-line reputation. Go to Google and type in your Dealership's name. What shows up is your Dealership's website and in most cases a rating that Google has accumulated with reviews found throughout the Internet. If you have no rating, enter your competitions' names in the Google search, and see what their ratings are. It's scary! Even the world's best Dealer couldn't get all 5 stars. When you click on "Reviews," you can see from which sources the comments are coming, and you can see how easy it is for anyone to write a review - either negative or positive.

What's important is listening to the reviews from your Customers. It may be hard to swallow, but this feedback is extremely valuable to continually improve your business. After reading some reviews on one Dealership, the problem was even though the Customers were entering all the information on-line for a service appointment, when the Customer got to the Dealership the Customer had to start from scratch. We know that when a good reservation process is put into place, this problem can be fixed. In this example, we see Customer Comments can be useful to the Service Department. Do something positive with the Internet posts, don't ignore them.

To find posts on your Dealership go to blogsearch.google.com and type in the Dealership's name and look how often your name comes up. As more and more Customers look to the Internet for their purchasing decisions, you'll want to insure that what Customers read about your Dealership is heavily weighted with positive feedback.

Being able to respond to the anonymous "feedback" is important to keep things positive. Dealerrater.com claims you can monitor all your feedback and allows you the opportunity to follow up and reconcile any negative comments. It's easier if you don't think of the comments as negatives, think of them as opportunities to improve the Customer experience.

But when it comes down to it, the only way to overcome any negative remarks is to encourage Happy Customers to post positive remarks. Kinda makes you yearn for the days when just sending cookies would make a Customer happy.

For more ideas like this to help improve your Dealership's Net Profits and Customer happiness contact Brooke Samples at brooke