zogger's Journal: Tin Whiskers and Cars

Just a comment I thought was interesting that I read at a news story about the Toyota acceleration problem. The commentator said that perhaps tin whiskers, because of the new no-lead solder industry uses, might be to blame, and also might explain why investigators can't reproduce it after the fact. The tin whiskers eventually grow to the point of creating a short, leading to the problem, then rapidly burn away with the current flow, so then when investigators look, they can't find anything.

I think that's very unlikely

[jawtheshark]

Burning out tin whiskers would leave burn traces on surrounding insulation which would give the event away.

There is one thing I'd like to point out: The runaway Toyotas all happened in the US. Why has no runaway event occurred yet in Europe? Are European Toyotas so different from US-American Toyotas. (Also, have there been reports of runaway Toyotas in Canada? )

To me these are interesting questions, especially considering the Audi case [manhattan-institute.org].

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[Qzukk]

Are European Toyotas so different from US-American Toyotas.

Actually, given that Europe started the RoHS craze, I'd say that it's pretty good evidence that it's not the solder causing the problem.

That aside though, I stand by my position that a pedal is a shitty interface for controlling a number.

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[jawtheshark]

Let me guess: motorcycle driver? ;-)

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[Qzukk]

Car driver, but since the invention of cruise control and automatic transmissions, I've wanted a car that had one pedal for stopping, and a knob to set the cruise control.

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[JesseL]

RoHS is a EU directive, but it's forced electronics manufacturers everywhere and in all industries to go lead free.

Even when you want to build something (IT infrastructure, Aerospace, Medical Equipment, etc) with good old Sn60Pb40 solder, you often can't anymore because none of the basic components (resistors, capacitors, transistors, integrated circuits, etc) are available with leaded plating on their leads and so they have problems when bonded with traditional tin-lead solder.

I don't know

[zogger]

I don't know if they had any runaway problems, but Toyota Europe recalled near two million vehicles for repairs http://www.insideline.com/toyota/toyota-pedal-recall-update-11-toyota-europe-recalling-up-to-1-8-million.html [insideline.com]

And there are some differences between the US and European models. How much I can't say, but you see it all the time with cars.

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[jawtheshark]

I know they did, but that might be just an image-saving action. Their sales apparently dropped by 20% when the US reports about the sudden acceleration came out.

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[damn_registrars]

Are European Toyotas so different from US-American Toyotas

I don't know about Toyota in particular, but a lot of manufactureres make distinctly different vehicles for sale on opposite sides of the ocean (Atlantic specifically but the Pacific as well). Even manufacturers who are based in the US have vehicles that are sold only in Europe or Asia. Add to that also the fact that manufacturers are willing to sell small diesel engines over there and the game is a bit different when you cross the pond. In this country you can count on one hand the number of unique car

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[jawtheshark]

I don't know about Toyota in particular, but a lot of manufactureres make distinctly different vehicles for sale on opposite sides of the ocean (Atlantic specifically but the Pacific as well). Even manufacturers who are based in the US have vehicles that are sold only in Europe or Asia.

Yes, but no.... You can as a rule of thumb say that what are sold as small cars in the US are sold in Europe as mid-class cars. Many many cars are essentially the same model, but get another name. Examples: Dodge/Plymouth