Hi Günter, Brian, and All, Thanks for the news on Allessandro--where in Italy is he? Say "hello" for me if you see him. The problem with the automotive industry is that--unbelievanly but true--they do not have data beyond the warranty period--typically 3 years. --The airbag situation came to light because people crashed, but survived, as a result of it. --With the windshield wipers some failures occurred in little more than 1 year and in numbers that got NTSHA's attention and ultimately resulted in an unfortunately only limited recall. Here they tried to blame the vendor for poor workmanship, but it was a lousy design. --Electronics sure does age. It is not a surprise to me that the mechanic had a replacement wiper motor assembly [I'm quite sure it was not the motor but the motor control that failed in your case]. Delco produces its automotive modules so they can easily be replaced [1 nut & 1 connector], and the replacement trade is so voluminous that there are fake Delco-mdules on the market. --Actually, the travelling salesman may be putting less damage on the the electronics [he likely moves for longer distances and shorter stops, thus reducing the number and severity of cycles] than the suburban housewife. The automotive industry has 'typical' use data, but it is not clear whether or how these are used for the design of the car electronics. Nothing is going to happen until some consumer group pays attention. Best regards, Werner Engelmaier --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8e To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315 -----------------------------------------------------