• tibi@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    After ~20-30 years, rubber gaskets and seals and cable insulation start failing. Plastic becomes brittle, especially if exposed to the sun. How do they solve this problem?

    • RenegadeTwister@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      5 months ago

      I would think an electric vehicle would have quite a lot fewer things like gaskets and other seals since gas isn’t involved. Other than the normal wear and tear items like brakes, shocks, rotors, etc, battery repair would be the major thing I’d expect to need work. I imagine many mechanics aren’t trained to handle these, so they end up just replacing the whole unit. Obviously this is wasteful though but could be easily solved via training.

      • bcron@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Pretty much this, diagnosing and fixing an electric motor is about as difficult as an alternator. Check signal, if good remove unit and swap (core gets remanufactured). With drive by wire and steer by wire and all that most things are equally modular. Gas pedal/throttle unit is pretty much a rheostat with a spring-loaded pedal, steering rack actuators, etc

        Then you got ICE which becomes a ship of theseus. If you put enough hours on a combustion engine you go from the simple stuff like hoses and timing belts to having to replace piston rings, bearings, or even the cylinder heads if they get so worn out that they leak and fail compression tests

      • tibi@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        True, but even electrical vehicles need lubrication, cooling, breaking fluids etc.

        I’m expecting that, as EVs become more common, the car maintenance industry will catch up.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Modularity of construction, so that rubber components can be replaced without scrapping the whole vehicle. Reducing reliance on plastic parts, or improving the ease and quality of plastic recycling, so that we can fix the exterior components without sacrificing the chassis and core parts.

    • StaySquared@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      20-30 years for rubber…

      You have way too much confidence. Have you owned a car for 10+ years? Almost everything rubber - especially within the suspension system needs replacement within the first 10 years of wear and tear.

    • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      My guess is the thermodynamics of a hot engine makes the rubber and plastic parts fail more quickly than they would otherwise.