Closed question "Answer" disappeared

[Bob's Garage]

Once again, my "Answer" to a question I asked has disappeared. This morning, I closed a question and I saw the "answer", but the "answer" is missing now. In fact, in "My Stuff" the question does not appear anymore, which should mean it is closed, right?.

However, when I view the question, it shows the "Close Question" button.



http://askatech.com/AskATechLive/Das...Selection=true

I might add that the replies to the question were a total of one. When a question about a BMW or Mercedes is asked, there isn't much response.

I duplicated the BMW question and posted it as an iATN Tech Help and got 7 quality replies.

I sure hope it gets better.

Thanks, Bob

[MasterWrench]

Now that almost all of BMW's diagnostic info is only available on their factory tool I wouldn't be holding my breath on either Sure Track or IATN for replies on BMW issues.

[Crusty]

What the Euro manufacturers have done is found a CLEVER way to CIRCUMVENT the NASTF agreement making service information available.

Technically it is available if someone wishes to purchase their proprietary scan tool.

For all intents and purposes, their service manual is a mere $22,000.00 and another four figures each year to just keep the pages turning.

They justify this extortion by claiming that their scan tool gives someone what they call "Guided Fault Finding" or "GFF". All that means is the scan tool leads you by the nose, and down the proverbial garden path, while you turn your brain off and become a monkey or a chimpanzee. If all else fails you can then "recode", "initialize", or "reflash" the original software to solve the problem.

Lets face it. The engineers have not taken into account every possibility that could occur in the real world use of an automobile. What I have found after almost 40 years is that the final root cause of a problem is kinda strange, and the expression that "The Truth Is Often Stranger Than Fiction" then becomes "truth". In hindsight the solution does make sense, but there is no way that all possible combinations can have been thought of before the fact, so the engineers do not have all the answers in their GFF thought out.

With my father being an engineer I was taught the value of K.I.S.S and the convoluted designs are shown to be asinine, stupid and ludicrous. This isn't limited to the automotive world, but it sure is very prevalent.

If you are a dealer of such makes, or a specialized shop that only works on these vehicles, AND you have the demographics for a needed volume, then you can spread the price of their "service manual" across a great number of vehicles.

Over engineered, convoluted designs, with poorly written initial software that constantly needs to be re-written which affects several other modules' software which also need to be re-written at the same time just to accommodate the new software and then a service manual availability just so someone can read up on a vehicles' systems and designs (which is PARAMOUNT to correctly checking, testing and diagnosing any of today's vehicles) that is essentially economically restrictive and it doesn't surprise me at all that there are not many who even bother with these vehicles.

In practicing this restrictive policy, and the accompanying arrogant elitist position, the manufacturers are intentionally attempting to make anyone who isn't a dealer or one of the select few who can access their service manual appear incompetent so they can force the motoring public back to their dealerships predominantly and thus charge whatever they want for service and repairs and parts.

Essentially their "service manual" is over twenty grand.
SnapOn being part of NASTF needs to address and resolve this issue which for all intents becomes a clever way to limit access to the service information, which is what NASTF was supposed to facilitate in the first place. Make service information available. As someone on IATN pointed out "economically unavailable is still unavailable".

Sorry for the rant Bob and Nick but either this tactic is stopped or else soon all of us are effectively going to be "locked out" of any service information. I didn't want to use that term but it's the net effect of a policy of only publishing service information within their proprietary scan tools.

[MasterWrench]

If you own a BMW now you have to go to the dealer. I am hoping that people will stop buying BMW's in the US because of this and other manufacturers will see and figure out information only on proprietary scan tools is a very bad idea.

[Nick_Taylor]

Once again, my "Answer" to a question I asked has disappeared. This morning, I closed a question and I saw the "answer", but the "answer" is missing now. In fact, in "My Stuff" the question does not appear anymore, which should mean it is closed, right?.

However, when I view the question, it shows the "Close Question" button.



http://askatech.com/AskATechLive/Das...Selection=true

I might add that the replies to the question were a total of one. When a question about a BMW or Mercedes is asked, there isn't much response.

I duplicated the BMW question and posted it as an iATN Tech Help and got 7 quality replies.

I sure hope it gets better.

Thanks, Bob

Bob, yes, there is another glitch in the system related to closing questions. I'm trying to get it fixed.

[Crusty]

Within the last day or two I saw Bob's fixed post but today I can't find it anywhere-!! And he is correct regarding his first post in this thread here.

I looked through 10 pages of the "fixed" posts and didn't even find Bob's thread in there.

With 25 threads per page and going through 10 pages.......

The only BMW thread was a mislabelled 2005 Nissan Quest thread-!! LOL

Are you guys busy cleaning things up and thus the plethora of "fixed' threads-??

I guess the BMW's really ARE a PITA-!! LOL

[Nick_Taylor]

Bob's question is on page 15 (as of now) of the Latest Questions list. 2001 BMW X5 30i 3.0, P2096 a false code?.

I'm hoping the deployment we're doing in about an hour will fix the problem with closing questions.

[Bob's Garage]

Now that almost all of BMW's diagnostic info is only available on their factory tool I wouldn't be holding my breath on either Sure Track or IATN for replies on BMW issues.

Yes, European repair and diagnostic info is hard to come by. This is one reason why I am more likely to post a "Tech Help" on iATN, because of the combined experience of thousands of technicians, many with Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Volvo, etc... dealer & independent shop experience.

With SureTrack , it will take some years to get that type of membership that iATN has. That's the reality.

I mentioned I recieved 7 good replies on iATN , only one on SureTrack.

I don't want to bash SureTrack, I hope it gets better, that's why I post here.

[Bob's Garage]

Bob's question is on page 15 (as of now) of the Latest Questions list. 2001 BMW X5 30i 3.0, P2096 a false code?.

I'm hoping the deployment we're doing in about an hour will fix the problem with closing questions.

Ok, my question has been found on page 15. Is the answer there?

I hope I don't have to re-write the answer.

[Crusty]

Bob's question is on page 15 (as of now) of the Latest Questions list. 2001 BMW X5 30i 3.0, P2096 a false code?.

I'm hoping the deployment we're doing in about an hour will fix the problem with closing questions.

LOL, LOL....NOPE-!!

It was the first one on the first page when I looked about 15 minutes after your post here....LOL

For some reason the "euro crowd" on IATN seems to think that volts, ohms, and amps are somehow "special" in a euro vehicle....Laughable.

[Nick_Taylor]

LOL, LOL....NOPE-!!

It was the first one on the first page when I looked about 15 minutes after your post here....LOL

For some reason the "euro crowd" on IATN seems to think that volts, ohms, and amps are somehow "special" in a euro vehicle....Laughable.

Were you looking in the Latest Questions or Latest Fixes list? Or did you have the filter for BMW turned on?

[Bob's Garage]

Bob, yes, there is another glitch in the system related to closing questions. I'm trying to get it fixed.

Hi Nick,

You are correct, it looks as if my question is not closed anymore:

20140904-1943-1.jpg

[Nick_Taylor]

Hi Nick,

You are correct, it looks as if my question is not closed anymore:

The update tonight failed but I don't think it was going to fix it anyway.

I'll have an update on what's going on tomorrow. Now I need to test that the rollback doesn't break anything.

[Crusty]

Were you looking in the Latest Questions or Latest Fixes list? Or did you have the filter for BMW turned on?

I went into "LATEST FIXES".....
When I first entered the site there was no vehicle selected.
I didn't select any "filters".
Went into Latest fixes and it was at the top
I made a suggestion to Bob...it didn't really appear to have any concrete resolution to the issue.
I don't know if we're supposed to be able to add to a latest fix or not but it seemed to post in there.

[Crusty]

OK....so now I'm wondering what's in my beer tonight-!!!

Can't find the P2096 post by Bob anywhere......

I looked in the latest FIXES where I just saw it and posted.....not there....
Went to several pages....not there....
Looked in the area of page 15 where you indicated it was.... nope not in there from page 13 to page 17.....

OK, now I'm SMOKING something-!!! LOL
Looked in latest questions..... not in the first three pages there either...

Man this is FUN-!!......