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Diesel Engines and Racing

Nearly every conceivable version of the internal combustion engine has made its way to the Indy 500. But it was a 1931 entry of a rather unusual type that made it into the record books as the first to complete the entire 500-mile race without a pit stop. That entry...

Recovering A/C Refrigerant-ASE Practice Question (VIDEO)

Description Technician A is preparing to recover the refrigerant from a customer’s vehicle. All of the below are steps he should take when performing this service EXCEPT: A) Test for the presence of sealant in the vehicle systemB) Identify the type of refrigerant the...

Is It Ever Safe to Reuse Torque-to-Yield (TTY) Fasteners? (VIDEO)

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Do You Survey Your Customers, and How?

Recently, I had the opportunity to take my car to a body shop (it’s a long story). Once the work was done and I was checking out, the office manager mentioned to me that they would be sending me a customer satisfaction survey and encouraged me to fill it out. Then she...

Interpreting Compression Tests–ASE Practice Questions (VIDEO)

Description Technician A has just completed a running compression test using a mechanical compression gauge. Technician B says that the test is used to check the volumetric efficiency of the engine. Technician A says that the higher-than-expected readings indicate a...

Do I Need a Tune-up?

If you’re like me, you might cringe a little. More often than not, they’re hoping this magical procedure will fix some mysterious issue with their car. But let’s break it down: what is a tune-up, anyway? Most dictionaries describe a tune-up as “a general adjustment to...

A different type of timed event: the Bobby Bosch Relay Race

by | Oct 3, 2024

I’ll hazard a guess you’re familiar with the 24 Hours of Lemons. If not, it’s endurance racing for Joe Sixpack on a severely tight budget ($500). Ridiculous paint jobs are de rigueur. Costumes are encouraged. Everyone sandbags and cheats and tries to fudge the budget and sneak power-adders under the hood.

It’s not serious. I mean, it is serious, but the big prize is fun, not money. Of course there is a need for rules and a sanctioning body. By and large judges at these events are just rendering judgment on the fly and that’s that. Punishments and penalties for infractions, given the somewhat lax environment, tend to be creative.

To get you on the right track here, penalties for racing safety infractions have included mandatory wiring of the 6 tone car alarm siren to the ignition with constant hot (so the car is racing with this annoyance blaring). One penalty involved instructing a “civilian” on how to operate a manual transmission before being allowed back on track. There’s also the Grille of Damocles, presented to habitual tailgaters: a Volvo grille, modified to accept tons of threaded rod. The grille, which is then mounted to the offending car, has that rod oriented to point right at the radiator to discourage the aggressive driver. And if “Build A Cardboard Engine” doesn’t put a smile on your face, I don’t know what could.

Water pumps are often replaced because of a little coolant loss at the weep hole.
Photo: Mike Apice.
Enter the Bobby Bosch Relay Race, a form of automotive cruelty I find hilarious. Robert Bosch, a German automotive inventor who was way kinder than the people at Volkswagen who just sat around making sausage during World War II, cranked out lots of automotive relays at his eponymous company. In fact, you may even know or refer to the common 4- and 5-pin relays under the hood and dash of many motor vehicles as “Bosch-style” relays.

The Relay Race is administered when a Lemons car is black-flagged. The offending team is taken off the track to suffer a lap/time penalty, which is variable: the team is presented with ten relays plucked out of the salvage yard. Nine are good. One is not. The vehicle and driver are permitted to get back on the track and racing when the bad relay is identified and presented to the judges.

I thought this was fun when I learned about it, and I bet you will, too. If you’re still learning (and maybe convinced relays run on magic smoke), the Dorman Training Center has a pretty killer video that can help demystify the electrical diag process. (Skip to 39:39 for a super-rapid VD test being performed on a Bosch-style relay.) 75% of the wiring diagram for one is there, too. I always have to look these up when I need to test one.

It’s a deceptively simple penalty. I love it. I would giggle about it, and get back on the track quickly, I think, and you probably would, too. But it does point out how painful most people find electrical diagnostics and troubleshooting, and it’s a nice commentary on the exasperation that we all have suffered chasing mysterious maladies—and maybe a good reminder to bone up on some of the basics now and again.

Water pumps will last a long time if the engine is properly maintained.
Photo: Mike Apice.

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