In the meantime we've arrived in the 1990's. The electronically regulated petrol injection is now exclusively responsible for the mixture formation. The logical consequence was - regardless whether central or multi-point injection - to combine the two systems into a so-called (at Bosch) Motronic. When coping with problems, one could now choose between the two systems.

As an example, we'll use the idling regulation, which at that time was already completely in the hands of the electronics. For the fine adjustment, certain companies no longer altered the injection time but rather the ignition point. In the meantime of course, the environmental protection is keeping a sharp eye open, at least as far as the petrol driven motor car is concerned. Thus e.g., the ignition point during idling is no longer that with the highest RPM, but rather that with the best exhaust gas values (ignition retard).

If one has experienced the problems that the workshops had in the 1960's, one can't believe one's eyes. Ignition problems have become extremely rare. The battery will still more often give up the ghost before the ignition system does. If however, the ignition does have a fault, then it is mostly quite obstinate because the problem is hidden, and the error memory can also not always provide the answer.

Perhaps the automobile manufacturers should replace the still predominant operating current relay with mechanically operated contacts and fragile soldering points, with an fully electronic model. The ignition- coils and cables, if still available, also often have insulation problems, particularly if they are placed in a tight and hot channel in the cylinder head.

Unfortunately, this often leads to the situation, that when the workshops have only few problems in a certain motor car field, the aquired knowledge concerning this field, is slowly forgotten. The fact that the ignition system only has a few parts left, which are quite expensive but simple to replace, doesn't help matters either. Fundamentally sound troubleshooting has become more and more seldom.

Earlier, at the time when ignition problems were almost a daily occurrence and the respective adjustment was a regular necessity, almost anyone in the workshop was able to conjure up a primary display on the oscilloscope and, which is particularly important, could interpret it as well. 05/12