Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Warning Systems 2

 

*/by Rick Nason, PhD, CFA
Partner, RSD Solutions Inc/*

In my previous blog I wrote about the stages of warning lights and bells that
exist in my car to warn when the car is starting to lose traction, and then a
heightened set of warnings when the car has lost traction completely.  With
this in mind, I was driving home the other night – on a clear dry road I
might add – when all of a sudden loud warning bells and a big red caution
sign that I had not seen before starting flashing on my dashboard.   What
the heck is going on I thought?!  Thinking it must be something quite
serious, I immediately pulled over to the side of the road.  In any case it
would have been unsafe to drive with those distractions going off.

After I safely got pulled over and parked I started to try to diagnose what
the problem was.  The car was not on fire, and all of the gauges were at
normal settings.  The car appeared to be running properly so I was a bit
stumped (and yes, my seatbelt was correctly fastened).  I took out the
owner’s manual to check on the warning light and bells which were still
activated.   I soon was able to solve the problem.  It was that my
windshield washer fluid was low – not empty, just low.   How
ridiculous!   Having a yellow warning light, maybe, but seriously, a
flashing red light and bells for having low windshield washer fluid
levels?!  This must be something that a regulator thought was a good idea.

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