What is "Drive by Wire" technology

I have a 2002 Accord SE, we are thinking of trading in and getting an end of
season 2007-SE.
I noticed in the sales stuff, Drive by Wire technology. What is this? And is
it good?
Do the 2007's 2.4 4 cylinder engines perform better then the 02.

How are the 07's. still well made????

Thanks

 

Instead of the gas pedal directly increasing and decreasing the flow of
gasoline, it is connected to the computer which then decreases in increases
the flow of gasoline. Advantage can be better performance and emissions.
Some people claim their engine hesistates though as the computer decideds
whether or not you are serious when you pound on the gas pedal.

 

Controlling things electrically rather than by tugging on a steel cable;
e.g. when you depress your gas pedal, it sends an electronic signal to the
fuel injectors to increase the fuel flow rather. In the old days, the gas
pedal was connected to the carburetor by that steel cable that always
stretched when you stomped on it repeatedly to go faster.

 

art & slacker

in a fuel injected car, gas flow is /already/ controlled by the computer
- amount injected does not necessarily depend on throttle position.

a better definition is that the /throttle/ is controlled by electronic
signal rather than pedal linkage. that way, the computer decides air
flow as well as gas injection.

advantages include better economy and better shifting for automatics, as
well as easier implementation of cruise control. doesn't make a whole
heap of difference to the driver experience unless you have a sports car
with paddle shifters.

 

The gas pedal is connected not to the engine, but to a computer. Your
foot is telling the computer what you want; the computer is telling the
engine what to do so that you get what you want.

 

I've found this hesitation to be there on my 2007 Civic LX, FYI.
Annoying, but I suppose I can live with it.

brian

 

No timing belt, I think it has a chain...don't have to worry about the
belt snapping, but I suppose the chain can go too!>

 

Have not had or heard of any problems with the 07s, been driving the
EX4 since November, after driving a 2004 EX4 for three years. The
engine and suspension are both tuned a little differently, I seem to
be getting about 2mpg less on the 2007, but it has somewhat better
low-end response.

Great cars, they go right where you point them, no problems.

J.

 

BUT, it runs Microsoft Windows CE, which is known among programmers to
have ~15 bugs per hundred lines of code.

Imagine trying to merge on the high speed interstate road, and the
computer gets a blue screen and needs to be reset!

Remember the Shanandoah, the US stealth ship, an, Arleigh Burke class
destroyer that was
stranded out to sea for three days waiting to be towed to port, because
of a software bug in the kernel that shut down the engines, even though
Microsoft programmers and engineers were aboard on trials, they
couldn't fix it!

Similar problems with British Class 45 ships...

Guys, switch to Linux! NASA proved it, when they switched! All robotic
missions run Linux! System updates can be done remotely, and have, for
all the Mars Rovers!

 

BUT, it runs Microsoft Windows CE, which is known among programmers to
have ~15 bugs per hundred lines of code.[/QUOTE]

No it doesn't.

 

Can't speak as to whether it has a chain or belt, but generally
chains last *lots* (tens of thousands of miles) longer than belts.

brian

 

No it doesn't.
[/QUOTE]

a lot of interior electronics modules do, but the engine management
systems definitely don't.

 

and it's pointless. chains stretch. when that happens, timing goes
out. and when timing's out, fuel efficiency goes down. so the vehicle
costs more to run and is more polluting. much better to have belts and
just stick to a maintenance schedule. with over 100k miles between
changes, it's not like this is a major scheduling problem. if a belt
change costs $500, that's 0.5 cents per mile. pretty small beer in
comparison to other running costs. pretty small beer in comparison to
bad timing costs as well.

 

Chains stretch when bathed? I thought oil film prevents any kind of
metal-to-metal contact.

 

only way to achieve separation is to exceed a certain velocity or to use
forced lube. it's called hydrodynamic lubrication. the sliding parts
of chains are neither forced nor move fast enough. rate of stretch is
not high, but on a long chain run, like you get with overhead cams, you
can get quite a lot of timing drift.