My local CCA chapter had a Tech Day event hosted by a local dealer, Motorwerks BMW. This has become an annual event, where the dealers top mechanics present new BMW technology bits to the club.
This year they covered the tools they use to troubleshoot the cars. Surprisingly, they didn't like the official BMW tools very much. They spent a lot of time on unusual tools, like the FLIR camera they use for several things. They showed how they use the FLIR for finding bad comfort access connectors in door handles (they get hot), and diagnosing heated seat and steering wheel issues.
The highlight for me are the part displays. They have several large tables loaded with parts from different cars, many of them disassembled, with the relevant ISTA docs explaining various things. They use these parts to train mechanics, and talk with customers to explain repairs. There is a long informal question and answer period with the mechanics hanging around the tables to answer questions. Last year, the thing I found most fascinating is how the DME computer on some engines is mounted to the intake manifold, with the metal base of the housing exposed to the intake air flow to cool the DME down.
These were some of the cool things they had this year. I've put the picture inline to better comment on them, so apologize for having at the end as attachments also.
This is the automatic shift assembly. On an intellectual level, you know it's all electronic. But actually seeing it out of the car like this, you realize it's really nothing more than a computer joystick. No mechanical attachment at all. Just a box with a plug on the side.
This is an M Active Differential. You can see the electric motor on the bottom right that actually does the lockup. It drives the matching gear on the axle that controls the actual lockup clutch. Neat to see how it's controlled by the electric motor, and not traditional clutch packs. Also amazing that it can actuate and spin fast enough to lock/unlock sub-second.
This is a cutaway of a 6 cylinder head (I think they said from an N55). You can see where the spark plug comes in, and the direct fuel injection. Not obvious in this picture, but you could also pick it up and see how the valves and intake/exhaust paths all fit together. It was fun to see how complex the head casting is, and how all the parts go together. They had some other more fully assembled heads they were using to explain VANOS.
They also had some parts in various levels of destruction. This is what happens when you lose a brake pad, then ignore the squealing as the backing plate grinds away along with most of the disc, until the brake cylinder ejects, gets stuck in the disc, locks the wheel up completely, and then get the car towed in. Just wow.
