OEM vs. aftermarket price

 $173 BMW dealer price vs. $49 for an aftermarket ignition control
unit.

Part in question is a medium size hunk of electronics with a heat sink
attached. Nothing fancy, as the advance is handled elsewhere. Only
function is to fire a coil when it gets a trigger. No discernible
differences.

My jaw has dropped in amazement. Perhaps this is a part that they
really don't want to be selling ?

 Rob Kleinschmidt wrote:

Make your own!

How hard can it be?  Some sort of threshold detector circuit to receive
the pulse from the trigger coil, tied to a power transistor.

 
I'm OK with a part in the $40 range, figuring I'd probably invest a
large
part of that in making my own.

I'm absolutely astonished at the dealer price though, considering
that
this is most likely a generic automotive part. A 350 % markup ? I'm at
a
loss to understand this.

Now what I'd really like to cobble up and/or adapt is a robust
electronic
advance mechanism, preferably programmable.

Having had an ignition system suddenly die at 80 mph in the far left
lane of a freeway though, I realize there's a lot to be said for
reliability,
something which some of my homebrew experiments seem to lack.

 

Snap. French autoroute in May. An enforced stop on the hard shoulder,
and lots of magic smoke escaping from behind the side panel.


--
BMW K1100LT  Ducati 750SS  Triumph Street Triple  Honda CB400F
Suzuki TS250  Suzuki GN250  chateaudotmurrayatidnetdotcom
Nothing damages a machine more than an ignoramus with a manual, a
can-do attitude and a set of cheap tools

 wrote:

It's the result of an old old formula that BMW  -and several other
makers as well-  rely upon for help in determining their retail
prices.

Once you trim the math off, it reads, "there's one born every minute".