Ah good ol' fake Honda
this post was submitted on 22 Nov 2025
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And that's when I switched a while ago from a modern Bentley to an "ancient" mechanical car from a past long forgotten. Every electrical gadget is local, and it just has android auto (dedicated isolated phone just for the car) with a fake google account for navigation. Everyone thinks we're broke lol, but I'm so fed with this shit. Even a silly backlight went from 5 bucks for a replacement-bulb to 1500 bucks for the whole led-package. Parts alone, add the mechanic and the many hours needed.
Heard that all brands do this shit though. Like even disabling things remotely that are there but you didn't subscribe to. This is bonkers.
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Is it possible to retrofit a used "computer" vehicle and remove all digital tech to make it electromechanical again, where the owner has complete control of what they purchased?
Possible? Yes. Practical? No. You can't just cut the harnesses out and suddenly it's a different engine, you'd have to replace what you deleted with something and that something might not exist yet because there's no money in developing it.
Right. Pretty much everything is computer now. Even in the last 20-30 years, a lot of engine control has been done by computer. You'd have to go back pretty far to find one with no digital circuitry.
If you wanted to retrofit a modern car, like you said, you'd have to replace the entire compter system with a new one, or replace everything with linkages. Are any controls directly connected any more, or are cars 100% drive-by-wire?
They're making them without dipsticks now so I really doubt you'd find even one cable. Even the emergency brakes aren't done by linkage.
they dont charge those paywalls to dealers, this is just a way to force consumers to service their cars with expensive partners
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This isn't a new thing. Almost every car that has an electrical park brake advises you to use software to change change out your rear brake pads, as when you release your Electric Park Brake (EPB), the EPB motor doesn't wind back enough, to give you the space required to install new pads and/or rotors, it only winds back enough to release pressure off the piston pushing the pad, which this has been in production cars since 2001 (some cars have brake maintenance modes which can be activated without software, Mazda first comes to mind with this). This whole Hyundai/Kia deal reminds me of Volkswagen back when they were intoducting proprietary software for vehicle maintenance, which led to a guy getting mad and making his own software that does everything the factory software does for a fraction of the cost and arguably better (Rosstech/VCDS) which I feel will happen soon with Hyundai. But being mad just at just Hyundai for this is the wrong mindsent, almost every car manufacturer does this and for a long time, and needs to stop. Even for dealerships this is horrendous because it uses a always online software that if you live somewhere with bad internet or GPS connection, stops you from even just resetting the service interval, which as usual is explained as being a good thing for "safety reasons" by the manufacturer.
The new thing is that the user bought a professional scan tool and license and he still couldn't do anything because he didn't have a business license. Hyundai said the software was "not for DIYers".
The other guy commenting is somewhat right, the user shouldn't have bought this tool for DIY use, as most dealership software won't work for DIY use because it is also a warranty tool, hence the need for a business license, the diagnostic software will record everything you do, upload a log file for the manufacturer to read to make sure they carry out the repairs correctly/services are inline with schedules, and they need that business license information so they know who to approve or deny a claim to. every manufacturer will have a software that does this and they shouldn't be used for DIY use because it simply won't work (unless there are cracked versions where people have remove that functionality, I believe there is software for Subaru and Toyota out there like this). There is other tools for the DIY use that are a fraction of the cost that does what you need, and most aren't vehicle/brand specific, and good brands of OBD2 scanners will regularly pushout updates to cover more cars and more test functions over time. The issue mainly I see is manufacturers hide this information and unless you are well knowledged in the field or know a guy, the cheap and safe route is often so incredibly difficult to find and usually ends up in people confused and scared to work on their own cars, which sucks because the premise of all the hardware used in cars isn't really that far from 50 years ago, software and 4-8km of wiring can scare people and the manufacturers want that because it scares people out of DIY fixes but still ticks the boxes of right to repair laws. (Sorry for the big comments, I can't keep them small)
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