An old classic car without computers is looking better and better. I can learn carbs.
No need to go that far back, basic ECU fuel injectors + o2 sensors work perfectly fine without telemetry and are WAY more reliable than carburetors.
I don’t like the ECU and sensors having the potential to make the car not run, but they do tend to make things more efficient and powerful at the same time.
If you don’t like that, you’ll really hate carbs not letting a car start.
Having grown up working on carb engines, you can pry my EFI from my cold, dead, intake.
Recently helped a friend with a simple 2 bbl carb issue. Ffs, carbs are black magic. They’re really impressive 19th century engineering… It’s amazing what those guys came up with to address changing conditions.
Carbs suck too. But electronics have a limited lifespan and are not easy to work on. On my 1995 F-150 an airbag module (circuit board thing) malfunctioned, and no one is making new ones. I needed it working to pass mandatory state inspection. Had to get a new module from a junkyard and it luckily worked, but that isn’t viable long-term. Carbs, as much trouble as they are, are viable long-term.
Nope, venturis and jets are witchcraft.
I’m actually dropping by my dealership today for unrelated reasons. I will be asking them about this.
The staff there probably won’t know anything about it. It’s not a user facing issue. Only GM themselves know about it, so you’d have to call corporate (and they’d probably tell you to fuck off).
Yeah, the staff I talked to was shocked to hear it because she owned the same car as mine and told me she’ll ask around and get back to me. Mine’s a Subaru though, not GM. They’re in the article too but it said they only share odometer data. Obviously they can say what they want, but let’s see.
What year? I have a 2018 Outback and bypassing the module was simple with a harness I had custom made. I think I spent $100 on the fancy one in order to maintain the mic (and not have to solder). But if you don’t care about the mic a little plug was like $20. Let me see if I can find who made it.
That was fast: https://www.autoharnesshouse.com/69018.html
I have a 2024 Crosstrek. Thanks, I’ll keep this in mind. I still have the initial starlink subscription. I’ll consider it once it ends. Does option 2 really just remove the tracking while keeping the rest of the infotainment working? I did see they said only the front speakers will work, unless I’m misunderstanding.
Yes. At least for my car the front and rear speakers work as expected. During announcements in carplay music on the rear speakers play full volume while the front speakers dip plus the mic fully works.
Option 2 isn’t exactly what I bought, since when I had it made it was a custom thing I ordered from them, but it says it does everything mine does.
Without either then when you unplug the dongle it kills the front speakers and the mic.
What? All of that tracking data isn’t just being used to make cars better? I am sure they’ll fix this in the next mandatory update.
This is the #1 thing that is turning me off from being a car enthusiast by a mile. So even if you stay completely legal, abide by every traffic law, if you do some hard acceleration for fun, you’re insurance bill is gonna go way up because the car is selling that data.
I love digital tech and I love a fun car but mix the two and you got a match made in hell.
then just be a car enthusiast for old cars and not new ones.
there’s basically zero new (attainable) cars that inspire any kind of awe other than crazy supercars tbh.
And that’s why I got into motorcycles, I can actually afford something fun :)
Hell yeah dude, motorbikes can be really good fun for cheap. Just don’t get turned into pink paste on the front of a Peterbilt and it’s good.
I could never get into highway bikes, I don’t trust local drivers that much… I’ve definitely got plans to get myself a dirt bike though, had one a long time ago as a young teen and want to get back into it.
Mozilla runs a project to rate the privacy policies of major products and brands.
Car manufacturers absolutely dominate the bottom of the list. They hoover up absurd amounts of deeply personal information and grant themselves the right to do basically anything they want with it.
