Right to Repair

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Whether it be electronics, automobiles or medical equipment, the manufacturers should not be able to horde “oem” parts, render your stuff useless if you repair it with aftermarket parts, or hide schematics of their products.

I Fix It Repair Manifesto

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Disable tracking on Chevy Bolt 2019 (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 8 months ago by JohnDClay to c/[email protected]

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OnStar reports location and speed data to the car manufacturer. Sometimes they will sell this data to insurance companies to raise your premium, as several news stores pointed out a few weeks ago. I couldn't really find an advantage to OnStar, (I have my phone to call emergency services) so I disabled it by pulling it's fuse.

For my 2019 bolt, it's f31 in the instrument panel fuse box, just down and to the left of the steering wheel. The fuse box cover comes off when you pull it hard from the bottom.

I was able to find which fuse went to OnStar in the owners manual and labeled on the inside of the fuse box cover. You should be able to find it for your model car there too if it uses OnStar.

I did have the casualty of my speaker for calls and texts. I'm not able to use it right now. I'll see if I can dig in and reconnect it somehow, but we'll see.

Who knows that other into they're snitching back to GM, or what they could do in the future, so I recommend disconnecting it. Good luck!

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Could you share how you determined this?

I have a 2016 KIA with a similarly creepy system. The head unit is glued in, so disconnecting the antenna is not an easy task.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

See what kind of radio you have in there - if it's 3G then you're already set since it's likely been sunsetted.

This applies to 4Runner's but the gist may apply.

2019 and earlier MY have a 3G radio and that's gone. 2020+ have a 4G radio that should be disconnected via phone call first before hardware mods.

Disconnecting the antenna on that vehicle only reduces cellular range but there is also a fuse that can be pulled but that will be very model specific so checking your manual/fusebox/online documentation may help. (in Toyota's the only side effect is loss of microphone use for in-car calls)