How to disable cellular connectivity in a Gen 2 (2016-2019) Chevy Volt

https://www.jamesxli.com/2024/chevy-volt-disable-cellular.html

by bobbiechen • 2 years ago

27 10 2 years ago

jamesxli.com

atoav• 2 years ago

Step 1: vote for people who will make it mandatory that this type of "service" is opt in

tivert3• 2 years ago

Step 1: vote for people who will make it mandatory that this type of "service" is opt in

That's not good enough. It needs to be mandatory that these services be implemented as physical, user-removable modules. A software opt-in can never be really trusted.

M95D• 2 years ago

This service is required by law in EU [1]. AFAIK, it is still legal to remove it after the car is bought, but I read somewhere there was a proposition to make that illegal too. In that case the car won't pass periodic inspection without it.

Sometimes I wonder if Somalia or Afganistan accepts immigrants...

[1] https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/security-and-em...

thegrim33• 2 years ago

Would maybe be a neat idea for someone to create a site that's a repository of instructions like these but for as many makes/models of cars as possible. So you can just put in your car's info and get instructions on how to physically disable as much tracking / collection as possible.

mik3y• 2 years ago

I've been interested in doing this as a side project too, ever since "unwiring" my jeep in a similar fashion (rip out modem).

My quick-and-dirty idea was to stand up a Discourse forum with categories for each make, threads for each model (or possibly model + model year range pairs).

If anyone wants to collaborate / provide some extra motivation, hit me up..

tivert3• 2 years ago

Does anyone know how much power the cellular modem uses to transmit? I wonder if it would make sense to use a higher-rated dummy load like the one below? I'd imagine the extra margin would make it less likely to fail eventually.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08K2GN27R/ref=twister_B08K2WHVXS

steelframe2• 2 years ago

I simply yanked the Data Communications Module (DCM) fuse on my GR Corolla, but that has the unfortunate side-effect of also disabling the microphone. That means the only way for me to take hands-free phone calls is with the speaker phone option, so I've simply stopped taking phone calls at all when I'm driving.

When researching how I might be able to do something more surgical I ran across this post by someone who did it with their Tacoma:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/simpler-solution-for-dis...

Reading this HN post on the Chevy Volt it's starting to look to me like the general approach of installing a 50ohm "silencing antenna" could end up working for a lot of different cars out there. I'll certainly be giving it a try on my GR Corolla now so I can get the microphone back while still keeping the DCM disabled.

tivert3• 2 years ago

I simply yanked the Data Communications Module (DCM) fuse on my GR Corolla, but that has the unfortunate side-effect of also disabling the microphone....
Reading this HN post on the Chevy Volt it's starting to look to me like the general approach of installing a 50ohm "silencing antenna" could end up working for a lot of different cars out there. I'll certainly be giving it a try on my GR Corolla now so I can get the microphone back while still keeping the DCM disabled.

I started researching this again because of this, and it looks like you may need to watch out for "Dark Draws" (https://www.reddit.com/r/subaru/comments/1bn1c3a/dcm_bulleti...) where the DCM trains the battery because it couldn't make a connection. Apparently this has been a problem with some 3G based units when they shut 3G down.

It looks like Subaru, at least, has made a replacement DCM "bypass" box to allow the DCM to be removed without disabling other car features: https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2024/MC-10251102-0001.pdf

steelframe2• 2 years ago

Thanks for the heads-up about that. If I go this route then it looks like I'll want to measure battery drain both before and after installing the silencing antenna.

joshu• 2 years ago

ah yes, i recall the excitement of my GRC calling emergency services repeatedly while i was out on track. definitely just what i wanted.

How to disable cellular connectivity in a Gen 2 (2016-2019) Chevy Volt

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