4 ms·

Is it as simple as physically disconnecting the car's modem, or wrapping its cell antenna with an RF-blocking material?

kop316 8y ago
I have done similar things to other devices, so I can give you a rough outline of what to do (assuming you are in the USA). By law, anything that transmits/receives a wireless signal must go through FCC testing, and what I have seen is they usually make this a card with a standard I/O port (much easier to get one card through the FCC process than a bunch of them). Look up the "FCCID" in the owners manual, and you can go to the FCC website and find exactly what you are looking for. The next thing you need to do is actually find it, and that will probably be the most painful part. But once it is found, you can simply remove it. I had to do something similar to a sound system I owned. For some reason, they added Bluetooth with absolutely no authentication, so anyone in range could pair to it. I just removed the Bluetooth adaptor (it uses I2C and/or SMBus to communicate with the rest of the system).
- sonaltr 8y ago
  We need an ifixit site to help owners that care about such things. You had a great point (about FCC) and I'll see if I can do something about this for the cars I plan on getting.
  - kop316 8y ago
    I like the idea of an ifixit site for things like that. If I were to hazard a guess, the actual modem you are looking for if in the dash, as it seems that is where the "entertainment brains" are.
    - neuralRiot 8y ago
      Not necessarily, the modem, or telematics unit can be anywhere in the car and communicate with the infotainment system and other modules through a data network just like you can have the cable modem in your attic and a an ethernet cable to your desktop.
rootusrootus 8y ago
Yes. It varies from car to car, but as someone with a new GM vehicle I can say it's definitely feasible to disable OnStar. And contrary to what someone else up-thread suggested, it throws no codes if you do.

I have done similar things to other devices, so I can give you a rough outline of what to do (assuming you are in the USA). By law, anything that transmits/receives a wireless signal must go through FCC testing, and what I have seen is they usually make this a card with a standard I/O port (much easier to get one card through the FCC process than a bunch of them). Look up the "FCCID" in the owners manual, and you can go to the FCC website and find exactly what you are looking for. The next thing you need to do is actually find it, and that will probably be the most painful part. But once it is found, you can simply remove it. I had to do something similar to a sound system I owned. For some reason, they added Bluetooth with absolutely no authentication, so anyone in range could pair to it. I just removed the Bluetooth adaptor (it uses I2C and/or SMBus to communicate with the rest of the system).

sonaltr 8y ago
We need an ifixit site to help owners that care about such things. You had a great point (about FCC) and I'll see if I can do something about this for the cars I plan on getting.
- kop316 8y ago
  I like the idea of an ifixit site for things like that. If I were to hazard a guess, the actual modem you are looking for if in the dash, as it seems that is where the "entertainment brains" are.
  - neuralRiot 8y ago
    Not necessarily, the modem, or telematics unit can be anywhere in the car and communicate with the infotainment system and other modules through a data network just like you can have the cable modem in your attic and a an ethernet cable to your desktop.

rootusrootus 8y ago

Yes. It varies from car to car, but as someone with a new GM vehicle I can say it's definitely feasible to disable OnStar. And contrary to what someone else up-thread suggested, it throws no codes if you do.