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How do you disable this in a Subaru? Can you tell Subaru to turn it off or is there a low-effort way to disable it (fuse pull)?

by niij 2y ago

willis936 2y ago
I can't speak for Subaru, but I did this on my Toyota last weekend (cell radio, not space radio). The fuse pull on Toyota DCM affected other systems (GPS, microphone). I got a hold of the service manual, identified the cell antenna cables, and simply unplugged them. Now "simply unplugging them" required ripping apart quite a few things and dealing with some annoyingly deep bolts, but it wasn't too terrible. Pulling the antenna cable is the right move. Fun fact on car GPS: it actually feeds back through carplay so your navigation gets worse without it. What I have yet to figure out is if the network connection is given to the car through carplay.
- stn8188 2y ago
  This is absolutely my biggest concern for when I inevitably am forced to replace our aging vehicles. The unfortunate reality of living in the Northeast is that it's near impossible to find decent (not rusted) older cars for sale. Sure, I'm within the 99.9999% of Americans who have nothing to hide, but that unequivocally does not justify the physical capability of remote monitoring or control.
  - _yb2s 2y ago
    Why not just take a weekend to fly to where used cars are unrusted, and drive one back? Also, there are quite a few well made older cars that are fully galvanized and don’t rust. I know a few people in the Northeast still driving 1980s Volvo 740s, still unrusted after nearly 40 years of salty roads. 1987 and later had the best rustproofing. I believe many older Audis also are galvanized.
    - potato3732842 2y ago
      The best galvanization was in the 80s when the OEMs were scrambling in the "surprise, lead just got banned" era (lead acts like an anode, think of it like a lesser version of a high zinc primer). That said, it's not the thick hot dip you see on I beams or on bolts at the hardware store and a modern car with modern coatings and attention to corrosion is still better. Of the three continents that produce a lot of cars the Europeans still take corrosion more seriously than anyone else.
      - tedmielczarek 2y ago
        Since Volvo was mentioned in the parent comment, did you know that if you buy a new Volvo you can get two free plane tickets to Gothenburg + one night's hotel stay to go pick it up at the Volvo factory? You can drive it around Europe for a while and then they will ship it back to the US for you. AFAIK it doesn't cost extra, it just adds some lead time as well as time waiting for your car to get to you after you fly home: https://www.volvocars.com/us/l/osd-tourist/ https://www.volvocars.com/us/l/osd-tourist/
        zhengyi13 2y ago
        Our family did nearly exactly this when I was a child in the 80s, just subbing in Volkswagen and Dusseldorf IIRC. It was some months later when the car actually arrived on the west coast of the US, but my parents seemed to think it worthwhile.
      - _yb2s 2y ago
        Just as a warning- one needs to be willing to dish out the cash for one of these high end 80s European cars: they can sometimes cost hundreds of dollars. Really nice examples can cost more than their value by weight as scrap steel. And, although most are still going strong, it's possible some only have another 30-40 years of usable life left before needing major repairs, possibly even sooner if they have over a million miles already. A good running used engine or transmission for one can easily cost over $100- so one should also budget for that down the road as well. I just didn't want to get anyones hopes up on here, thinking they could easily afford one on a software engineer salary.
    - SoftTalker 2y ago
      Yes exactly. Facebook, Craigslist (yes people still use it) allows searching in any area. Ideally if you have a willing friend living in a salt-free state, search for cars for sale in that area and have your friend take it for an inspection. If it seems good, fly in, buy it, drive home. Rust-free is a given so there's not really a premium to pay for it, unlike buying cars in the northern states.
  - Gormo 2y ago
    > I'm within the 99.9999% of Americans who have nothing to hide Let's not encourage the "nothing to hide" arguments here -- the reality is that almost everyone has plenty to hide.
- _yb2s 2y ago
  Does it actually never connect with the antenna disconnected? Most wireless receiving devices I’ve used will generally still work a bit with no antenna.
  - connicpu 2y ago
    In the case of starlink, it's completely useless without the phased array antenna because the signals are highly directional.
    - aftbit 2y ago
      Wrong Starlink. Subaru's is cellular based, not space.
    - Meneth 2y ago
      Subaru Starlink is not the same as SpaceX Starlink.
      - connicpu 2y ago
        Well that's highly confusing. I'm surprised there wasn't a trademark dispute.
  - willis936 2y ago
    The screen shows a no signal symbol. I seriously doubt that a cell protocol could lock with just an exposed coax. The truly paranoid could stuff a piece of foil in the coax connector to short it to ground.
- numpad0 2y ago
  (note: Subaru trademark "STARLINK"(2012) predates and is unrelated to SpaceX trademark "Starlink"(2017))
- bityard 2y ago
  Would you be willing to share the details of this either publicly or privately? (My email is in my profile.) I'm trying to do the exact same thing on my 2021 Highlander and have not been able to find any info. I found threads where people have asked how to do this on forums and reddit, but the responses are ALL along the lines of, "first, get a sheet of tinfoil, then shape it into a hat..." etc etc.
- amatecha 2y ago
  It might be better to attach a dummy load to replace the antenna so you don't burn out the radio circuit which may have side effects (depending on their design). You could wrap that in foil to ensure it can't get a weak signal through.
- rasz 2y ago
  How is your Toyota battery drain now. Subaru will constantly try to reconnect killing 12V battery in no time.
aftbit 2y ago
It depends on the car, but yes, you can pull a fuse. The component is called the DCM. If you do that though, you'll lose the front speakers and the microphone, which are routed through the DCM to support STARLINK-based cellular calls (like OnStar). The better solution is to disassemble the dash and replace the DCM with a bypass box, or yoink the cellular antenna cables as others have said. That's a bit of work for sure. I was lucky to have it done by Subaru under warranty service, in response to the 3G cell shutdown causing the DCM to malfunction and drain the battery. Here's a chart of DCM fuse location by vehicle: https://www.subaruoutback.org/threads/dcm-fuse-location-2020-outback.568322/?post_id=6483927&nested_view=1&sortby=oldest#post-6483927 https://www.subaruoutback.org/threads/dcm-fuse-location-2020...

How do you disable this in a Subaru? Can you tell Subaru to turn it off or is there a low-effort way to disable it (fuse pull)?

by niij 2y ago

How do you disable this in a Subaru? Can you tell Subaru to turn it off or is there a low-effort way to disable it (fuse pull)?

willis936 2y ago

I can't speak for Subaru, but I did this on my Toyota last weekend (cell radio, not space radio). The fuse pull on Toyota DCM affected other systems (GPS, microphone). I got a hold of the service manual, identified the cell antenna cables, and simply unplugged them. Now "simply unplugging them" required ripping apart quite a few things and dealing with some annoyingly deep bolts, but it wasn't too terrible. Pulling the antenna cable is the right move. Fun fact on car GPS: it actually feeds back through carplay so your navigation gets worse without it. What I have yet to figure out is if the network connection is given to the car through carplay.

stn8188 2y ago
This is absolutely my biggest concern for when I inevitably am forced to replace our aging vehicles. The unfortunate reality of living in the Northeast is that it's near impossible to find decent (not rusted) older cars for sale. Sure, I'm within the 99.9999% of Americans who have nothing to hide, but that unequivocally does not justify the physical capability of remote monitoring or control.
- _yb2s 2y ago
  Why not just take a weekend to fly to where used cars are unrusted, and drive one back? Also, there are quite a few well made older cars that are fully galvanized and don’t rust. I know a few people in the Northeast still driving 1980s Volvo 740s, still unrusted after nearly 40 years of salty roads. 1987 and later had the best rustproofing. I believe many older Audis also are galvanized.
  - potato3732842 2y ago
    The best galvanization was in the 80s when the OEMs were scrambling in the "surprise, lead just got banned" era (lead acts like an anode, think of it like a lesser version of a high zinc primer). That said, it's not the thick hot dip you see on I beams or on bolts at the hardware store and a modern car with modern coatings and attention to corrosion is still better. Of the three continents that produce a lot of cars the Europeans still take corrosion more seriously than anyone else.
    - tedmielczarek 2y ago
      Since Volvo was mentioned in the parent comment, did you know that if you buy a new Volvo you can get two free plane tickets to Gothenburg + one night's hotel stay to go pick it up at the Volvo factory? You can drive it around Europe for a while and then they will ship it back to the US for you. AFAIK it doesn't cost extra, it just adds some lead time as well as time waiting for your car to get to you after you fly home: https://www.volvocars.com/us/l/osd-tourist/ https://www.volvocars.com/us/l/osd-tourist/
      - zhengyi13 2y ago
        Our family did nearly exactly this when I was a child in the 80s, just subbing in Volkswagen and Dusseldorf IIRC. It was some months later when the car actually arrived on the west coast of the US, but my parents seemed to think it worthwhile.
    - _yb2s 2y ago
      Just as a warning- one needs to be willing to dish out the cash for one of these high end 80s European cars: they can sometimes cost hundreds of dollars. Really nice examples can cost more than their value by weight as scrap steel. And, although most are still going strong, it's possible some only have another 30-40 years of usable life left before needing major repairs, possibly even sooner if they have over a million miles already. A good running used engine or transmission for one can easily cost over $100- so one should also budget for that down the road as well. I just didn't want to get anyones hopes up on here, thinking they could easily afford one on a software engineer salary.
  - SoftTalker 2y ago
    Yes exactly. Facebook, Craigslist (yes people still use it) allows searching in any area. Ideally if you have a willing friend living in a salt-free state, search for cars for sale in that area and have your friend take it for an inspection. If it seems good, fly in, buy it, drive home. Rust-free is a given so there's not really a premium to pay for it, unlike buying cars in the northern states.
- Gormo 2y ago
  > I'm within the 99.9999% of Americans who have nothing to hide Let's not encourage the "nothing to hide" arguments here -- the reality is that almost everyone has plenty to hide.
_yb2s 2y ago
Does it actually never connect with the antenna disconnected? Most wireless receiving devices I’ve used will generally still work a bit with no antenna.
- connicpu 2y ago
  In the case of starlink, it's completely useless without the phased array antenna because the signals are highly directional.
  - aftbit 2y ago
    Wrong Starlink. Subaru's is cellular based, not space.
  - Meneth 2y ago
    Subaru Starlink is not the same as SpaceX Starlink.
    - connicpu 2y ago
      Well that's highly confusing. I'm surprised there wasn't a trademark dispute.
- willis936 2y ago
  The screen shows a no signal symbol. I seriously doubt that a cell protocol could lock with just an exposed coax. The truly paranoid could stuff a piece of foil in the coax connector to short it to ground.
numpad0 2y ago
(note: Subaru trademark "STARLINK"(2012) predates and is unrelated to SpaceX trademark "Starlink"(2017))
bityard 2y ago
Would you be willing to share the details of this either publicly or privately? (My email is in my profile.) I'm trying to do the exact same thing on my 2021 Highlander and have not been able to find any info. I found threads where people have asked how to do this on forums and reddit, but the responses are ALL along the lines of, "first, get a sheet of tinfoil, then shape it into a hat..." etc etc.
amatecha 2y ago
It might be better to attach a dummy load to replace the antenna so you don't burn out the radio circuit which may have side effects (depending on their design). You could wrap that in foil to ensure it can't get a weak signal through.
rasz 2y ago
How is your Toyota battery drain now. Subaru will constantly try to reconnect killing 12V battery in no time.

aftbit 2y ago

It depends on the car, but yes, you can pull a fuse. The component is called the DCM. If you do that though, you'll lose the front speakers and the microphone, which are routed through the DCM to support STARLINK-based cellular calls (like OnStar). The better solution is to disassemble the dash and replace the DCM with a bypass box, or yoink the cellular antenna cables as others have said. That's a bit of work for sure. I was lucky to have it done by Subaru under warranty service, in response to the 3G cell shutdown causing the DCM to malfunction and drain the battery. Here's a chart of DCM fuse location by vehicle: https://www.subaruoutback.org/threads/dcm-fuse-location-2020-outback.568322/?post_id=6483927&nested_view=1&sortby=oldest#post-6483927 https://www.subaruoutback.org/threads/dcm-fuse-location-2020...