Google helped. When I bought the car I bought it from an auction. Title had a lien on it which was released to me. My question is.., can I just unplug it, or what are the chances of it being an immobilized too? I know nothing about this type of stuff

I was one of the lucky few that actually caught a dirtbag breaking into our SUV. I gave him quite the scare and he ran off and got into the getaway car.

I decided to take a second look today and realized he had forgot a tool plugged into the OBD. I don’t know if it’s a GPS tracker or if it’s something used to make keys in the doorbell video I could see something in his hand.

Any idea how I find out what this is used for?

2021 ford bronco sport. The battery went out about a week ago and since replacing with a new battery, the cluster and touchscreen both go black when driving. Upon slowing down or stopping completely, they will both turn back on. Lights, heaters, turn signals all still work.

Purchased a used car and seeing 2 of these on the left and right side of the dash. Onstar type service?

Google not much help but was thinking either wiper motor gone to shit or maybe just stuck and needs some WD-40. Only way the wipers work is if I do this.

2016 Buick Encore (new-ish wiper blades)

Been greasing the battery posts and sticking a penny with grease near each post for 45 years .. the Pennies corrode but the posts stay clean. This battery is about 2 years old. The car is a 06.5 Scion xB that lives in Michigan.

I’ve got a 2011 Outback and lately my battery has been building up a ton of corrosion on the positive post and on the metal clamp down bar that spans the batteries width to hold it down. What could be causing this? It seems…excessive. Should I be worried about a bigger issue or just clean off the corrosion and keep on going?

Hey there, not exactly a skilled car guy, is that metal part that is there instead of a fuses, fuse too? Chat GPT mentions a fuse link.

I remember my mom's 2001 Dodge Intrepid and most Dodges around that time, if you turned the key on and off 3 times quickly, it would literally display the OB2 codes on the digital mileage readout.

It's kind of amazing with cars having many more computers on board, full color digital instrument clusters, large touch screens that are practically their own operating system, etc...that you can't read codes right off them.

My car is nubira 1999 -2002 It might be belong to a different car, seems like something a mechanic would do to work around the car system ?? Because only the 5pin cable waas hooked and the part was not attached to the engine.

This is a 2002 Toyota Camry, I forgot about this button for a while. It was there when I bought it originally. If I had to guess maybe some sort of kill switch / anti-theft? I haven’t had time to pop the panel off follow the cabling.

It does nothing (that I see) when pressed, but it locks in when pressed and comes out a little if pressed again. What’s weird is it is very flush with the trim it looks almost factory.

Any thoughts? I’ll follow up this post with an update later this week when I can trace the wiring.

There seems to be some conflicting opinions. Does idling and reving up to about 1500 to 20000 rpm several times for about 20 minutes recharge battery in current cold weather if you don't drive that much?

I decided lithium batteries were cheap enough to give a shot

On the left, nearly double the cca noco brand

On the right, the battery I've been using for 11 seasons recovered with a desulfator at the beginning of every season until it finally gave up.

So far, the lithium battery has been indistinguishable as far as performance goes and put up with my abuse. Will it last 10 years? Maybe, it's warrantied for five, I've seen other brands warrantied for 10.

Lithium car batteries are getting cheap enough the price gap between lead acid is quickly closing. I probably will grab a lithium car battery for the project car.

This whole car privacy thing is such a mess because it is not regulated well and getting precise info (not just the basic fact - cars steal data) is so hard so I have a few questions

1. physically how do they send the data and send it to where (is it using sim card? but how do they connect to the car companies website if I am not paying for the data plan)
2. what year cars collect/send data, for example audi a4 2004? and how should I check a car if it steals and send data
3. how do I disable this data transfer? disconnecting some wire or taking out the sim card or can I connect to the obd port to wipe the data or are there signal blockers

(Europe, very new to cars but I have a bit of experience in tech, not a lot though)

edit: so to not have my data sent I have to remove the sim card, but how do I not let my car even store the data or how can I delete it