Featured The Reality Of Modern Car Repair is an Expensive One....

I agree, but I do not opt for an expensive stereo with GPS. Instead I make sure that it supports Android auto (or for iPhones, Apple play) and use Waze or Google maps for travel.

JeffD

 

My solution

I’m okay with electrics, but electronics not so much

 

Ah, duct tape.

 

Fast forward to 1:10 here:

Blake - NFB

(or just watch from beginning more context)

 

Saay...

Clearly, the NFB doesn't want me to know anything at all about their film if I don't first agree to run their JavaScript on my computer.

 

Yeah, I don’t do cookies unless I’m totally committed.
If you can’t reject them completely, I’m out.
I like when they tell you ‘for a better site experience’, and yet, I’ve always had a fine experience having rejected them

 

Bought my wife a 2024 Santa Fe last week of February. It took a rock (or something) to the driver side door window and spider-webbed the outer layer of safety glass. Called Safelite to get a quote to replace thinking I'd just do it outside of insurance. $2016. Sweet. Called my State Farm insurance agent the next day. Took almost 9 weeks to get the right glass and right grippers, but we finally got it replaced.

 

We bought a 2020 Santa Fe SEL in 2020 - it has been an excellent car for us - hope yours is the same for you.

 

Love them. We bought a 2003 LX with the 3.5 new in 2003. It's still parked in the driveway. Decided to keep it instead of trading it in so we can use it for when we need to ferry the fur babies around to the vet or parks, etc. Trying to keep the new one in 'new' shape!

That 2003 is one of the best (non-gen 2) cars I've ever bought. I sure do hope this 2024 is just as good. May be the last new car I ever buy.
2024 Limited AWD in the Hampton Gray color. They sure have come a long way since the 2003!

 

I've bought that pirated Techstream with OBD to USB adapter off of eBay twice and haven't been able to get it to work. Both times I tried it on both a Windows 10 (or 11) laptop, as well as a on two different Windows XP laptops. So far I can't get it to work. The last disk I had, when I tried it on my Windows 11 laptop, ended up having a virus that I couldn't get off the laptop. So I ended up having to reinstall windows to get the virus warnings to go away. I'm not so sure that want to try buying yet a third copy of pirated Techstream to try that again.

For an example, once I have it all installed and hooked up the way it's supposed to be and I go and try to read the pairing numbers for the wheel air pressure monitoring sensors, it just sends me an error, and I can't read them, I can't program them, I can't do anything. And this is after half a dozen attempts of reinstalling Techstream.

Not to mention, this is doing it the illegal way. If the government ever finds a good way to crack down on breaking copyright laws then we're all screwed. The legal way is a Mongoose with a yearly subscription that's more than what my car payment was.

 

Maybe the gov can crack down on automakers charging $40k and up for car, and putting crucial diagnostic software completely behind a paywall. Some sort of Techstream light for registered owners, gratis or lower cost. And support to use it.

 

It's a straw man if you only describe the expensive legal way.

If you run a shop, or do lots and lots of Toyota maintenance, you would choose the yearly subscription that's currently $1360.

If you don't do that kind of work that often, it's more likely you'd choose the two-day subscriptions just when you need them, currently $70. Probably less than your car payment was and, more to the point, less than a dealer visit. Even more to the point, if you're troubleshooting a tricky problem and end up using the software multiple times in those two days, how does that compare to the cost (and aggravation) of multiple dealer visits?

There is no legal requirement to use the Mongoose dongle. Techstream relies on the SAE J2534 standard. There are lots of J2534 dongles you can use, though maybe they won't all do everything equally well. You might choose the Mongoose if you want to fall back on Toyota's tech support in case of problems, because that's the dongle they test and officially support, but that's not the same as a legal requirement. You're not violating Toyota's copyright if you use a different J2534 dongle.

 

Hey! I tried it on my Asus eeepc 4G. But how did you get it to work? On mine I can't see the bottom of the Techstream window, the resolution is not big enough for it apparently. So I can't advance because apparently there are some vital buttons down there and no way of seeing or clicking them.

 

That when compared to previous cars (like my 1972 VW Beetle and 1985 VW Golf) it used to be that I could fix anything. But now I have to shell out the cost (and aggravation) of multiple dealer/mechanic visits because I've failed to figure out how to fix my cars myself.

I guess the good thing is that newer cars don't seem to break down as often as older ones.

 

If you haven’t, try raising the screen resolution. The software may be designed to work on a higher resolution.

 

I can't remember what version. I have more than one disk and version, so I'll try Version 8. I have a 2013 Avalon Hybrid that I have a few things I want to fix/maintain. If I can get it to work, it would be handy for fixing my 2006 Prius that seems to have more problems than I had originally thought when I bought it.

I think that yes, it is designed for a higher resolution. But this computer has a low res screen. It was a budget mini notebook from 2007 with a max resolution of 600p. On the other three computers I've tried I've had software issues that wouldn't work, so I wasn't sure if it would be worth the effort trying to get it to work on this old tiny computer, but I'll try again with Version 8.

 

^ This. I spent a good portion of my adolescence developing a package of skills (points and condenser changes, setting dwell, setting timing with a light, etc.) that I haven't had to make any use of for the longest time now.

 

For better or worse, true.

On the other hand, the wife and I bought our first car together for $250. At $3 an hour, that was approximately 84 hours of washing dishes worth of car. My Avalon cost me some $15,000, at $25 an hour is about 600 hours worth of car. So I've spent some 500 more hours of cleaning toilets as a janitor so I don't have to spend as much time adjusting the valve lash, timing and idle speed.

And on the third hand (how many hands do we have!?) I probably have wasted even way more time on forums and social media than everything mentioned thus far. I have been seriously thinking of detoxing my digital life and getting rid of the internet and data plan. I can go to the library every so often if I need the internet for something important.