Louis Rossmann has been working hard to pass laws in states protecting the consumer's right to repair.

Don't buy new cars.

Your explaination of the complexity cars are becoming is why many of us don't want new vehicles.

I went over what they did last year with kerry kolodziej. Literally tried to override a legislature & a court with the pen of an unelected bureuacrat.

I remember people (mostly computer nerds) asking "why can't car companies be more like technology companies?" Well, you got your wish. You don't own the car, you just own a license to a copy of their car. ...which of course, also kills privacy even further (which is a huge concern).

I work at an auto parts store and i can absolutely say i LOVE this video. No other auto-influencers are even talking about this which is a shame

My dad in the early 30s depression bought a used stop watch from a pawn shop. In the mid 1970s it stopped working..he took it to a local guru repair guy who said he never heard that low cost brand and it was not worth fixing. But he said he will look at it . So the watch guy fixed the stopwatch for a reasonable price. The watch had a spare parts inside. A mainspring. Couple jewels 2 hands.

To anyone out there that has the means, this is time to shine... how? Restoration and modernisation of older cars. If we can figure out how to kill rust and prevent it all from coming back, many older cars can survive. Then it's just metal fabrication of some key parts for the engine, drive train and body and people can maintain their older cars and not give a flying rat's butt about the newer, rubbish cars.

Louis Rossman is a strong advocate for the Right To Repair. He started with Apple, and the issues have grown!

This is why I will keep my 450,000 mile 2002 VW tdi running as long as I possibly can.

Take away my right to fix my own stuff and the manufacturers can reserve their right to sit on their inventory

Crank windows have no wires, computer chips and engineering degree required

"Right to repair" is a myth. A consumer needs to exercise their "Right not to buy".

You missed one HUGE issue moving forward too.. analytics.... New vehicles are also monitoring how the vehicle is driven, and they are selling thst information to companies like LexisNexis, who then sell it to your insurance company. So if someone cuts you off and yoy slam the brakes, that "hard brake" is effectively sent to your insurance company, and your rates go up accordingly. Throttle usage, brake usage, speed, idle time, do tou park with the windows open.. your car has GPS too. Im sure it can report where the vehicle is parked, and thst can be compared against crime stats in the area, and a "theft risk" will be added to your insurance. On and on... I know everyone loves having everything connected, but who is listening? ALSO, lets talk about "subscriptions".. i believe BMW is playing with makong their heated seats a subscription option? Thats right, a physical mechanism in the vehicle, can be enabled and disabled via software from a cellular link, depending on what subscription you buy. All the parts to make it work are already in the vehicle, its just disabled in the software unless you pay more money.....

J.R - I remember back in the day when I used to get my hands dirty,any car I got the 1st thing I used to do was get the Haynes Service Manual for the make model and year of the car I bought, that Service Manual was based on a full strip down and rebuild of the vehicle with pics and full wiring diagrams of everything

I’ve come to the conclusion that the government doesn’t really care about us the citizens.. great video as always

That’s why you have to hoard old cars.

Louis Rossman has been fighting the good fight.

This is why I don’t want to buy a new car.

People dont buy cars based on reliability or repairability. They buy based on looks and the car companies know this

I've seen a video of some guy with a hacker in the passenger seat and they parked alongside a Lexus, and the hacker logged into the Lexus's computer using a laptop and opened the door from that. Scary what they can do these days.

The government cares about whoever gives them campaign cash. And you're right JR, its not a D or R thing, it's that political corruption has been fully legalized and nobody really cares. It was always kind of this way in the past, but now it's just loud and proud. This is America, everything and everyone is for sale.

Preventing us or telling us that we can't repair our own cars without right to repair is more than insane, it's just....... I'll say it, it's flat out bullshit. I have a diagnosis tool that I always use in repairing my own cars. I prefer to do my own repairs. Take away that right, and we will be spending more money for pointless repairs at dealerships that we probably don't even need anyway

The Patriot Act embedded in every driveway in America. Give up rights to access basic info... for a monthly fee. Guess I'll step out to the garage and throw in a set of points and plugs for a spring tune up on my Henry J. ..with no political intervention.

It’s going to look like Cuba around the US someday. Everybody broke and driving 50 year old cars they can keep running

And shit like this is why I won't bother with newer cars. I love cars, but if I'm forced to have a price of junk that depends on some mechanic with proprietary systems to work on it, I'll just walk.

Auto makers have been trying to remove your right to repair for a LONG time. The very first hard push that I remember happened back in the mid 90s. It has been seriously downhill ever since.

Even with the tools, some intelligence is needed. My wife had an accident in her VW ID.4, took ages to fix because parts took a while. When it came back, the horn wasn’t working (took a while to realise). Dealer couldn’t fix it and wanted to replace the front harness. It took me 30 seconds to find the disconnected horn wire, and 15 mins to get the front valance cover off and reconnect it. Dealers are just parts swappers, this is about as not “green” as it gets.

This is old news, NHTSA walked back their letter advising Massachusetts not to enforce their right to repair law. in August of last year. Their position now is that they support right to repair.

At least it is better than parts of Europe where it is illegal to work on your car in some countries, period. I just changed the engine wiring harness on my newer Mustang GT500; no information in any manuals on replacing the entire wiring harness, so I just had to figure it out connection to connection. Some wiring harness parts were hidden under covers on the heads, which had to be unbolted to get to them.

I’d drive old cars forever but rust is a real concern long term.

The worst of it is automakers are withholding repair info. Tesla and Chrysler/ Stalantis are 2 examples n of automakers withholding info. Tesla won’t give up any info forcing owners to go to dealers for repairs. JR already touched on the crap Chrysler is pulling. It’s really messed up and sad.

Great brief on the car state of the union, reminds me of the late 60's early 70's when generators were passed over for alternator technology, and the fuel pumps were no longer rebuildable because the were sealed units. My grandpas garage and gas station complex was furnished to rebuild starter, generators adjust voltage and rebuild fuel pumps - I got exposure and hands on out of all that, then migrated into telecommunications as my carrier.

Louis Rossman..... pretty much calls this out, will strongly advise to check this gentleman's content.

My library offers an online service for vehicle repair information. Its pretty basic, but has wiring diagrams available. Library is not free, taxpayers pay for them to be open. Manufactures, I can purchase access for a few days for a small fee. About $20. I have had to do this for real in depth wiring diagnostics to find connector locations/views. Honestly, I would be VERY happy if vehicles stay unconnected to the internet. I see little no benefit for me for any vehicle to be internet connected.

Back in the 80's we brought 1975/76 cadillac GM shop manuals. I think they were only 40 or 50 bucks. And like all GM stuff I was able to use that manual to troubleshoot the HEI distributor (no spark issue) Hint: it was the chip that replaced the points. The thermal paste had dried up and killed the chip.

I just bought a 2024 CFMoto motorcycle and it has all the bolt and screw specs in the owner's manual.

The Car Care Nut recently fixed a Camry that the dealer couldn't figure out. It was an older car, and the newer techs were lost at diagnosing it. As modern tech ages out newer service technicians will not be trained to work on it. It sucks cars will be totaled because the dealer can't repair a car and the manufacturer holds diagnostic information hostage. Between this and subscription services for heated seats, remote start and other functions to work proves you never really own your car. No matter how much you pay for it.

BMW already has subscription for options, soon these cars will self drive away if you miss a payment, or be pulled over by itself if you don't renew your tags, or speed. So much for freedom of travel or maintaining your own cars.

I don’t think the dealerships, and repair shops can handle the influx of vehicles, if we fully lost the right to repair.

Car audio systems were "basically flawless" apart from headunits being non standard form factor and being antiquated before the car even made it into the showroom. The latest trends are to put some mediocre system in since buyer surveys show that 95% of people aren't willing to pay for a better stereo. I remember the 1970s and 1980s where every house had a stereo rack with a cassette player, record player, tuner, amplifier and speakers. People mass bought CD players to add to those in the 2nd half of the 1980. Now all you see are crappy bluetooth speakers and milk carton surround systems that sound like, well, milk cartons. This is happening in new cars too, especially the lower budget range. Unfortunately, there is no longer a slit in the dash where you can bolt in your Alpine, put some JBL GTO 6x9 in the parcel shelf and rock hard to bohemian rhapsody, because no manufacturer bothers about the standard, since nobody stopped buying cars when they omitted that option.

I have an early 2000s era Sony home stereo unit, the CD player stopped reading discs a few years ago. I was able to pull up a service manual for that exact model stereo and find the part number for the laser disc reader in a matter of minutes. I found a brand new oem part on ebay for like $12, took the stereo apart, replaced the part, now the CD player works flawlessly. And I'm not a technician by any stretch, but I wish things weren't getting so ridiculous to fix and made so cheaply that you're better off just throwing it away and buying a new one.

I have a fairly simple Autel that can read pretty much everything on the older cars we have. Newest one is a 08 PT Cruiser, and my car is a 06 Charger RT. My other cars are antique now, the 69 Dart and a 78 Dodge van plus a 99 300m I haven't decided what to do with yet that lost oil pressure, but oil change and it came back. They want to force us to pay them to fix things and never be able to modify anything. I do just about anything here I can handle electronics, hvac, plumbing etc. Depends on who is running things as to whether we're going to continue to fix our stuff. You have to rent crap now so we can do anything.

Yeah I drive a 03 yukon. Easy to work on. Just now had to replace a water pump and front wheel wheel bearings at 236.000 miles and it's running great still. I love old cars there not all plastic like the new cars.

as a long time electronics repair tech, everything cost more back when schematics were included. Profit margin was 30% and they could afford to do that. Now with margins being 5-10% because everyone wants "cheap", they need you to buy new every 3-5 years. I owned a retail computer store as well for decades, anything consumer Windows related stopped being profitable 20+ years ago. ( was great in the late 80's and thru the 90's ) Apple products and Networking/business clients are the only places for any real profit now. This applies to all electronics, cars are different though.

Hoovies last video sums up right to repair too.

The problem is the whole concept of intellectual property, and the level to which we have made copyright holders so powerful. Copyright never protected artists - it was always to make printing presses viable, for some reason people conflate it with plagiarism protection, which it has never been. YOu talk about Libraries, you dont mention the internet archive being sued for their (fully paid for) library

Speaking about the vehicle mobile/cell connectivity, this is why I bought a 2023 Hyundai i30N (Elantra N over there) and it has no talk back or telematics, just the way I want it.

I am already there with my Audi. SQ8……it is so complex that i would never attempt any deep dive repairs, luckily it is a CPO car with 5 years of warranty, but i have been thinking of selling it and getting something like an old Grand Wagoneer, that i can easily maintain.😄

I've been with you since basically the beginning, great to see you grow.

This all stems from one thing the birth of the internet and mobile phones Wait hear me out! Most late 90's People spent more time indoors playing video games looking at mobile phones etc rather than being outside pulling push bikes apart or building go carts or helping their parents fixing stuff! My kids when needing anything repaired come to me yer great your saying you can teach them well i try but they have no interest whatsoever its heart breaking to know my skills wont be passed down!

And this is prime example why i never bought a new car. I'm in my 30's and my newest car i own was built in 1971.

While I 100% agree - never underestimate the ability for the secondary market to produce replacements for things like a BCM - right now / today there's not enough demand for something like a BCM ore even user replaceable ECU/ECMs but I can see a future where the manufacturer would actually be incented to allow 3rd parties to build replacement modules after a set period of time - remember that in most industries if a manufacturer wants to have a high level of control of "their" stuff they also have to make those proprietary parts available for X number of years beyond the last sale of the product. They can't have it both ways - either provide replacement parts OR allow 3rd party companies the ability to produce those parts. Another option is for companies not bound by stupid laws (and arguably unconstitutional anyway) in other places will just reverse engineer or "hack" those modules/devices and sell them direct to consumers.

I have a car from the 80's and in the owner manual they teach you very well how to dissasamble and reassemble the car. What a different world

My Truck is a 1958 Chevrolet . 261 six with 3 speed manual . 7 external parts on engine. Very easy to work on .

just drive older cars.

Is it just me or is there a skull in the headlight

There are many words in the English language, but for lack of a better word, I'll say I love what you do on KZfaq. I needed you to know that.

This happened with BMW on the tuning aspect of things. Not quite the repair and diagnostic aspect yet thankfully. They locked their newer DMEs to "prevent hacking" when in reality all it does is prevent the DME software from being altered by tuning software. Now to tune the cars you either need an external "tune" which taps the signals between the boost sensor and a bunch of other sensors to increase power by tricking the DME into thinking the engine has lower boost and timing than it actually does. If that's not the option for you and you want a software tune you have to send your DME to a company in Finland that figured out how to crack DME and circumvent the security features. That said if you got your DME by the Fins and you take it to the dealer for service they will lock it again and remove your tune. You will then need to ship your DME back to Finland and start at square one again.

Just going to keep my current cars I guess. No need for a replacement, but I'll have to cave in for my wife's vehicle!

Factory Car audio flawless? Cmon . That’s not setting the bar very high.

This is why I upgraded from a 2016 Toyota Tacoma to a 1997 Dodge Ram 3500 diesel. And converting from automatic to manual transmission.

Yeah, I remember those days on the modular TV's. They had all those modules. They had to replace to get different things to be fixed. If it lost the color control, would you get the horizontal board to get the vertical boand then I remember the days of tube radios where the diagram was right on the side on the inside of The case. Telling you which Cube was what

The way to go as far as windshield washer fluid is Rain-X. I used to use the blue stuff, but now even in a torrential downpour, the power of the wind and Rain-X washer fluid do most of the work. I know you can buy the bottle and apply to your windshield and still use the blue stuff, but I am sold. I have sold a few friends on the orange as well.

You have old info, NHTSA back tracked, rightfully so, please update this video

As a mechanic I paid $1500 for a decent-ish Launch scan tool. $100 for Auto Authority for access to Nissan and Fiat/Chrysler ($50 per company) and it's expanding. And every couple of years I have to renew my scan tool software for hundreds of dollars. Alldata a grand a year. Oh and not to mention all the tools for specific repairs. It's becoming impossible to repair cars unless you are the dealer.

I remember when cars had a manual plunger sticking out of the dash that actuated a small pump that squirted the washer fluid onto the windshield. The worst that could happen with those is a hose could leak and you would spray the liquid inside your car.

This is why I am still driving a 2005 model truck. No one is connected to my truck. I can plug my own devices into the OBD2 and read codes or change parameters that I want to change. I can repair just about anything on it and the few things I can't do (lack of specialized tools) the local independent mechanics can do for me.

I'm also surprised the mower deck wasn't thoroughly cleaned... are you feeling okay? hah

There is always one thing that manufacturers can't stop you from clearing codes, the old school way, disconnecting the battery and shorting it to discharge the ecu.

I have a 1992 Subaru Legacy 4DS that has over 310,000 miles on it and still runs great. I did have to put in a new radiator, cooling fans, hoses, water pump, and a timing belt but hey, the car is a little over 32 years old. Most of the ones I've seen in the junk yard if not all of them, had a lot less miles on them. Probably due to the lack of maintenance and/or knowledge.

The dealerships aren't fixing the cars or won't fix them right.

The automakers don’t want independent shops let alone diy repairs, so they spend millions on politicians who are ignorant of why we work on stuff. Fewer and fewer people do work on their own stuff now, but the problems you speak about are the same for a shop. The software for Ford I had was offered a single vin for $100 or multiple for $1000

Your points are well made sir. SaaS, and subscriptions in general, have permeated so many facets of our lives. Just owning something anymore is debatable and part of the right to repair. "You have a right to use, you do not own this" is the direction of the world. When an auto manufacturer can turn off options like air conditioning upon sale of the vehicle, we don't own it anymore. And if we don't own it, we can't touch it. Thank you as always ~ Chuck

When I was a kid playing with 9 V batteries was so much fun! My brother and I would take apart old VCR'S and things like that and get the motors out of them and use them to power toy boats and things like that.

Aftermarket ecu and wiring specialties.

Find your local representative and dump your broken junk that can't be repaired in their yard

Indeed. It's just ridiculous. I checked the display from one car to the other to see if it was faulty. When I put the original back the milage was overwritten by the other display unit! Somehow the display overwrite the central computer and then overwrite the original one. Now I'm stuck with a car with higher milage than it originally had. So for anyone be careful with swapping out any electronics! They might save mileages and it could overwrite things or cause conflicts in stored mileages on readouts.

The last couple minutes nail it - no government agency is ever going to have the people’s back. They’re going to lookout for the corporations every single time because that’s who ultimately ensures their reelection and lines their pockets

As someone trying their best to work on new cars, and doing it without the fancy scan tools, it’s very not fun

P21S WINDSHIELD WASH BOOSTER

Back in the 60's my dad went to Buick School and he said the instructor openly stated that it was their goal to make all cars in the future that would have to be returned to the dealer for service or repair.

These are sad times. In so many ways, the power of the people is being stripped away. And for the vast majority of us, we are just sitting and letting it happen. We're very fortunate to have someone like Louis fighting for us. We should be supporting him as much as possible.

There are still exceptions but a LOT of car brands had key systems that only a dealer could program or replace a key fob to - for $80 now I can get a ODB II dongle and download an app and can add an additional key and remove old ones that I no longer have to my wife's MINI Countryman. Sure, the newer ones still require about a $600 investment for a "scan tool tablet" and the new key fobs are about $100 but that's a far cry from having to spend $500-800 at the dealer....

Boring comment: on the Walker mower, those little screws are for safely. So if you hit something while mowing, you don't break the PTO or the gear boxes that drive the blades.

"Government is the problem." Reagan. Get them out of everything.

Oh man, I forgot about the manuals at the library! Great points across the board JR!!

love the fact that with current cars, if one part gets faulty or even outright fails, it takes several other parts out too, cause why not

I was with you all the way up until about a minute before the end of the video... when you mention that EVs (aka: battery powered vehicles) are better than ICE vehicles. While there may be less to go wrong on an EV, they are 100% NOT less expensive to maintain. Many EV people (of 5+ years of EV ownership) are finally finding out that even just to simply replace their car's main battery will easily eclipse what the car is actually worth! I could go on and on, but EVs may have a niche market for them right... but EVs (battery powered vehicles) WILL NEVER become our mainstream mode of transportation.

The NHTSA sent letters out to manufacturers to protect RTR. They're more on our side than the manufacturers.

The maintenance, other than cleaning the unit up, is mainly greasing the gearbox if there is a grease inlet. And swapping the air filter and spark plug, and maybe removing the spark arrest screen to burn the carbon off. And having the carb tuned after it's been broken in. Otherwise there isn't maintenance in these 2 cycles. The fuel needs to be managed more than the engine with a fuel stabilizer. All these 2 cycle small engine machines have the same cold-start - turn the choke on, prime about 3 times if there is one, pull the starter 1-2 times. When the engine kicks over, turn the choke off, then give it full throttle while pulling the starter (unless it's a chainsaw)- should start right up then.

This is another reason I have a 2010 Chevy 3500 Big Block 4 door LWB with 4WD and Tank Bumpers on the Front & Rear with winches. My truck has a 90 gallon tank and 2 4bbl Carbs. Looks normal but no Cats and it passes inspection. This truck will last and drives like a Caddy on a smooth road. I get 14mpg in town. No problem pulling my 5th wheel camper and cheaper to operate than the Prevost. I have Michelene HD M&S Tires last set lasted 60,000 miles. Vehicles cost way too much now. Short trips we use the Spark and get 38mpg. We did reposition the front seats to accommodate Madam Pocahontas. I only have 10,000 miles on the Spark 2019. Any way God Bless have a great week. Your place is looking good.

Don't forget to ascribe part of the blame for this to those tuners who use the same access we want in order to mess with emissions controls.

Right to repair doesn’t mean someone needs to provide you a free service manual. If you want to repair, you’ll need the tools, skills, and information. None of that is free. I don’t have a problem with that. Not everyone is suited to repair some systems. The barrier to entry keeps the reckless and clueless from executing an improper repair. We currently have access to vehicle repair data and the OBD II port. As far as Stellantis is concerned, don’t buy one. Vote with your feet. Anyone discouraging others to contact their legislators, I give a side eye to. Just giving up and quitting is why things are as bad as they are. Correction: Automakers are making a ton of money selling cars. A ton. Where have you been for the past few years?

The reason for this is the "killswitch bill". They want to make sure you can't disable the remote disable.

In US/CAN: auto, home appliances and technology companies should be mandated to provide a service manual to our libraries (PDF)

I say write to your representative on matters that are important to you. If nothing happens, at least you can say you tried, and you have a voice in future debates with others who never bothered their bother (if you don't complain, to me you kinda lose your right to complain. I tell my Dad this all the time who complains about his pension, but never joins the yearly protest march about the issue ). Sounds like post 2000 cars will be verboeten. Note : I know nothing

Why are we losing? Because nobody cares!

Idea for new game “JR Drink” - take a sip every time JR says “can bus.”

5:26 the walker mower that my late wife’s grandfather had (and still has I think) was a piece of garbage that never did run properly. It threw her off over the controls and ran over her with the blades on. They take about 4 seconds to stop. With the forward speed on the right side, she had her hand on it to slow the machine as she was starting an incline when it started bucking and threw her forward, her hand pulling the forward speed all the way to highest as she flipped ass over head. It crawled up on her as it was shutting down and cut her up very badly. I was still dressing her wounds from that for over a year. Never buy into hype. Any machine can be junk.