It's a standard electric caliper with a 2-pin connector. Feed it 12v with jumpers or wind it up by hand with the stupid cube tool (possible on most designs)
The software might bitch at you that it's not in the position the software left it when it shut off or it'll do some calibration routine and find that the brake pad "grew" and complain about that but you can almost certainly clear that up much more easily/cheaply than buying the software that makes the caliper screw itself backwards for new pads.
Furthermore, look at that price point. They clearly don't care about screwing the DIYer because that price point is a non-starter. They care about screwing the chain tire and lube type place for which that stuff isn't an option because "troubleshoot it" doesn't scale to a "we hire teenagers off the street" type business.
Yeah, it sucks, but this is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to stupid crap OEMs do.
Is this sort of thing widely known ahead of time before purchase, ie signing some T&C’s?
My car is >10 years old, which feels like a lifetime right now, given the rapid pace of change in car tech (notice I didn’t say “progress”). It doesn’t even have a backup camera. I’ve done all sorts of basic maintenance on it by myself. In some ways I’m terrified of buying a newer car today because it seems like I won’t be able to do that and I’d have to deal with an always on modem and other owner-hostile features (note that I didn’t say “user”).
I want to drive a car, not rent a computer on wheels. It pains me when I see people write things like “CarPlay didn’t work, this vehicle is trash” like they forgot what the thing was supposed to do for them in the first place.
Are there manufacturers that don’t widely do this?
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[ 5.4 ms ] story [ 21.8 ms ] threadRight to repair should be a fundamental part of the contract we have with the corporate entities who consider themselves our owners.
It's clear that market forces won't give this to us.
The software might bitch at you that it's not in the position the software left it when it shut off or it'll do some calibration routine and find that the brake pad "grew" and complain about that but you can almost certainly clear that up much more easily/cheaply than buying the software that makes the caliper screw itself backwards for new pads.
Furthermore, look at that price point. They clearly don't care about screwing the DIYer because that price point is a non-starter. They care about screwing the chain tire and lube type place for which that stuff isn't an option because "troubleshoot it" doesn't scale to a "we hire teenagers off the street" type business.
Yeah, it sucks, but this is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to stupid crap OEMs do.
My car is >10 years old, which feels like a lifetime right now, given the rapid pace of change in car tech (notice I didn’t say “progress”). It doesn’t even have a backup camera. I’ve done all sorts of basic maintenance on it by myself. In some ways I’m terrified of buying a newer car today because it seems like I won’t be able to do that and I’d have to deal with an always on modem and other owner-hostile features (note that I didn’t say “user”).
I want to drive a car, not rent a computer on wheels. It pains me when I see people write things like “CarPlay didn’t work, this vehicle is trash” like they forgot what the thing was supposed to do for them in the first place.
Are there manufacturers that don’t widely do this?
The real problem is supposed safety features that aren’t, like lane keep assist or automatic braking. Both are unpredictable in varied environments.