Complexity and ‘safety’ make simple DIY repairs almost impossible – Jalopnik

The battle for the right to repair your own car or take it to the independent shop of your choice rages on, despite states like Massachusetts passing Right to Repair laws and similar efforts nationally. A Hyundai Ioniq 5 owner recently found himself unable to replace the rear brake pads because a simple but essential function was behind the same system that dealers and registered locksmiths use to program new keys. The drive has done an excellent job of delving deep into this situation, and you can read that the owner’s Reddit rant for yourself, but I’ll summarize it here.

An important step in replacing brake pads is to push back or wind up the piston(s) in the caliper to make room for the newer, thicker brake pads you are installing. This used to be a purely mechanical process, but electronic parking brakes make this more complicated, regardless of make and model. Even a standard Ford Escape requires this a procedure similar to a Nintendo cheat code to set the parking brake to maintenance mode before attempting to replace the brake pads. Other modern cars require an OBD2 scanner to tell a computer to retract the piston(s) itself. Such bi-directional functionality doesn’t come with a generic $15 interface, but an advanced diagnostic tool can turn you into a heartthrob superhero.

Such functionality doesn’t come cheap. Despite being forced to comply with the J2534 standard that allows cars to communicate in the same language, so any scanner can read any car, Hyundai only supports three. Two of them cost $2,000, while another costs $800. Additionally, you’ll also need a subscription to Hyundai’s J2534 diagnostic tool software, which costs a whopping $60 per week. (A professional mechanic could justify paying a little more for a much longer subscription, but for the do-it-yourselfer that makes no sense.) Only then could you theoretically retract the rear caliper pistons, something I used to be able to do with nothing more than a large C-clamp. But you still can’t.

The National Automotive Service Task Force (NASTF) is a 501 C6 non-profit organization formed in 2000 by automotive manufacturers and the independent aftermarket to identify and address gaps in service information, tooling information and training. NASTF has more than 45,000 members in the US and Canada. In addition to serving as a liaison for automakers and repair technicians, NASTF also implements the Secure Data Release Model, which provides login credentials to technicians and locksmiths who need access to security-related automotive information and systems.

We move on to NASTF’s page about being Scan Tool security validation program:

Automakers have been using the registry for years to authenticate security-related transactions in their diagnostic applications. Aftermarket tool companies began using this process in 2024 to reduce auto theft with their tools and to discourage theft and illegal use of their tools by locksmiths and service professionals.

It’s all too easy for thieves to steal your car. Limiting security features, such as key programming, to verified professional shops and locksmiths makes perfect sense. But the lack of access to basic maintenance functions, such as setting an electronic parking brake, makes it impossible for non-professionals to perform this simple repair job themselves. That’s not security for your car, but for dealers and larger shops with pockets deep enough to jump through these hoops.

Even if this weren’t the case, the $2,000 for a qualifying scan tool, or $5,582 for the official Hyundai scan tool (which is available to the public), would yield many brake jobs, even at higher dealer prices. While a few people might be stubborn (and wealthy) enough to pay the price for these tools to keep their own car in their own care, many won’t. It’s not just Hyundai, by the way. Automakers are determined to pretend that the right to repair doesn’t exist for as long as possible, and these types of security features could be one of the ways they do that.