Once I owned a 2004 Skoda Fabia car. I have got from somewhere the factory service manuals for it. These does not only contain what kind of parts the car has and how to dismantle it, but also gives instructions to read out the main computer data and overwrite it with new values. This particular car was manufactured in the Chech Republic, after German licence, its main computer was built in Italy. This car is a result of a multinational cooperation.
I have ordered from an USB OBD2 diagnostic cable which can be used to connect the car with a computer. Most of the cars have this standard connector since 1996. The service stations are reading out the error codes from the car computers through this connector. I think the whole car control software can be updated as well, however I am not sure about this.
I have begun reading the manuals and I have found some interesting things. I just want to mention the most fascinating ones and the ones I have changed on the car. You are able to test the different parts, some of them have test sequences. For instance you can test the dash panel, it will move the gauges, you can calibrate the fuel gauge, you can turn on and off different relays on the engine, you can change the distance till the next service, and so on. You can change the strength of the power steering. If I wanted to get a sport setting I could have set the RS setting. If I wanted a setting for people with disabilities I could have set it. At the end of the day I have not changed this setting. You can query the data of the factory alarm system. When have it turned on, which sensor triggered the alarm. Was it the internal movement sensor or the trunk sensor? There was a setting what I changed, which controlled the alarm remote control reaction. I turned the option off which allowed the car to blink the turn signal and activate an alarm beep when I disabled the alarm. So now it only blinks the turn signal if I arm the alarm. If the car had parking sensors, you could query the measured distance behind the car and you can calibrate it. You can query the measured values of all the sensors in the car. And there are "millions". Engine speed, engine temperature, inside temperature, fuel level, position level of the electric accelerator pedal and so on. You can query every fault codes from every system on the car. Starting from the airbags, the heating system, the air conditioner, engine, to ABS. Everything. You can spend quite some fun time exploring these. Once I have logged the data of several sensors while driving and a laptop was connected to the car. I was able to collect and save the gathered data. I have changed the behavior of the door locks. I have turned on the function which automatically closes all the doors if the speed rises over 9 Miles per hour. The manual said that this is not activated on the Fabia type cars and it is not activated in the factory, but I have turned it on and it worked beautifully. I think this was only activated on VW cars. I have also activated the function which opened all the doors if I pulled the ignition key out of the socket.
So with this blog post I just wanted to show that what kind of technology was in a 2004 car and how much can be overwritten or changed on its computer. I think the opportunities are much wider on the today’s cars. It is good in the VW group cars that the manuals are made with German precision and are very well documented. They also use the same standards inside the group brands. So a VW, a Seat, an Audi, or a Skoda has more in common inside than it seems from the outside.
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