Anyone just UNPLUG their Tazer for a dealer visit??

[Chaos Theory]

Dude, if a Jeep dealership nullifies warranty work on anything non-computer related due to a Tazer, knowing they are basically standard equipment for a vehicle made to be infinitely modifiable, that dealership needs to be shut down.

Stop doing business there. Period.

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[Rahkmalla]

It's far easier to just get oil changes anywhere but the dealer... and even jiffylube probably has more competent techs anyway.

As a former Toyota dealership quick lube jockey... they aren't giving oil changes to the guys who have experience and are capable of more detailed (and profitable) work. And god forbid you go in for an oil change only. Service writers gave oil change tire rotation combo jobs to the quick-lube guys they liked (paid .7 and took less than 30 minutes) and oil change only jobs to quick-lube guys they didn't like (paid .3 and took more than 18 minutes).

You go in for only an oil change and you're putting your truck in the hands of the guy at the dealership who is the closest to get fired, but they're trying to get him to quit so they don't have to pay unemployment.

 

[Wolf Island Diver]

Warranty work would be the only time the dealer would ever touch either of our Jeeps. The wife's 2022 JLUR is at 39k miles and has never been back. My 2023 JTM is at 26k and hasn't seen the dealer since I bought it either. They are known for bad service and high prices, why anyone uses the dealer for non-warranty work is beyond me. They can't void your warranty because you had an independent shop do your oil change or even if you diy them. I'm pretty sure they gave me 3 free oil change with purchase, and even that price wasn't worth the hassle.

So I agree with all of this. I did take advantage of the 3 free oil changes and the dealership screwed 2 of them up. Gross incompetence, green labor, using service writer spifs to try and push existing customers into new vehicles at every service, the list goes on and on. The industry as a whole is in an awful state and Jeep is one of the worst.

But don’t believe for a minute that they won’t attempt to void your warranty for work done outside a dealership. Any warranty claim is essentially a hostile action against a manufacturer. When you make a warranty claim, through your dealership, you’re effectively saying that their product is defective by design or from the manufacturers process. They are going to scrutinize those claims to the furthest extent possible. We just set up a system where we can avoid torts to achieve what we want and where the manufacturers avoid legal liability and they’ve agreed to reasonable expectations for part MTTF to differentiate wear and tear vs defect through organizations like SAE. The system mostly works. But this system runs on a slider of being more favorable to one of the two parties. Either you or the manufacturer. Like a lot of things in recent years it’s moved in the direction of the manufacturer. It’s that subtle shift across all aspects of life that’s contributed the correct sense that we’re all getting screwed over more than we used to. But even without those shifts manufacturers have numerous structural advantages. One of them is simply having the money to fight their customers.

They’re also often correct. For every obsessive owner, and that pretty much includes any and all people who actually join a forum just to discuss their vehicle, there’s probably 10,000 people who just drive the shit out of their cars and don’t think twice about it. Certainly they don’t spend time on the internet discussing their RAV4. People that mod their vehicles tend to also do the maintenance reliably.

On the oil changes specifically, if you bring a vehicle in that has an internal engine problem that could in any way be related to the lubrication or cooling systems, you better have documentation of your oil changes. For every person that changes their oil every 3000 miles, there’s 1000s of people who never change their oil. Most people wouldn’t change their oil if it wasn’t for that little sticker on their windshield or because the dealer mentions it when they come in for their state inspection or because the dealership sends them a reminder via email or phone or mailers. Dealerships have zero way of parsing who takes care of their vehicle and who doesn’t. And any benefit of the doubt goes away when you’re talking about something that requires engine replacement. So you have to document everything you do outside of the dealership. Otherwise, from their perspective it wasn’t done.

We have it easy in the car world and get away with not documenting things. It’s the economic inertia of industries backing American car culture allowing for these exemptions for consumers. A lot of boat insurers and manufacturers will want to see your ship and personal log books when filing claims or applying for coverage, not only detailing the maintenance but detailing your personal level of sailing experience. I’ve never kept a log book of any of my vehicles beyond noting my maintenance. I log everything on my boat including every time I take her out as a legal requirement. Same goes with flying, diving, etc. I’ve seen folks claiming to be dive instructors turned away by dive masters because they had no documentation of recent relevant experience after flying half way around the world.

There’s just a long weird history of car owners being excused from the sort of accountability that other areas of life require and we take it for granted. It’s actually crazy to think about that drivers don’t require routine recertification to maintain a license. There are a lot of people on the roads who should no longer be driving. There’s a lot of vehicles that shouldn’t be on the road. We’ve just got this engrained culture that our rights to autonomy and privacy superseded any other considerations. All that runs into a wall when we expect, often correctly, that the problem with our vehicle isn’t our responsibility.

 

[IamPro2A]

Warranty work would be the only time the dealer would ever touch either of our Jeeps. The wife's 2022 JLUR is at 39k miles and has never been back. My 2023 JTM is at 26k and hasn't seen the dealer since I bought it either. They are known for bad service and high prices, why anyone uses the dealer for non-warranty work is beyond me. They can't void your warranty because you had an independent shop do your oil change or even if you diy them. I'm pretty sure they gave me 3 free oil change with purchase, and even that price wasn't worth the hassle.

The only time the wife's JK Wrangler went to the dealer was for recalls. My JT is almost at 90K and has never been to the dealer since it left there. My local shop does our emissions testing, and has never had an issue doing it with the Tazer installed. Come to think of it, I don't think my Tazer has ever been unplugged since I got home from the dealer and plugged it in. I've even done the firmware updates with it installed, but not powered on.

The wife's new Wrangler is in production now,they expect it to ship mid March. I just ordered another Tazer for it this morning.

 

[pcrawfordpt]

Depends on the work being done. If any flashing or computer programming is done for any reason, you must unmarry your Tazer. If not, and flashing/computer programming was done, as soon as you unmarry the next time, you will lose it. This could be a huge problem for you in the future. Best bet is to get to know your dealership and hopefully they play well with you. Most will these days. That said, should you require work done and they flash the computer, you may need to marry back up the Tazer to get everything working again. For example, I had a new transfer case installed. I unmarried the Tazer, they installed and flashed the computer for the new transfer case. At that point the Gladiator was throwing codes, “service 4wd” would come up, and limp mode would start. The reason is, I had re-geared and had larger tires. The new TC was thinking I had factory gears and tires. Once the settings on the Tazer were updated. All was right with the world and zero issues since. Long story short…work was done, computer was flashed, Tazer married and setting updated. As you can see, you can’t do this behind the dealerships back. You need to work together with them.

 

[djthumper]

I rarely remove my Tazer. I leave it in place for emissions checks and no problems.

 

[Janster]

Marry or unmarry requires the full reboot process. You will have to plan ahead and unmarry the Tazer about a month in advance if your emissions test requires a full dealer service visit.

What do you use the Tazer for? Is it to make changes to the computer (like tire size) or just for the live features, or both?

Start stop & Kill3honk….. that’s about it (at this point in time).

 

[Idlethunder]

So….. of all the online videos, social media, forums yadda yadda…. I was always under the impression to properly remove the Tazer you should Unmarry, Reboot, and 2 sleep cycles. So, that’s what I’ve always done prior to a dealership visit.

I couldn’t get emissions test completed recently because I rebooted the Tazer. Contacted Z Automotive, and they confirmed that rebooting the Tazer resets or deletes the emissions data.

But what surprised me…. The Tech at Z Automotive mentioned….
Unmarrying, Rebooting, and 2 sleep cycles completely uninstalls the Tazer.
And then he says……

It's no issue to just unplug it and plug the security gateway back in. See page 2: https://www.zautomotive.com/zpu/instructions/TazerJLMiniUserGuide1145.pdf

So, has anyone just unplugged it before a dealer visit?? Then, plugged it back in afterwards?
Their instructions don‘t really say that clearly…

I’ve done it both ways. When it went in for free oil changes, I just unplugged it. When it goes in for repair work and there is any chance they will connect to the OBD port, I unmarry it and I’ve never had any problems. My understanding is that unmarrying it keeps the Tazer from becoming locked if they upgrade something in the Jeep’s computer.

 

[Minty JL]

Just had mine at the dealership twice in the last 2 weeks with my TAZR still in place. The only issues you will have if you have the NoLimitz module installed during service because it blocks the OBD2 out.

 

[Janster]

I’ve done it both ways. When it went in for free oil changes, I just unplugged it. When it goes in for repair work and there is any chance they will connect to the OBD port, I unmarry it and I’ve never had any problems. My understanding is that unmarrying it keeps the Tazer from becoming locked if they upgrade something in the Jeep’s computer.

I’ve only been back to the dealership twice…. And I’ve unmarried/rebooted both times. Granted… I specifically request they check for and install any updates that are available (and there has been some). So, there’s that…….

Sounds more like I need to just keep doing what I’ve been doing….unmarry / reboot, etc. I‘ll just have to remember to take it off 2 weeks before inspection - or not put as many miles on it (to keep it under 5,000 per year). But…What fun is that?
I just hate having to drive it more just to satisfy the emissions crap. I wished I could change my registration to be in June…I wouldn’t have any issues with mileage in the warm weather!

 

[djthumper]

Why remove it for an emissions check? It doesn't stop an emissions check. Here we have to do a rolling emissions on the diesels and they plug into the OBDII port.

 

[Janster]

Why remove it for an emissions check? It doesn't stop an emissions check. Here we have to do a rolling emissions on the diesels and they plug into the OBDII port.

They (ZAutomotive) don’t recommend leaving the tazer in for dealership visits.

I can’t say with any certainty….. but it probably depends on WHAT they’re doing once they’re plugged into the OBD. Things could potentially get really messed up (in jeep or in tazer). Can’t trust them even if you told them NOT to do any updates.

I personally don’t want to take that chance. The thought of going thru a warranty battle with the dealership once they try to blame it on the Tazer.

 

[Mr._Bill]

They (ZAutomotive) don’t recommend leaving the tazer in for dealership visits.

I can’t say with any certainty….. but it probably depends on WHAT they’re doing once they’re plugged into the OBD. Things could potentially get really messed up (in jeep or in tazer). Can’t trust them even if you told them NOT to do any updates.

I personally don’t want to take that chance. The thought of going thru a warranty battle with the dealership once they try to blame it on the Tazer.

My suggestion would be to use someone other than the dealer for the emissions check. They will connect to the OBD port, but only to read the emissions status. That does not require removal of the Tazer. There may be an option in the Tazer to allow OBD port access that needs turned on.

 

[djthumper]

They (ZAutomotive) don’t recommend leaving the tazer in for dealership visits.

I can’t say with any certainty….. but it probably depends on WHAT they’re doing once they’re plugged into the OBD. Things could potentially get really messed up (in jeep or in tazer). Can’t trust them even if you told them NOT to do any updates.

I personally don’t want to take that chance. The thought of going thru a warranty battle with the dealership once they try to blame it on the Tazer.

I rarely take mine out even going to the dealer. If you are going to them for an emission check, I don't see why to go to them. The dealer does less than anyone else for emissions checks.

 

[Janster]

I rarely take mine out even going to the dealer. If you are going to them for an emission check, I don't see why to go to them. The dealer does less than anyone else for emissions checks.

It doesn’t matter where you go for emissions check…it’s all the same test and pretty regulated by PennDOT (Pennsylvania Department of Motor Vehicles).

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