I have been chasing Hiyacar for months to remove the QuickStart device from my car. All I get from the support team is a message to say they are escalating it, but nothing happens. I am now having to take legal steps to enforce removal, or to recover costs of having it removed myself. Has anyone else had this experience? Essentially my car is unsaleable because of this - a warning to anyone thinking of having QuickStart fitted to their car.
Oh dear - what stopped the car from selling with an unplugged telematics box in it?
I had wondered about this problem and thought: maybe the fee from an auto electrician is off-set by the benefit of a retrieved key fob. If the electrician could put this into a spare key, you can advertise the car as “two keys” and get a slightly quicker sale.
Please excuse my writing without firm answers and good luck.
My issue is that I don’t know how to unplug or remove the box - plus one of the keys is redundant until rebuilt by Hiyacar.
When you sign up for the QuickStart box, Hiyacar say that it can easily be removed - but that means nothing if they ignore the request.
I hope someone can reply to this and say how many wires a quickstart box has. If it’s not many, that would re-assure buyers.
Unplugging is an easy DIY job.
Under the dashboard in most cars there will be a trepezoid socket for diagnostics, There must have been a lost first generation because they are all called OBD-2 and that’s the search term to find where the socket is on your model of car.. There might be a youtube video, The socket is about an inch long and a third of an inch high. Yours will have a big multi-wire plug in it, which can be gently prized out and stuck with gaffer tape somewhere where it doesn’t show or catch on anything.
It’s very common to sell a car with only one fully functioning key although not ideal.
You could get a locksmith to put the metal part of what you have into a basic plastic fob, and call it an “emergency access key”.
For money, auto locksmiths will look at what you have left of the 2nd key and tell you if they can put a new transponder chip back in it and program it to make your ignition work. Dealers might have a tool for doing this.
One thing I’d like to know is how many wires the Quickstart box has - how easy it is to do a DIY uninstall. I am intersted but tend to play safe and leave it alone. If anyone asks you can say it was installed by a trained electrician and you have never had any problems from it.