disabling DCM / telematics in 2025 Taco

[bobinoregon]

Posting a how-to on grounding out the antennas used by the DCM telematics module.

This post is not a debate about the puposes of telematics communicating data back to a toyota service center ,or legality of same -- only a how-to for those interested.

Background - why bother?
- All recent toyotas have a always-on cellular connection to Toyota corporate via thee internet. This enables lots of data reporting and remote monitoring & control of the vehicle. This includes GPS location, speed and other data. Maybe you don't care, maybe you feel the pros of being connected outweight the cons; but some people don't want this data being sent at all.

What data gets sent?
I Refer you to the 2024 service manual where it says:

The HOW-TO for those interested:

I know that on other Toyota models, pulling the DCM fuse results in a Check Engine Light. I Haven't tested this on my Taco; but i don't want a bogus CEL masking other legit causes for CEL. So i looked for a method to keep DCM communicating to ECU but not the outside world.

After some research I found this thread. This method takes less than 15 minutes and is completely reversable. Basically unplugging three oem cables and plugging in three terminated dummy cables which tell the DCM it's out of range for cellular and GPS. This does NOT affect any other cellular or GPS devices you might have in the vehicle.

First, I looked up the location of the DCM module in my 2025 Taco. It's behind the phone shelf/charging area just ahead of the shifter.

I purchased three 'Fakra Z Female to SMA Female Vehicle Antenna Adapter cables' and some 50-ohm SMA terminators off Amazon. The square Fakra Z shells on the jumper cables need to be removed leaving just the inner coax connector, becuase the Fakra shells are are too Fakrin' wide to fit into the Toyota DCM. Do this carefully so as not to damage or bend the inner coax connector fins.


Accessing the DCM is easy; the panel holding the phone shelf/Qi charger basially pops forward and unclips. Once loose it can be pivoted to the right allowing acess to guts of the console. The DCM is front and center.

The antenna leads are on the left:

The latches for the connectors are at the front. I suggest using a right-angle tool such as a pick to push the latches inwards while tugging gently on the cables. They pop out easily.

Install the terminated jumpers into the three DCM sockets you just freed up. The connectors have a slight interference fit so they won't easily fall out.

You could probably? just let the jumpers dangle in the dash area but i wanted to take their weight off the interference-fit coax connectors at the DCM side. So I used an ahdesive-backed zip-tie mount and a zip tie stuck right to the front of the DCM, through wich i looped the three new jumper cables. Now there is no weight pulling down on the connectors landed in the DCM.

I Pushed the three OEM cables back into the dash and let them dangle.

I started the truck at this point to check for any CELs... no problems found.

Reinstall the phone shelf/carger plate in reverse sequence. Start the bottom with the vertical fin connectors.

That's all there is to it. At this point the DCM will this it is out of range for both cellular and GPS.

Note: the OEM "emergency assistance"button and other "connected services" are now diabled, obvi, as it requres that built-in cellular link. I infer that pulling the onboard GPS antenna also functionally blinds the onboard oem navigation. If you use onboard oem Nav, the you could experiment with reconnecting the GPS antenna only I guess? YMMV.

This will NOT affect any carplay, cellular or GPS accessed via a paired smartphone.

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[ramble22]

Fantastic info, thanks for sharing. I opted out of Toyota telematics shortly after purchasing the truck, but will be doing this as well since I don't have full faith the the opt-out will be fully honored long term.

 

[SnowmanJPS]

That's a hell of a lot of work to wear a tinfoil hat, however I really do appreciate these forums for what people are able to figure out

 

[bobinoregon]

That's a hell of a lot of work to wear a tinfoil hat, however I really do appreciate these forums for what people are able to figure out

Here are two articles on data collection and how auto makers are sharing your data with insurance companies:

1. https://www.komando.com/tips/privacy/car-companies-collecting-data/

2. Automakers Are Sharing Consumers’ Driving Behavior With Insurance Companies

"What it contained stunned him: more than 130 pages detailing each time he or his wife had driven the car over the previous six months. It included the dates of 640 trips, their start and end times, the distance driven and an accounting of any speeding, hard braking or sharp accelerations. The only thing it didn’t have is where they had driven the car."

 

[Dirt]

Here are two articles on data collection and how auto makers are sharing your data with insurance companies:

1. https://www.komando.com/tips/privacy/car-companies-collecting-data/

2. Automakers Are Sharing Consumers’ Driving Behavior With Insurance Companies

"What it contained stunned him: more than 130 pages detailing each time he or his wife had driven the car over the previous six months. It included the dates of 640 trips, their start and end times, the distance driven and an accounting of any speeding, hard braking or sharp accelerations. The only thing it didn’t have is where they had driven the car."

Damn!

 

[maxx075]

Here are two articles on data collection and how auto makers are sharing your data with insurance companies:

1. https://www.komando.com/tips/privacy/car-companies-collecting-data/

2. Automakers Are Sharing Consumers’ Driving Behavior With Insurance Companies

"What it contained stunned him: more than 130 pages detailing each time he or his wife had driven the car over the previous six months. It included the dates of 640 trips, their start and end times, the distance driven and an accounting of any speeding, hard braking or sharp accelerations. The only thing it didn’t have is where they had driven the car."

And this is exactly why I disabled mine in the dealership parking lot before driving the truck home. Not that I went as far as you did lol.

Still blows my mind that people are willing and gladly PAY Toyota to give them all of their driving information (locations/speeds/trips/ etc.).

 

[Sancheesy]

Thank you for doing the work. I saw a youtube video on this data tracking.

 

[TrustButVerify]

Posting a how-to on grounding out the antennas used by the DCM telematics module.

This post is not a debate about the puposes of telematics communicating data back to a toyota service center ,or legality of same -- only a how-to for those interested.

Background - why bother?
- All recent toyotas have a always-on cellular connection to Toyota corporate via thee internet. This enables lots of data reporting and remote monitoring & control of the vehicle. This includes GPS location, speed and other data. Maybe you don't care, maybe you feel the pros of being connected outweight the cons; but some people don't want this data being sent at all.

What data gets sent?
I Refer you to the 2024 service manual where it says:

The HOW-TO for those interested:

I know that on other Toyota models, pulling the DCM fuse results in a Check Engine Light. I Haven't tested this on my Taco; but i don't want a bogus CEL masking other legit causes for CEL. So i looked for a method to keep DCM communicating to ECU but not the outside world.

After some research I found this thread. This method takes less than 15 minutes and is completely reversable. Basically unplugging three oem cables and plugging in three terminated dummy cables which tell the DCM it's out of range for cellular and GPS. This does NOT affect any other cellular or GPS devices you might have in the vehicle.

First, I looked up the location of the DCM module in my 2025 Taco. It's behind the phone shelf/charging area just ahead of the shifter.

I purchased three 'Fakra Z Female to SMA Female Vehicle Antenna Adapter cables' and some 50-ohm SMA terminators off Amazon. The square Fakra Z shells on the jumper cables need to be removed leaving just the inner coax connector, becuase the Fakra shells are are too Fakrin' wide to fit into the Toyota DCM. Do this carefully so as not to damage or bend the inner coax connector fins.


Accessing the DCM is easy; the panel holding the phone shelf/Qi charger basially pops forward and unclips. Once loose it can be pivoted to the right allowing acess to guts of the console. The DCM is front and center.

The antenna leads are on the left:

The latches for the connectors are at the front. I suggest using a right-angle tool such as a pick to push the latches inwards while tugging gently on the cables. They pop out easily.

Install the terminated jumpers into the three DCM sockets you just freed up. The connectors have a slight interference fit so they won't easily fall out.

You could probably? just let the jumpers dangle in the dash area but i wanted to take their weight off the interference-fit coax connectors at the DCM side. So I used an ahdesive-backed zip-tie mount and a zip tie stuck right to the front of the DCM, through wich i looped the three new jumper cables. Now there is no weight pulling down on the connectors landed in the DCM.

I Pushed the three OEM cables back into the dash and let them dangle.

I started the truck at this point to check for any CELs... no problems found.

Reinstall the phone shelf/carger plate in reverse sequence. Start the bottom with the vertical fin connectors.

That's all there is to it. At this point the DCM will this it is out of range for both cellular and GPS.

Note: the OEM "emergency assistance"button and other "connected services" are now diabled, obvi, as it requres that built-in cellular link. I infer that pulling the onboard GPS antenna also functionally blinds the onboard oem navigation. If you use onboard oem Nav, the you could experiment with reconnecting the GPS antenna only I guess? YMMV.

This will NOT affect any carplay, cellular or GPS accessed via a paired smartphone.

A point about why this matters. I got a call from the dealership the other day. "We noticed your truck has just over 5200 miles but hasn't been in for its 5000 mile service."

Apparently in the 40 screens of fine print, somehow I agreed to share all my driving info with the lowest form of life on earth, a dealership. I just wanted to use the remote start. They decided to spam me with emails and calls as a thank you.

 

[Dayen]

Do we expect the modules to be located differently in any way on a MT car? I have the parking brake bezel that goes over half the surface the panels on a AT car cover

 

[ShawnJon]

Did you loose your microphone doing this mod? I have the fuse pulled and there are no check engine lights but I lost the microphone. Has anyone rewired it differently if youve run into the sane problem?

 

[Dayen]

Do we expect the modules to be located differently in any way on a MT car? I have the parking brake bezel that goes over half the surface the panels on a AT car cover

Just completed the DCM delete on my MT SR, there are some slight differences to the manual transmission version of this DIY. You're going to need to remove the trim around the shifter before pulling the bezel as it is larger and harder to remove than on the automatic cars.

If you don't know how to remove the shift knob, you need to twist the ring right under the knob clockwise and it'll pop down the shift boot. Then you can twist the knob off and pull the entire trim piece off.

I used the right angle hose pick pictured in the cupholder and used a trim tool to shimmy more room between the HVAC and the front phone holder bezel. I then pulled gently and popped the clips out.

The bottom right portion of the trim is a bit tough to get out, I may have slightly scratched the passenger grab handle but oh well. It appears that there is more access to the connectors on a manual car compared to @bobinoregon 's DIY, there were no issues with getting my fingers in there.

Glad to get the snoops out of my truck, seem to have no errors but I did not test if I have a working microphone or not. Will update when I drive the truck tomorrow.

 

[ShawnJon]

Following

 

[Dayen]

Just called my buddy from android auto, microphone works!

 

[ShawnJon]

Ive seen a thread stating that even if those plugs are removed or unhooked if you get near a cell tower it can still grab info from the dcm. Did you remove it fully or just unplug the antennas?

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