Im pretty sure the devs are okay with modification of the exported .car files, but if not… umm… sorry.
To start out with, I was in the Beamng mods folder and chose the car I wanted to mess with. (exported Automation car) Next, I went into the “camso_engine” JBEAM file and tweaked a few values, gear ratio, turbo spooling efficiency, and torque curve. After this, I copied the complete notepad flie incase anything went south, closed and saved the document. (note, it says that the file already exists and if you want to replace it. I said yes)
When I opened beam however, the changes weren’t applied, so I opened the file and what would you know, the changes weren’t actually saved.
My question here is, predictably, how do I get them to save?
TL;DR: I messed with a JBEAM file for a .car file exported to Beam, how can I get the changes to save?
Did you unpack it first? Or just try to edit it while it was still in the zip/compressed file that beam cars are actually stored in?
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Mildly embarrasing I didn’t think of it, but… yeah that worked 
edit: I was mistaken
once you extract the files, it seems like everything is okay. But, if you try to restart file explorer and open the files again, you find it was reverted to how it was before
In beam, go to the mod manager, unpack it from there; It will delete the archive. Edit to your heart’s content.
According to something I read, if you respawn after editing, you get the changes instantly.
Then, back to mod manager screen, and re-pack.
I use notepad++ and don’t have any issue modifying files while they are just open in the compressed file (when opened with .rar), straight from the mod folder in documents.
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I use the standard Windows notepad… because I’m lazy and don’t feel like downloading any third party software… it’s probably a worthy investment of 5 minutes, but this is the first time I’ve been motivated to edit the .car file of something so I just tried messing with it immediately
You don’t need any other software, you can edit in normal notepad just fine - you don’t even have to unpack the compressed file really.
It sounds to me like the edits aren’t saving back into the archived version properly. What program do you use to open the compressed file?
Edit: 7zip works fine for me for this btw
I do recommend notepad++ because the file is structured, and thus much easier to actually edit and identify what entries are what.
I’m still learning, but I figured out how to make cars backfire, add superchargers, make them electric, have diesel-engine sounds, adapt lighting fixtures to a certain level (rear lights being both blinkers as well as brake and rear lights; not all rear lights functioning as rear light or brake; seperate fog/high beam front lights; daytime running lights; less bright front lights in general;…). I’d make a thread with instruction if it were not for me going off trial and error mostly as well still.
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Downloaded Notepad++, new issue: Windows won’t let me set Notepad++ as the app jbeam files load in… I’d prefer to use it, but I’ll see if the method of extracting within Beam works, I’ve been trying to get this working for about 6 hours 
EDIT: Got it to work, thanks for the help!
hey i just wanna change the final drive ratio on my car? can you please IN SIMPLEST POSSIBLE TERMS explain to me how?
Bro I… I understand you’re a new user, so I don’t wanna be rude, but this thread has been dead for 2.5 years. The way to change it is different now, I’m not entirely sure. It’s easiest to locate the mods folder through steam, but it’s been such a long time that I don’t even know.
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