Is there a community for those interested in removing factory tracking from newer model cars? A recent discussion here mentioned how prevalent they are in vehicles made in the last decade. (No link, sorry.)
Help me identify possible tracking device found in my car
61–70 of 268 posts
Re: Help me identify possible tracking device found in my car
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
What is the usecase for a remote starter? I don't really understand why someone would want this. Could even be dangerous if it's left in gear.
Cold weather primarily. You need the engine to warm up before driving and it’s much nicer to have the heater warm up the car and loosen ice on the windows. You can run outside and start the car then come back, as I did growing up in a cold region, but remote start is sooo much nicer.
Cars built in the last 15 years usually don't need to be warned up:
https://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/car-technology/a19086/...
But yeah, icy/foggy windows are a pain to clear.
I live in Montreal, and when I had an ICE car, most days, it was fine to just de-icing the windows, then start the motor, and slowly roll out of the alley. Admittedly, most winter days, it's not that cold.
Kind of drives me crazy, the smell and pollution from idling ICE cars :/
Re: Help me identify possible tracking device found in my car
#63When I got home I looked under the dash and straight away I could see someone other than Honda had been in here. The first thing I saw was this surface-mounted switch that doesn't belong there. Does anyone else find it odd that he just bought a car and effectively started using it without going over it thoroughly and familiarising himself with what controls it contains? Then again, my experience has been with far old…
You acquaint yourself with the underside of the dash of a new-to-you car before driving it?
I’m quite interested in cars (do all the repairs in our household except body, paint, and tires) and I’ve never looked under the dash before driving off, unless I was attaching a scan tool on a used car I was buying.
Re: Help me identify possible tracking device found in my car
#64When I got home I looked under the dash and straight away I could see someone other than Honda had been in here. The first thing I saw was this surface-mounted switch that doesn't belong there. Does anyone else find it odd that he just bought a car and effectively started using it without going over it thoroughly and familiarising himself with what controls it contains? Then again, my experience has been with far old…
Ha, well blame me for that I guess, but none of this stuff is visible from a normal seated position. You have to crawl under the steering wheel to see any of it.
When buying a factory-new car I do not ordinarily rip off the dashboard trim panels to see if the wiring has been tampered with.
Re: Help me identify possible tracking device found in my car
#65It looks like a remote starter to me
Re: Help me identify possible tracking device found in my car
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cold weather primarily. You need the engine to warm up before driving and it’s much nicer to have the heater warm up the car and loosen ice on the windows. You can run outside and start the car then come back, as I did growing up in a cold region, but remote start is sooo much nicer.
Makes sense yeah. Sometimes I'd do this manually but because I used a shared car park I'd need the spare key to do this safely with the main key in the ignition. I didn't consider this option. I haven't owned a car for many years and the last one was already pretty old :)
The one I installed tied into the brake light circuit, such that pressing on the brake would kill the remote starter’s completion of the “run” circuit. That’s a simple and fairly effective way to prevent a casual drive-off.
Re: Help me identify possible tracking device found in my car
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
New car, bought from dealer, who swear they did not install it and are blaming another dealer from whom they acquired the vehicle. As far as the dealer goes I intend to make a lot of over-the-top demands and threats until they replace the wiring with all-new OEM parts and a lifetime warranty, but I think I'll start from just pointing to California Penal Code 637.7, demanding a completely new vehicle, and seeing what…
Did you finance it? Found this: https://thriveglobal.com/stories/drivers-need-to-be-aware-th... But you'd think it'd be more clearly a GPS device.
My Honda dealer back when I had crummy credit "included" a gps but it was never explained why and I tried to say I wasn't really interested. Somehow I ended up agreeing, likely due to some interest rate bait and switch as referenced elsewhere.
They couldn't "install" it there so I drove off the lot. They started calling the next week to schedule the installation and I wasn't very eager to go quickly. It became apparent they really wanted this installed and eventually bothered me enough that I acquiesced.
This brought no gps functionality to the car itself so I quickly realized this was because I had ~ 610 FICO and they expected to repo the thing at some point.
I paid it off but never bothered to remove it and the whole thing really bugged me. Nobody mentioned anything the last time I bought a car with an 800+ FICO so this is either for bad credit buyers or they just do it without asking now.
Re: Help me identify possible tracking device found in my car
#68When I got home I looked under the dash and straight away I could see someone other than Honda had been in here. The first thing I saw was this surface-mounted switch that doesn't belong there. Does anyone else find it odd that he just bought a car and effectively started using it without going over it thoroughly and familiarising himself with what controls it contains? Then again, my experience has been with far old…
No, this was not in a location you would see during normal end-user operation of the car given that most users will never do much more than wash the car and refill fluids. Neither is it expected behavior by an official dealership to install undisclosed components. Especially when the salesperson will (in my experience) do a pretty thorough tour of the car, under the hood, obscure storage compartments etc, and the aftermarket component in this post would not have been in a locations reviewed as part of that.
If this was a desktop computer I certainly would expect even a moderately knowledgeable user to open a computer direct for the manufacturer or retailer before using it to see if there were unauthorized components present.
Re: Help me identify possible tracking device found in my car
#69When I got home I looked under the dash and straight away I could see someone other than Honda had been in here. The first thing I saw was this surface-mounted switch that doesn't belong there. Does anyone else find it odd that he just bought a car and effectively started using it without going over it thoroughly and familiarising himself with what controls it contains? Then again, my experience has been with far old…
Do you literally crawl under the steering wheel of a car before you drive it? Why?
Re: Help me identify possible tracking device found in my car
#70When I got home I looked under the dash and straight away I could see someone other than Honda had been in here. The first thing I saw was this surface-mounted switch that doesn't belong there. Does anyone else find it odd that he just bought a car and effectively started using it without going over it thoroughly and familiarising himself with what controls it contains? Then again, my experience has been with far old…
No, I don't find it odd. All the critical controls are in basically the same place in every car. Steering wheel, pedals, turn signals, etc. The rest I can figure out as needed. No need to study in advance.