I saw a news item this week. Car thieves are active in airport parking lots. They get into the cars by hacking the key fobs.

Question: If you disconnected the negative terminal on your battery before you left your car, would this defeat the car thieves? Wouldn't they be forced to pick/break the door lock and ignition lock the old fashion way?

 

Thieves are probably hacking the newest key fobs, not the one similar to those of the Fit. The newest fobs are so easy to copy/hack: they just need to send a signal to the fob, then copy it. Then use this "copied version" to unlock and drive away with the car.

But for your question, if battery is disconnected, doorlocks won't work, so they'll have to pick the locks.

 

I did not know that. Where the hell are the OEMs when you need them? How could they market software like this?


That's what I thought. Also, if you disconnect your negative battery lead, you'll be less likely to drain the charge on the battery if you leave the car for a long time.

 

On my newest car, I installed multiple anti-theft devices so it is not stolen.

Also, with the new fobs (the ones that you keep in your pocket and just touch the door handle to unlock the car), you better keep them in a faraday pouch so thieves could not copy them as soon as you are out of the car.

It's completely beyond me why manufacturers are going to something like that that is less secure then what we had before. All of that so people can keep the fob in their pocket when they unlock or drive the car. Come on...

 

We live in an age where "convenience" is the only value.

Don't get me started.

 

Software Defined Radio devices SDR have become very cheap. This allowed devices like the Flipper Zero to exist. In terms of the software most of this stuff is hobbyist work adapted to thievery.

 

Not sure if this is an appropriate thread for this but since some talk of security devices I figure I'll give it a try. I just recently bought a 2009 fit and this is mounted under the dash. I'm guessing it's either a security device of some sort or a GPS tracker or something? I haven't really started looking into it yet but if anyone recognizes it ....

 

I would say it is an alarm. They often have a button on them for valet mode to temporarily disable the alarm. That said it could be a remote start. It is hard to say because there are a large number of varieties of each of these things. Open the fuse box and see what it connects to. There should be a box it connects to that will have a model number on it to look up.

 

Thanks Sixiam, I'll start digging into it more tomorrow. Hopefully I won't do anything that might disable the car ... but I think I'd rather not have it in, unless as you suggest I can find a model number and get some more info on it.
That is one nice thing about driving an old car, less of a target!

 

I have the exact same thing in the exact same location when I bought my Fit a few months back. I want to remove it to clean up the area

 

Let me know if you find anything out 3FITY.
I poked around in my fusebox yesterday but to no avail. The wires from the little box disappeared into the wiring harness surrounded by zip ties.
I wasn't motivated enough to explore any further at this point.

 

It is a Karr Security System. Google images shows the same thing.

 

Some people are just naturally born intelligent researchers, others, such as myself, are relegated to searching forums in the hopes of finding said naturally born researchers
Thanks so much SiXiam, I did try a google search on it, and also the google app where you input a picture, I came up with nothing though .. really appreciate the info

Added via Edit: So this unit was probably installed by the dealer when the car was first sold. As it's been spliced into the wiring harness already I am just going to leave it alone. These always give me a tad of worry in the back of my mind though, that somehow it could be triggered accidentally and disable the car.

 

Boy, do I feel that.