Anyone heard of hidden Toyota tracker?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UkBD_BrpRk


I'm going to have to look at all of our cars now.

Rule of thumb from a Toyota tech: if your OBD connector is any color besides white, check for an add on dongle. No matter what model you buy, the connector should always be white. We dont install these at the dealer I wrok at, but I have run into it on dealer trades and vehicles bought at other dealers.

 

Yeah lets believe everything on the interweb

 

I can see why Toyota or Dealers would do this on the GR Corolla. Those are sought after tuner/gear head cars. The chances of them being stolen would be high. I doubt they'll do this to 4Runners. Now, I'm sure a few random dealers may "try" to slap this on so they can sell you a low-jack service. But I bet 99% of people turn it down, and when they do, the dealership will yank it out.

Wanna know why I think that? Because the parts cost them money. They won't give you the parts unless you buy the service.

 

The Audi dealership installed one of these on my 2018 S5 when I took it in for recall work on the passenger side seat airbag. They put it in under the guise of "upgraded from 3G network". Bullshit. It was a tracking device that uploaded data directly to Audi and God knows who else, watching hard braking, rapid acceleration, sudden yaw, and multitudes of other parameters. I ripped that shit out. Another reason I'm glad I own the 2011 4R and a 2003 Tundra. Minimal electronic nannies, and none that can be tracked.

 

I just checked my 4R and my wife's Rav4. Both have white dongles so I guess nothing is there. I told my son to check his Tacoma and Rav4 just to be safe.

 

newer 4Runners have tracking built in - Toyota app tells you where you've been, last place you parked, how many fast accelerations and sharp turns you made during trips. There was a thread discussing how to turn it off, I think you can pull DCM fuse but microphone won't work after that.

 

psst hey come in for this sweet free oil change at your closest dealership no gimmicks

 

If you bought your car from a dealership owned by Lithia you will have that.

 

I would have left it alone so they could track me driving to my lawyer's office then to the bank, all while laughing at their stupidity. It is highly illegal to do this without consent and settlement would likely be into 6 figures.

 

THANK YOU!
I just looked at all 4 of my Toyotas...
-2000 4runner, white OBDII port...I've owned this 20 years
-2011 Camry, white OBDII port...got a scan gauge 3 installed
-2024 4Runner, white OBDII port...its brand new from Freeman Toyota
-2024 Camry...Black OBDII port with a black cable running behind dash, I bought this from Freeman Toyota 3 weeks ago, it was a service loaner
Some of the used cars on their lot had a sticker advertising Toyota connected services added for $199 (I think) but nothing on my car

 

Could just be they use that on all their service loaners for easy tracking and forgot to remove it.

 

Either way, it's a dealer thing, not a Toyota thing. Toyota has nothing to do with it.

 

Most dealers will hack your wiring and do a poor job at it to put in a karr alarm or similar bs product as an upsell, they also add bull shit “anti theft” stickers that are impossible to remove on all your doors and hoods and some even hack your brake light wiring to add a 50 cent resistor so your brake light will pulse and charge you a thousands and the dealers do this as soon as the car comes in so you’re forced to buy all this non sense if you want the car from them

when I got my rig I told the sales guy if any of this crap was on mine I simply wouldn’t buy it from them, luckily it just came into the dealer and he was able to stop the service guys from putting that crap on, all dealers including longo Toyota do this now (that I’ve dealt with)

 

I think dealers also put trackers on leased vehicles.

 

You may be right about that. When I purchased my used 4Runner from a Lithia dealer a few months ago, I didn't know, that this harness was installed with the LoJack unit. They told me I had LoJack free for a year and gave me the website. The good news about that is they didn't hack into the wiring. Also, my insurance comapny (USAA) gave me a discount due to the LoJack being installed. I'm leaving it in - for now.

 

nope,
just checked their used car website...

they brag about their cars having:

• Tracker system: Safety Connect with 1-year trial

here is the sister car to the one I bought, mine is celestial silver metallic...this one is underground and under the 'safety and security' section they talk about the installed 'tracker system'

https://www.freemantoyota.com/whole...hurst-tx-4411e1aaac183db4873676fb71f619df.htm

whatever it is, Im taking it out tomorrow...
or maybe today if temp drops below 100 before dark

you experts think I should disconnect the battery before unplugging this tracker from the OBDII?
or just rip it out?

 

Talked to one dealer while 4Runner shopping and they said they install LoJack or some other anti-theft/tracking system for “insurance reasons” but hey, none of the others seemed to include it.

Didn’t want a dealer mucking around in the electronics and charging me for it.

Of course noting that this is separate from the built-in cellular radio.

 

Yeah, my dealer didn't inform me about it until after the sale and said it was free for a year. Then I wanted to get it home and see what they did. Since it is a harness I can easily remove it down the road.

 

Funny. That popped up in my Youtube feeds as well. Seems like two sides of the story, most likely miscommunications about the tracker install. Majority of the sh***t on Youtube is for clickbait.

Reading some of the comments is this a used car thing? Weird!

 

Mine was a used 4Runner purchase from a Toyota dealer. The dealer said they put the Lojack on all their used vehicles (Toyotas?).

 

Buy here / pay here lots will put these trackers on vehicles.

 

Yup. This thread here https://www.4runners.com/threads/my-dcm-disconnection-odyssey.25104/page-6 although the last page of posts (page 7) go way off topic, the rest is good. I’ll be doing a full write up on how to remove the entire DCM module from the dash, re-wire speakers and microphone back in, once I get my new 4Runner in a few months. That will remove all current tracking, selling of private data, and the ability for Toyota, government, law enforcement, or bad actors to remotely disable your vehicle or do other things.

is it really yours if strangers can at any point control it against your will?

EDIT: Also, as we researched and did on the Tacoma forum, pulling the fuse doesn’t always disable the speaker, but always disables Bluetooth. The DCM has a battery backup and secondary power supply (Tacomas) so pulling the fuse didn’t stop data transmitting entirely when close to a tower, nor did signal terminators or faraday tape/tinfoil. The only success to “privatize” your ride is removing the DCM module entirely and the head unit, then tying the speaker in and microphone for Bluetooth. That or removing the SIM card from the DCM (irreversible though)

 

I'm looking forward to your write up on this process,
I am hoping the 4Runner will be easier to stop the tracking than the Taco...
My reasoning is the 4Runner has not been redesigned in 15 years, and they may not have devoted as much time to making the tracking so pervasive...

In the USA, they are already warning about taxing per mile driven and insurance companies dangle giving discounts if you let them monitor you...

I think, depending on how elections go, we will get a CBDC, more tracking, more taxes, and a lot more FED.GOV

At least in the USA they sometimes pretend us peasants still have rights,

Does the Canadian King even pretend you guys have the right to stop them tracking you?

 

and I quote:

“Regardless of the fact that we are… attacking your fundamental rights, or limiting your fundamental rights…. and the charter says that is wrong…. We’re still going to go ahead and do it. It’s basically a loophole that allows a majority to override the fundamental rights of a minority.” - Justin Trudeau.

 

And that is why we have the second amendment in the United States Constitution. Just saying.

 

Update

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6ZHN3cKapA

 

After bill gates put the tracking chips in the covid vaccine he sold the patent to the oil companies.

They put tracking chips in every gallon of gas sold in the world now. The tracking chips are made in the same lab in Chi-naa that makes covid and silly puddy.

The tracking chips are used by the Biden admin to send illegal aliens into 4runner driving 'Merikans bedrooms while they sleep so the illegal aliens can rub their junk on the faces of patroits.

There is only one way to stay safe. Wrap your 4runner in aluminum foil and super glue your penis to your leg.

You'll show Big Brother...

 

Unfortunately that was 13 minutes of nothing. The dealer denied it existed, then gave conflicting and provably false reasons for why it did exist. No new information.

 

Decided to check mine this morning ... there's one in there. And unfortunately it is spliced into wires not just plug and play. OBD port is white but this was tapped in behind it. So I'm at a loss for if I can just cut it out (just cutting the wires from the unit and taping off the ends) or if that may cause issues. Not too psyched on this.

 

Have you checked what its spliced into?

As noted above, I bought a 2024 Camry just before the 4Runner, and it was a courtesy service loaner...

After seeing the OP, I checked all my Toyotas and the Camry had a black OBDII port with a wire running under the dash...

I just pulled it out today, it was an IKON Technologies tracker
https://ikontechnologies.com/devices/

There is also a sticker on the door jam from IKON identifying the car.

I think it was just used by the dealer to track their service loaner and make sure no one stole it, or took it cross-country

regardless, mine is gone and it was not wired into any vehicle wiring, but I did have to remove a few panels to get it out