Stab in the dark. Where is my E61 M5 trackstar module?
Discussion
Phoned up Trafficmaster on friday to renew the subscription on my Trackstar. In order to do so they had to test the system to make sure its working. They tried when the car was running, but stationary on my drive. NO SIGNAL. I took the car for a spin and they waited for it to appear on the system. NO SIGNAL. Ive read back in the cars service history that when the horns were replaced in August last year they disconnected and reconnected the tracker (why?). Maybe they didnt reconnect it right. Anyone know where these units are in the car? Ive checked under the seats and in the boot but no joy. Anyone familiar with their fitting? If its a simple thing like a bad connection or its still unplugged then i'll fix it myself. Trackstar wanted £120+vat to comde out and check it.
Please PM me rather than posting the locations up here,
Eddie
Please PM me rather than posting the locations up here,
Eddie
The location varies from car to car and installer to installer. Without dismantling the car and/or getting lucky I'd say you're best off paying the £120 - maybe argue that you cannot renew the cover until the unit is working so it is in their interest to check it out so they should be able to do it FOC as part of the renewal?
I'd kinda guessed it was gonna be a wild card as far as unit location goes. Car theives seem to find it easy though. I'll try the symathy call on monday, maybe have some luck there. I know tracker fit their units in pretty much a set location, just wondered if Trackstar was the same.
Problem solved. I phoned my insurance company to see how much i was actually saving on my premium with the tracker subscription and the answer was shocking. They said i was only saving £31. Weigh that up against the £120 a year subscription, plus the £120 for them to come out and switch it back on and the result was, 'oh right, in that case please remove it from my cover'.
Tracker / Trackstar used to be great. They were very succesful at recovering cars / motorbikes and the reputation earned them a huge following and a reduction in your insurance premium. Since then car thieves have beaten the system. The GPS tracking on the 'Monitor' systems is easily beaten by putting the car under 'hard cover', such as multistorey car park or in a shipping container. The VHF transmitter that they all have as standard is easily beaten by a jammer, which can be made for about a fiver or bought off the net for a similar figure. Most proffesional car theives will have these jammers and if they dont then they probably wouldnt be in the buisness of nicking M5's. Aswell as the technical cambatants there is also the usual 'rip the tracker out' approach.
With that, and the plentiful stories on here about how the BIB couldnt find cars even though they had a tracker fitted ive come to an easy decision. Some of you wont agree, but in my opinion it really isnt worth it. The money will be better spent on a top notch alarm and immobiliser........ that and some good old motion sensory CCTV.
Who wants their car back anyway when its been thrashed to the redline in every gear, had the interior ripped apart as the scum try to find the tracker and generally abused for the purposes of making a few hundred quid in 'boost money'? Im not so sure i would.
Tracker / Trackstar used to be great. They were very succesful at recovering cars / motorbikes and the reputation earned them a huge following and a reduction in your insurance premium. Since then car thieves have beaten the system. The GPS tracking on the 'Monitor' systems is easily beaten by putting the car under 'hard cover', such as multistorey car park or in a shipping container. The VHF transmitter that they all have as standard is easily beaten by a jammer, which can be made for about a fiver or bought off the net for a similar figure. Most proffesional car theives will have these jammers and if they dont then they probably wouldnt be in the buisness of nicking M5's. Aswell as the technical cambatants there is also the usual 'rip the tracker out' approach.
With that, and the plentiful stories on here about how the BIB couldnt find cars even though they had a tracker fitted ive come to an easy decision. Some of you wont agree, but in my opinion it really isnt worth it. The money will be better spent on a top notch alarm and immobiliser........ that and some good old motion sensory CCTV.
Who wants their car back anyway when its been thrashed to the redline in every gear, had the interior ripped apart as the scum try to find the tracker and generally abused for the purposes of making a few hundred quid in 'boost money'? Im not so sure i would.
VvrooomM said:
quite often pushed inside the sill from inside the car. thats where mine was in an m3 e46.
a new subscription should include an inspection of the unit, it did for tracker
Yeah, when i renewed my tracker in the RS6 they came out and serviced the unit so i had no issues during ownership. Trackstar wanted to do the same, but were going to relieve me of £120 + parts to turn it on. Computer said no! a new subscription should include an inspection of the unit, it did for tracker
Unless you cannot get insurance without a tracker fitted, then I really don't see the point in having one. Personally, if my car got stolen then I would never want to see it again. Having it stolen and then recovered a few weeks later would be a nightmare. Not only would you be left wondering how badly they thrashed it during its period away and what wear and tear has been done, but you would loose money when you come to sell it as it would be recorded on the HPI database thing.
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