Lately,if you’re getting suspicious that someone’s keeping an eye on your movements, then it’s natural that you might feel that maybe someone put a hidden GPS tracker in your vehicle.
A hidden tracker can breach your privacy and leak your information to the person who can be harmful to you later on. In that case, to be sure about the fact, you may ask yourself that does my car have a tracker?
To find out,you should check your car thoroughly. Also, check the exterior and interior of the car. However, finding a GPS tracker is a lot more complicated than it sounds.
So if you want to know every bit of this, stay with this me. Otherwise, it’ll take a lot of your time to find out a tracker.
In this auto car need guide We’ll discuss the following:
- What Is A Tracker?
- Uses of a GPS tracker
- Types of GPA tracker
- What To Do If You Found A Tracking Device On Your Car
- FAQs
What Is A Tracker?
A tracker is basically a small device that could tell your vehicle’s location if it has been plugged in your car. To collect the exact data, a tracker uses Global Positioning System (GPS).
It doesn’t only locate your car, but it also has other features, including keeping track of your car’s overall health and driving speed. Besides, this device can alert you if someone wants to move your vehicle without permission
7 Uses of a GPS tracker
Now that you already know what’s a GPS tracker it’s time to understand what services it has to offer you. Here’re the uses of a tracker:
1. Finding Out the Location
No matter how many other features a tracker could have, the primary purpose is to find out where your car is. For example, if you park your car and somehow forget the location, it’ll help you find your car in a few minutes.
2. It’ll Assist if You Need It
The most significant feature of a GPS tracker is the ability to obtain help immediately in an emergency.
For instance, if you’re in an unknown place and feeling unsafe, a GPS tracker will help you to inform emergency services of your exact location.Consequently, the device will come in handy if you’re in a new area.
3. You Can Keep An Eye on Your Children with a Tracker
It’s always been a headache for a parent when their teen went for driving in the night. In this case, a tracker can help parents to keep an eye on their children. Besides,a tracker will alert their parents if it notices any unwanted activities.
4. A Tracker Can Help You to Recover a Stolen Car
Every day, so many cars are being stolen. Unfortunately, owners often leave their keys or key fob inside their vehicle, making it an ideal target for criminals who don’t have to break into the car or use a hot wire.
To increase your chances of getting your automobile back after it has been stolen, use a GPS tracking device to give law authorities your car’s exact position information.
5. Collect Your Travel Statistics and Other Information
Some trackers give travel data and statistics such as when and where a trip began, how far you drove in one day, and average speed.
Consequently, this device can even record potentially dangerous driving patterns such as abrupt braking or fast acceleration. This information might help you better understand your driving habits.
6. When Someone Tries to Steal Your Car
No matter where you’re, if your car is moved, stolen, or even bumped in the parking lot, a tracker will immediately send alerts. Thus it ensures your car is protected where you parked it.
7. Take Your Vehicle to a Technician for a Regular Checkup
Other features of sophisticated GPS trackers include diagnostics for your vehicle and reminders for periodic maintenance. If it detects more significant problems, you’ll know when to take your car to a technician.
Types of GPA tracker
There’re two types of GPS trackers you’ll find. One is the active tracker, and the other one is the passive tracker.
1. Active Trackers
As the name indicates, active trackers utilize GPS to determine a device’s exact location and subsequently broadcast that data through cellular connections.
That means if someone hid an active tracker on your car, that person would be able to keep track of your location and movement with a computer, smartphone, or even an internet connection. Besides, they’ll do all these things in real-time.
Depending on what model of tracker they installed, they may also be able to see your prior routes, as well as detailed facts on how you drive.
2.Passive Trackers
On the other hand, passive trackers are those devices that don’t send location data in real-time but capture the data and store them.
So if you installed a passive GPS tracker on your car, it would not be able to provide any real-time information about your route or position. You can’t obtain any information out of the passive tracker unless you recover it and access the data it contains.
How to Figure: Does My Car Have a Tracker?
You may use various methods to validate your concerns that someone has put a tracking device on your automobile. So here’re some ways that you can follow.
1. Exterior Examination
The first thing you can do to find out a tracker is to check the car’s exterior. Examining the exterior will give you a brief idea about certain areas where you could find a tracker. However, not all the trackers are set up in the same way.
When it comes to specific gadgets, the only clue you’ll notice is a cable that’s out of place. It’s a good idea to have your car’s handbook on hand, so you don’t end up damaging anything.
The next place you can look for is the undercarriage of your car. For doing so, you’ll need a mat and flashlight. So check out any strangely shaped things, such as taped-on objects, boxes, and antennae.
You should also check the wheel wells, especially behind the plastic protection. If someone wants to hide a tracker, this would be a place where you’d find a hidden tracker.
Also, the front and rear bumper is a good place to hide a tracker. So, look attentively at these parts since anybody might insert a tracker into the bumpers too.
And the last place you’ll look for a hidden tracker is the roof and the hood of your vehicle. However, the roof and hood aren’t idle places because there’s no place where someone can hide a tracker, that’s whyanyone could use the roof and hood as the best option because most of the time, people ignore this area while searching for a tracker.
For instance, if your vehicle has any sunroof, someone could easily hide a GPS tracker there. Consequently, it’s also possible to detect a tracking device by disorganized cables going to your car’s battery.
2. Interior Examination
In a car interior, removable parts are the most common place where someone could hide a GPS tracker. Having said that, check the upholstery, headrests, and cushions. Besides, don’t forget to clean the carpet and seat.
However, while checking the interior, if you find something unusual, don’t overlook it. For that, use your flashlight since it can come in handy while checking these areas.
If you don’t find anything on the parts I mentioned earlier, check the area under the dash. Now, you must be thinking about how you’re going to investigate that place, don’t worry. It’s easy to disassemble a car’s glove box and steering wheel panel on most models.
During the investigation, if you find any loose wire, that must be a sign that someone is tracking your car.
Last but not least don’t forget to check the back of the car. Besides, keep an eye out for cracks beneath the back window, and don’t forget to inspect the metal trunks and spare tire as well.
3. Using an Electronic Sweeper
I’m sure you’ve seen electronic sweepers in the movies. Well, that device can help you find a tracker too. If someone hides a tracker in your car, it’ll find out cellular data and radio-frequency transmission, indicating the presence of a tracker.
And when it comes to contact with any radio frequency, it produces an audible tone, flashes a light, or vibrates to inform you.
However, detecting a tracker with a sweeper is very simple. You’ll have to walk around the car slowly. Or you can place the sweeper in the suspected area and observe does it give you any signal or vibrates. And you’ll be alerted as soon as it finds anything.
4. Ask for Experts Help
Finding some GPS trackers is more complicated as they’re expertly hidden but not impossible if you know how and where to look. So if you’re suspicious but don’t know how to find a tracker, it’ll be better to hand over the job to an expert technician you trust.
Check out this video for more details guide:
What To Do If You Found A Tracking Device On Your Car?
Now that you’ve checked all the places, what’ll you do to protect yourself if you find a tracker on your car?
The first thing you’ve to do is stopping the alerts while disconnecting the tracker from your car. But it’s nearly impossible to remove the device without destroying the signals because it’ll immediately send a warning to the device, keeping all the data of the tracked vehicle.
Due to this, there’s no other way to prevent warnings and remain untracked unless you provide secondary electricity for the tracking device and then separate it from your car. In this way, the tracker will be unable to give information about your car; hence it’ll provide false data.
people also ask
1. What is capable of detecting a GPS tracker? –
Bug sweeper can detect GPS tracker using the radio frequency signal that the GPS Tracker provides. In other words, these devices ensure the presence of radio signals that the tracker sends through cellular networks to which it sends information about its position and condition.
2. Do GPS trackers violate the law?
Installing a tracking device to track someone’s every movement without your authority is a criminal offense. There are five years in jail for an individual who violates the law.
3. What is the greatest spot to put a GPS tracker on a vehicle?
A tracking device can be installed almost in any place of a car. However, the most suited options are wheel wells, back bumper, as I mentioned earlier. Yet another most suitable option is the dashboard, where a tracker can be hidden using OBD (on-board diagnostics) connections.
4. Is it possible to disable GPS tracker?
Blocking a GPS tracker is possible but not an easy task to execute. However, it’s nearly impossible to deactivate a GPS tracking device if you can locate the tracker without removing the battery. To do so, remove the gadget entirely and dispose of it, not continue broadcasting your location information.
in Conclusion: Does My Car Have A Tracker?
If you’ve made it this far, hopefully, you got no more confusion regarding this topics. To find a tracker, you’ve to be very patient as the process will take a lot of time.
Check out all the possible ways mentioned above, exterior and interior examination mostly. And in case you cannot find it on your own, go to the experts.
