WTF is this? No, seriously, WTF is it??

[Akinesis 0]

On investigating my flat-battery problem I came across some mystery wires while checking the boot-light. I followed them to under the seat and I found this...

 

 

This silvery box is very well stuck down, so didn't want to try and take this out without knowing what it is. There appears to be no markings

 

The part wrapped in electrical type seems to be a resistor and it is constantly too hot to touch!!

 

 

What the hell is that about? It appears very much to be homemade, so I really (REALLY!) doubt that it's a standard item!! But I don't very much like it being there!

 

Can anyone shed light onto this?? :scratch:

[The_Dude 0]

So what do the wires attach to in the boot apart from the box?

[Akinesis 0]

I got some loose wires (thin blue ones) that are coiled up and lead to nothing, and the others are 'piggy-backed' from the boot-light. It's hard to say whether these wires are the ones that run to the rear bench, as I don't want to start pulling panels off if I don't have to. But the wire sheathings look the same. It's nt a tracker is it??

[The_Dude 0]

Could be, but surely that would be in a properly manufactured box, not some home made piece of junk. Can you trace the wire back to engine bay anywhere? (probably not having seen the mess that's behind my dash lol)

[Akinesis 0]

Let me go and have another quick look...

[STU175 0]

it could be a very badly installed tracker?

 

the battery could be the battery back up?

 

if it is a tracker it should have a GPS pod somewhere??

 

take some more photos and follow every wire

 

doesnt sound good its getting so hot :(

[Akinesis 0]

Ok, the wires that piggy-back from the boot light def link up to this unit. And the other blue and white wires link up too, but these are go nowhere now but are quite long (could these have linked up to the GPS aerial?). Also, with some brute force - I got the unit fully out. The pic isn't clear but this sticker is on the underside and basically say:

 

"MOTOROLA. This unit is to be used in the UK only, not the USA or Canada due to unauthorised use of frequencies."

 

Def sounds tracker-ish?

 

 

 

 

With the above picture, this is a shot of the boot-light. You can see at the bottom centre is where the piggy-back is made from the light unit. The big fore-most cable-sheath that runs top-right to bottom-left is the long wires that are just coiled up. And centre-right you can see the cable sheath is hooked over (with the shoddy electrical-tape wrapping) after it piggy-backs the boot-light, and runs off to the top right with the other (possible GPS?) cable.

[Akinesis 0]

...Oh, and the 'resistor' is slowly cooling off. Possible electrical one-way valve, so the car batt doesn't conflict with the back-up batt?

[The_Dude 0]

My money is on tracker. Either that or some mobile phone gubbins but I doubt it. Cut the fecker out!

[Akinesis 0]

Cutting...

[Jim 2]

Gotta be a tracker! Nothing in the receipts file for it? :(

[Akinesis 0]

...and it's out! Will do a full job tomorrow, but all power-supply wires are snipped :grin:

[V-Dubstar 0]

Noooo why did u cut it out?!!? That was the flux capacitor...no more time travelling for u :nono:

[RW1 0]

Its a tracker, circa 1992. I had one on the Mk2 Scirocco I have. Same battery and box.

 

.

[Akinesis 0]

No absolutely no receipts for it, and the previous owner didn't mention anything.

 

I have a better flux-capacitor in my Golf :wink:

 

I'm glad that you can clarify it's a tracker. Wasn't worth loads of £££'s, was it?

[RW1 0]

Scrap metal value only. They were the big ones (1st model).

 

.

[Akinesis 0]

 

Thanks for clearing it up for me :wink:

[yacobwood 0]

you really didnt waste time cutting that out!! (one starbug crew member to another :lol: )