Getting rid of dealer installed vehicle's tracker

[Overland Toy]

When I bought my 4 runner back in January of this year, the dealer installs trackers on every vehicle rather you finance or not, I paid cash and I didn’t want the tracker, after doing some investigation. I looked underneath my dash and seen that the OBD-ll port was black in color, I have read that Toyota always uses white for there port, This means I have that tracker. Has anyone took the bottom panel off Under the steering wheel? I’m going to try this weekend.

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[horbit]

When I bought my 4 runner back in January of this year, the dealer installs trackers on every vehicle rather you finance or not, I paid cash and I didn’t want the tracker, after doing some investigation. I looked underneath my dash and seen that the OBD-ll port was black in color, I have read that Toyota always uses white for there port, This means I have that tracker. Has anyone took the bottom panel off Under the steering wheel? I’m going to try this weekend.

Yea I had one, its probably an obd splitter version. This is a good video on how to identify and remove it. It will take you 15 minutes or so.

 

[26RunnerORP]

I had one installed that was pretty invasive. The company had cut and spliced into my ignition wire, so after removing several panels and the components they had installed, I cut off their wire splices and put everything back together. I went to start the car and it wouldn’t start. That was the only thing that was off to me so I pulled everything back apart and had to install my own butt connectors to attach the wires back to one another. My wife’s was as simple as the one above where you just disconnected it and everything was fine

 

[Archer]

If you didn't finance and paid it off at purchase, I'd insist on them removing it or threaten to take them to court for invasion of privacy.


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[127.0.0.1]

oh man when I bought mine it was still in transit and I intercepted the dealer and said keep all that tracking crap off it or deal won't happen. they don't do invasive wiring stuff, they connect to battery + - just downstream of battery and hide trackers. but they didn't do it to mine...whew

they add it to all inventory by default...and I get why they do it, but man I hate anyone
monkeying with my wiring because super high risk of them damaging something

 

[sscarter]

This is a very useful thread, thanks. I've made a note to stipulate no tracker when I buy my 6G in a few months.

 

[Joe Dirt]

Yea I had one, its probably an obd splitter version. This is a good video on how to identify and remove it. It will take you 15 minutes or so.

Yes it's absolutely a good video to Enlighten us citizens. Kia and Hyundai have been doing this for years.

Under our us privacy act it is not supposed to go out of the country. But I believe that about as far as I can throw a piano!

We are being datamined and we have been for quite some time! And yes it is designed to definitely enhance marketing structures and insurance companies as well as dealerships.

I did not have one in my ODBII port connection, but I do have the Toyota Drive connect which also has some other emergency things going on inside the car which I know tracks my mileage and other things mentioned.

I did turn off my preferred dealer.

But I Believe that as long as you are subscribing to any of the Toyota Services you will be tracked, unless I'm missing something.

Here's a quick story I'll try to make short, but many years ago I was doing a contract job and was going through an onboard process. During one of the final steps it had a big disclaimer on it which was multiple pages and small print that I could barely see, and it did mention that they were going to sell off and give my personal data to the foreign folks! I refuse to agree to that and I did not get the job because they told me that I did not complete the onboarding process. And then of course you get the canned answers well this is our onboarding process everybody has to do it and I said yeah! Will not me and from my cold dead hand!
Just my two cents here

 

[RunnerRocks]

This is a very useful thread, thanks. I've made a note to stipulate no tracker when I buy my 6G in a few months.

Stipulating prior to purchase/delivery does not always work. Their excuse is that Sales and Service depts did not communicate the request with each other.

Check yourself at delivery.

 

[horbit]

Yes it's absolutely a good video to Enlighten us citizens. Kia and Hyundai have been doing this for years.

Under our us privacy act it is not supposed to go out of the country. But I believe that about as far as I can throw a piano!

We are being datamined and we have been for quite some time! And yes it is designed to definitely enhance marketing structures and insurance companies as well as dealerships.

I did not have one in my ODBII port connection, but I do have the Toyota Drive connect which also has some other emergency things going on inside the car which I know tracks my mileage and other things mentioned.

I did turn off my preferred dealer.

But I Believe that as long as you are subscribing to any of the Toyota Services you will be tracked, unless I'm missing something.

Here's a quick story I'll try to make short, but many years ago I was doing a contract job and was going through an onboard process. During one of the final steps it had a big disclaimer on it which was multiple pages and small print that I could barely see, and it did mention that they were going to sell off and give my personal data to the foreign folks! I refuse to agree to that and I did not get the job because they told me that I did not complete the onboarding process. And then of course you get the canned answers well this is our onboarding process everybody has to do it and I said yeah! Will not me and from my cold dead hand!
Just my two cents here

You can truly disable the Toyota Telematics DCM\Safety Connect system with an adapter like this.

https://www.autoharnesshouse.com/store/AHH-DCM77

 

[Joe Dirt]

You can truly disable the Toyota Telematics DCM\Safety Connect system with an adapter like this.

https://www.autoharnesshouse.com/store/AHH-DCM77

Well that's great! I had no clue there was even a device like this available. I don't like the idea of data mining or unnecessary tracking, but, I am using my navigation quite a lot and I also use my onboard microphone as well as calls coming in. I also use the feature that allows me to call Toyota while driving to get assistance during Outback type of Roads. And of course my XM radio for entertainment.

I'm going to give that company a call and get a little more in-depth information, but down the road this could be an option for sure. Thanks again for your info on that link.

 

[JLR]

You can truly disable the Toyota Telematics DCM\Safety Connect system with an adapter like this.

https://www.autoharnesshouse.com/store/AHH-DCM77

I did buy the Auto Harness House bypass harness and hooked it up pretty easily. It sure looked like everything was working after install.

However, Once I drove a few minutes while using Car Play, the GPS position jumped about a mile from my actual location. The system was rerouting me based on what it thought was my new location.... and then it went back to my actual location. This went on back - and - forth about every 3-4 minutes. I communicated with the folks at AutoHarness and they told me they would look into it and get back to me. That was a couple of weeks ago and I have not heard back from them,

Has anyone else had this issue when using the bypass harness?

I did a little searching around and did some AI queries. Not sure if it is true, but this is what I gathered; (1) Apple CarPlay apparently uses the vehicle GPS over the one in the iPhone when connected to CarPlay in a vehicle that has a GPS input. You apparently can't override it. (2) It seems that the GPS antenna runs to the DCM then the location info is transmitted to the head unit from the DCM via the CAN bus. So when the power is removed from the DCM, the GPS data is not transmitted to the head unit. Without consistent GPS, CarPlay starts to glitch the location in Maps.

Again, this is what I found asking AI and not confirmed in any way. I would be interested in hearing from anyone with a 2026 TRD OffRoad that has installed the bypass harness and had no issues with CarPlay location data. Or even better, anyone that had the issue and found a workaround.

 

[MikeD]

But I Believe that as long as you are subscribing to any of the Toyota Services you will be tracked, unless I'm missing something.

You don't need to be subscribed for some communication from vehicle to toyota. I let my subscriptions end after the year "free". The app still reports current odometer and %fuel in tank. (No longer reports distance to 'empty', but % fuel in tank is just as helpful. )

 

[Overland Toy]

I tried to get under that dash to find that tracker but I’m too fat and old to bend that much. Will have to go to a stereo and alarm, shop to have them, remove it, but I did come across something else why I was under there. I have a suspicious button right next to my hood release. I’ll show a photo.

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