What on earth ?!?!?
 

Was just having a poke around the engine bay on my car and decided to remove the scuttle trim to have a quick check and make sure the leaves hadn't filled it up completely when I noticed this thing...

Doesn't really look OEM and looks like it has been added afterwards. Stuck to the top of the ECU with sticky foam or Velcro and a cable/s going off down into a grommet that looks like it has been pierced and then some kind of silicon or mastic added. Looks like a GPS tag or sensor or something.

So questions....

a) any idea whet the hell it is?
b) is it OEM or something aftermarket?

Had the car remapped at MRC and they never mentioned anything but I noticed they had the same scuttle trim off to plug into the ECU I guess.

Are there any ELSA diagrams that show this thing??

Looks like an aftermarket GPS antenna and thin coax cable.
Usually for dashcams, taximeters, trackers.
Back in the day when our cars were new, GPS stuff tended to have these external antennas rather than the tiny in-built ones brought about by the smartphone revoltion.

Definitely. +++
Maybe the boot antenna packed up and this was their way of supplying the signal?
I had to do this on my PF S8 but mounted it outside at the base of the rear window.

Very odd. Maybe I will try and trace where the cable goes. Not sure I like the idea of it being there unless it has been fitted to replace the existing aerial. I will clean it up and see if there are any model or makers numbers on it.

When I had the rear screen done in March or whenever it was, they reckoned it had been out before so I wonder if the proper antennas had been damaged or the wiring damaged. GPS and sat navigation all seems to work fine and there are no VCDS errors or anything.

If it does need to be there I may do a better job of sealing the grommet. Doesn't seem to be sealing the cable very well. Wonder if moisture has been getting in by running down the cable.

The whole bizarre thing is why anyone would have bodged anything like this on a car of such value that was only 18 months to 3 years old?!? It beggars belief and annoys me. I hate bodgers.... :mad: If you're gonna do a job, do it properly and if you can't afford to do it properly then you shouldn't own such a car... Grrrr

I fit these to everyone's car I do work on. Then I sit stroking a white cat, watching where everyone is on my laptop.

Muhahahahah.

I agree with above - that is trademark GPS receiver looking 'brick'. I've come across them plenty of times as they're the RX of choice for after market navigation head units. Typically I've usually left them internal at the bottom of the windscreen or similar out of view, so long as it's got a clear view of the sky it will work.

One thing I would say is they often have a magnetic base on them, hopefully this one doesn't being stuck down with sticky, but if it does have a magnet I wouldn't have wanted it stuck to the ECU!

If you have a heated screen then you wont get a good signal internally and the aerial has to be outside and this position would have been ideal.

As the satnav is in the boot, maybe this after market GPS receiver is a security or tracking device (as installed by John ;) )

Ha. I like to think of it more like Apple's Lost My iPhone feature. iLost your iCar

Find out where it goes. Taking the radio/RNS out might reveal all, or remove the glovebox (very easy job).

Yeah. I think I will remove the glove-box and have a nosey. Will see if I can get time this weekend.

The car doesn't have a polarised or heated windscreen and the sat-nav and Bluetooth phone prep all works OK.

I was wondering if it was a device for automatic passage through toll booths or car parks or something like that.

If the original GPS and DAB aerials and associated connectors/units are in the back of the car I'd be very surprised if someone had routed that all the way down the front instead of just putting it in the boot.

Unlikely, it's very much a GPS aerial and seems to be sited for good satellite reception.
Boot is no good for GPS, this could just be an easy replacement for a faulty GPS aerial.

Take a look at the sat nav in the boot and see if the original blue coax aerial cable is still connected.

Mine is a 2010 MY with 3G MMI so it has nothing in the boot other than the stereo amplifier. The Sat Nav is the HDD based version so I'm guessing that's behind the dash somewhere in the front, so maybe it is just a straightforward aerial replacement due to some clumsy gimp damaging the originals when they tore out the rear windscreen aeons ago (which subsequently caused it to leak for 3 years!!) ... :mad:

On another note... Where is the DAB Aerial?

Ah... ignore all I said as was thinking it was 2g. I think you're spot on correct with the above.

I have a very similar unit on mine (attached to the windscreen, outside bottom) Its an aftermarket GPS arial for the Road Pilot, camera detector, that was installed in my car when I purchased it

The toll booth TAG gizmos are usually stuck inside the front screen alongside the internal rear view mirror. They are normally only 2"x1"x .75" and hide themselves quite well. We have M6 Toll ones on all our work cars, I even have one on our personal car for convenience. Saves a lot of time when the road is busy, unless you have some sunburnt family who do not understand the system. Once had five car loads queuing up at the TAG barrier without any TAGs and only cash.