Tracker in OBD port

[Chrisr]

Hi all,

My company have put a tracker in the OBD port of my Skoda Enyaq. However, whenever the car starts smart charging during the night it activates the alarms and hazard lights.
I use OHME Home Pro with Intelligent Octopus Go. No issues when the tracker is removed.
Has anyone else experienced issues similar to this?

Thanks

Chris R

[Aragorn]

I once left my OBD2 dongle in the port and with the car locked the alarm went off when i walked near the car. I presume the phone connected to the dongle, and the car responded with an alarm due to seeing chatter on the diagnostic bus when it was supposed to be locked and alarmed.

Probably "by design" if you like. VAG had a lot of issues with thefts where people would break in and plug into the diagnostics port and use that to hack into the car and bypass the immobiliser. Seems a sensible option to set of an alarm if you see chatter on the diagnostic bus when the car is supposed to be locked.

Question is why is your tracker doing that? If i were to guess, its picking up a switched ignition source which becomes live when the car powers up to start charging?

[Chrisr]

Thanks for your reply. Strangely enough I have now been told to remove it. Spoke with Skoda technician who said nothing should be plugged into the OBD port. These ports work differently to those found in an ICE car.

[Aragorn]

Can always rely on the dealership technicians to magic up some utter nonsense as a excuse. The OBD port uses industry standard protocols and works exactly like one in an ICE car.

The car just doesnt like stuff chatting on the diagnostic bus when its locked. I'd imagine the newer petrol VAG cars are the same.

At least you have a solution

[RichR]

To be fair, my wife's 2008 VW Caravelle sometimes sets the alarm off if there's anything in the OBD port drawing power. It's generally not really meant to be used for anything other that actually acquiring diagnostic codes, although of course you can get a lot more information from it when the car is in normal use, but that's not what it was designed for, so it's not unreasonable for the car to see any activity there when it's supposed to be parked and locked as something unexpected.