PSA. Theft of Ford Fiestas in North East England

[sish101]

A friend of mine who works in the motor trade has told me they've had 6 Fiestas stolen from his garage forecourts in the last two weeks. Additionally, there have been multiple thefts of Fiestas from customers driveways and office car parks. He has have bought 60 steering wheel locks for their cars on the pitch and installed steel gates. If you or a relative or colleague have a Fiesta (they seem be targeting cars between 58 and 65 plates) then some form of physical security may be wise. A steering wheel lock is around £65. He had told me how the car's security is being compromised and it is alarmingly (no pun intended) easy.

[Franky Four Fingers]

Thankfully my sons just got rid of his 15 plate red edition.
Is there a fix from Ford as I know others with them.

[bobdog]

Thanks for the heads up, I am from your neck of the woods with a 66 plate Fiesta as a runaround, will dust the shotgun down.

[Franky Four Fingers]

Just had a quick look, it seems it's been going on for a while, 2014-16 cars are more of a target.
Seems they either smash a window or pick the door lock, gain entry and code in a new key via the EOBD socket which by all accounts takes about 30-60 seconds.
Id be rerouting the EOBD socket to somewhere else if I had one.

[topcat666]

Thanks for the post.
Wife has 66 plate.
I remember when Fords were favourites of young twoccers in the 80's.
Back to the good old days,eh?
Nice little car,though,with the eco engine.

[Alansmithee]

Just had a quick look, it seems it's been going on for a while, 2014-16 cars are more of a target.
Seems they either smash a window or pick the door lock, gain entry and code in a new key via the EOBD socket which by all accounts takes about 30-60 seconds.
Id be rerouting the EOBD socket to somewhere else if I had one.

A quick google suggests that it's trivial to do this - I see that some companies will upgrade the EOBD to stop this:


http://www.securemycar.co.uk/Ford-fo...aign=referrals

(I have no connection to this company)

[sish101]

There is a lock you can buy which may cover the things which the thieves are attacking in the car. Seems they strip them for parts and then dump the carcass or set fire to it. The last car stolen was recovered by the police the next day, minus everything that could easily be dismantled. They left the engine, gearbox, axles in the shell.
The equipment they need to take the car is readily available on a popular internet auction site.

[sish101]

These were stolen in the last 24 hours in Hartlepool.

[sish101]

... and this is how they leave them (unless they get burnt out).

[MB2]

Id be rerouting the EOBD socket to somewhere else if I had one.

If it is anything like the Audis the problem is the ODB socket is "live" so you don't need the key to activate it. If I had one I would either put a switch on the feed to the ODB port or one of those old school immobilisers on a few of the wires so you just touch the immo to the dash when want to run diagnostics - depends if it errors if the power is cut to the IDB port I guess.

[The GMT Master]

It is a known issue on this generation of Fiestas, ST owners have been hit badly through this vulnerability. It's more so on keyless entry/keyless start versions. General advice is to use a steering wheel lock (Disclok is seen to be the most secure), an OBD relocate and Faraday pouches for keys. The thinking is that would provide enough deterrent, most thefts of this kind are taking seconds.

[sish101]

If your colleagues at work have a Ford Fiesta then please make them aware of this issue. It might save them a lot of time and trouble.