How to Find a Hidden GPS Tracker on Your Car with 3 Methods
Are you looking for the methods on how to find a GPS tracker on your car? In this guide, we provide the common locations you should check on your car and some suggestion on how to use specialized equipment to detect a hidden GPS tracker on your car easily.
By Lane | @Lane
Updated on Aug 05, 2019
How to find a tracker on your car? If you suspect that someone has installed a car GPS tracker somewhere in your car, you must want to find it and remove the tracking. But most of the devices are small enough and well-hidden so that it is not easy to find them. In this article, we provide the 3 ways that you can find a hidden GPS tracker in your car easily.
- • What You Should Know and Prepare
- • Method 1: Do a Thorough Inspection of Your Car to Find the Hidden GPS Tracker on Your Car
- • Method 2: Use an Electronic Sweeper to Inspect the Hidden GPS Device
- • Method 3: Seek Professional Assistance to Find a Hidden Tracker
What You Should Know and Prepare
Before you look for the GPS tracker, you need to know what the device looks like. It is usually a small box with a magnetic side. Some of the tracking devices have an antenna or a light. It is small, usually 3 to 4 inches long, 2 inches wide and 1 inch thick.
You need to prepare a flashlight for peeking into dark spaces in your car. And you also need a telescopic mirror to check the not easy to access areas. If you can’t find the hidden GPS tracker on your car with the simple visual inspection, specialized equipment like electronic sweepers may also be necessary. Besides, if you're not very familiar with your car, keep the manual handy to avoid yourself yanking out a vital part.
Method 1: Do a Thorough Inspection of Your Car to Find the Hidden GPS Tracker on Your Car
There are several common areas to hide a GPS tracker including exterior and interior on a car where you should inspect carefully if you suspect that someone is tracking your location with a GPS device.
1, Inspect the exterior in your car.
•Check the wheel wells
With the help of a flashlight, check every wheel well. Feel in the areas that aren’t easily visible with your hands. Make sure your car did not come with any small boxes in this place.
•Look at the undercarriage
The undercarriage is an excellent hiding spot to install the GPS tracker. You can use the telescopic mirror to check whether there is a tracking device underneath your car. You should check it carefully because the tracker may as dirty as the undercarriage.
•Check the bumpers
You need to check both the front and rear bumpers. It is also a good place to hide the tracker if there is space inside.
•Inspect under the hood
It is not a good spot to hide a GPS tracker because the high temperatures here could damage the electrical device. But you should take a look at here to make sure there is not any tracking device by raising your hood up.
•Check inside the brake lights
If you are skilled in detaching, mounting, and replacing the light cover, you know it is a good place to hide a tracker. So it is a good chance that you will discover the tracking device here.
2, Check the interior on your car.
Some GPS tracking devices have tiny and simple profiles, they require to be plugged straight into the data port like USB underneath the dashboard. If you find a small black box plugged into the data port, simply unplug it.
•Check in the trunk
Especially in the spare tire compartment. It could be located under the spare tire or any other corner here.
•Check under all the seats
Using a flashlight, check to see if there is anything that is out of place such as a small electrical module without wires attached or with a couple of loose-hanging wires. If you are not sure of what makes an abnormality, compare both the front seats to find the difference. You can also check the edge of the seat upholstery for lumps where may hide a tracking device. Check under the rear seat as well if you can move it or fold it down.
•Inspect the underside of the dashboard
Disassemble the cover underneath the driver’s side dash, there may be a GPS tracking device. Take a magnetically-attached device, and a wired device is most likely to be found as well. Check for modules with wiring that isn’t neatly wrapped into the car’s harnesses.
Method 2: Use an Electronic Sweeper to Inspect the Hidden GPS Device
This device is often seen in spy movies and it actually exists in reality! An electronic sweeper checks for the presence of radio transmission and indicates it to the electronic sweeper’s users by an audible tone, flashing light, or vibration. Sweepers vary in shapes and sizes, a pen may be a sweeper, and a cassette tape may be also a sweeper. They scan for a wide range of radio frequencies and alert you of the nearby signals.
To use the sweeper, turn it on and slowly walk around your car. Place it near any location you suspect a tracking device may be placed in. The light, vibration, or audible signal on the electronic sweeper will indicate if there is a radio frequency being transmitted nearby. And it will illuminate more lights or change its tone when you are getting closer.
TIP : Some tracking devices work only while cars are in motion, so have a friend drive your car around while you scan for GPS trackers.
Method 3: Seek Professional Assistance to Find a Hidden Tracker
Though some GPS trackers are harder to find, it is possible to find a hidden GPS tracker on your car by inspecting the exterior and interior on your car in Method 1 and checking it with the specialized electronic sweeper in Method 2. If you still suspect there is a hidden GPS tracker on your car after you have done the preliminary checks by yourself, you should turn to a trusted professional car mechanic for help.
Bottom Line
Above are the 3 methods to find a hidden GPS tracker on your car. I hope they can help you find and remove the tracking to keep your privacy. If you have any other suggestions or questions, leave us a comment below.
