Unidentified Electrical Object - any ideas?

[HorseOffaGypsy]

Attached is a photo of an unidentified electrical box I've found in my '94 Passat Estate (2.0 Petrol - 2E). I've found this behind a large thick piece of foam in the rear nearside compartment in the boot (behind the black trim panel). It has no identifiying marks at all. It has two leads going into it which appear to be power (black and red) and one thicker shielded cable (coax type). It dosent appear to be original equipment (the connectors do not look like VAG).

The car has a Scorpion/VW Dealer fitted alarm but I can not see what this is for if its connected to the alarm.

Any ideas? If not, if you own a similar vehicle could you take a look to see if you've got something similar and let me know....

[Col]

Ah-ha.

These go back to the cold war era.

What used to happen is that East German spies worked at Wolfsburg and used to secretly fix these counter espionage boxes to gather intellegence data from the west.



Needless to say I've just made that up and really have no idea what it is.

[Jellyvelcro]

Hi, It is probably left over from an old mobile phone hands free kit, I had something similar in mine and just left it in situ. Or it is an FM aerial amp. If it is from a hands free kit there should be evidence around the dashboard/center console (screw holes etc...).
Hope that helps.

[adamss24]

Attached is a photo of an unidentified electrical box I've found in my '94 Passat Estate (2.0 Petrol - 2E). I've found this behind a large thick piece of foam in the rear nearside compartment in the boot (behind the black trim panel). It has no identifiying marks at all. It has two leads going into it which appear to be power (black and red) and one thicker shielded cable (coax type). It dosent appear to be original equipment (the connectors do not look like VAG).

The car has a Scorpion/VW Dealer fitted alarm but I can not see what this is for if its connected to the alarm.

Any ideas? If not, if you own a similar vehicle could you take a look to see if you've got something similar and let me know....
Its an radio antena amplifier...do not worry too much about it !

[HorseOffaGypsy]

Cheers for this info...

When you say "radio antena" are you talking for my normal ICE radio or some other (maybe more sinister!?) antena?

HoG

[mluton]

The wife installed a GPS tracker

[HorseOffaGypsy]

Checked out with Tracker - they've never installed a system in the vehicle. The car's a '94 vinatge - did they have GPS in those days?

HoG

[STEWY L]

The wife installed a GPS tracker


Checked out with Tracker - they've never installed a system in the vehicle. The car's a '94 vinatge - did they have GPS in those days?

HoG
i think mluton was having a little joke with you their horse;)

[HorseOffaGypsy]

I've always been a mug! Luckily Tracker only wanted a VIN to identify the car - giving them an M plate reg and they'd have known I was taking the ...

Still don't know what this box is or does... if it is an arial booster why only one coax cable - I'd expect one in, boost, one out...

Perhaps I'll never know!

HoG

[B5Jon]

Disconnect it and see what happens :) , if nothing then you know it's not important ;)

[Flex24]

According to Haynes manual its the Rear Window Aerial Amplifier unit and applies to models with "ribbon element" aerials. The coax I presume actually goes to the radio and one of the wires is the connection to the element itself.

Having revisited the posted picture the unit seems not to be the original, but the connections are the same. If the car has a ribbon aerial I go with Haynes

[HorseOffaGypsy]

Flex,

I saw this too but I've a roof mounted bee-sting so I'm not sure if this applies?

I've further investigated and found that the box is connected to a second box mounted on the underside of the rear trim in the boot space (next to where the speaker grill is in the estate's boot). I can't get this out without taking the whole of the trim off as it seems to be screwed (rather than clipped) to it.

Whatever this is it is definitely not a VW (or original part) as it doesn't have a VW part number on it and the wires that come out of the box join to other wires by means of being wrapped around other wires (i.e. not form of permanent contact!) - its some real cowboy fitting....

HoG