Is it possible to install a kill switch on the F-type via inline the start /stop button? On my older Range Rover, I was able to have a kill switch installed inline via the ignition switch. Looks like the stock start button has multiple wires coming out of it. I ask a few auto electric shops, and they were reluctant to try. Neighbors around me are having their cars stolen. They seem to be going after late model Land Rovers, and Jaguars. By late model I mean year 2020 and up. They are using high tech electronics to defeat the security systems. We keep our FOBs in shielded pouches, not sure if they are using something else too? Appreciate any suggestions.

 

I would recommend that you contact Autowatch and check and see who they have for authorized installers in your area, if any. They do not have a ton of installers in large part due to the fact that things are very tightly controlled, those installers need to be heavily cleared by police background checks, etc...In Canada they will typically only have 1 or 2 installers in any given major city...

Here is the Canadian and UK websites.

https://autowatchcanada.com
https://www.autowatch.co.uk

I cannot imagine that they do not also have a footprint in the US.

I have their Ghost 2 installed in my 4Runner. Everything has been great so far. Vehicle theft in Canada is on a level that you wouldn't even believe.

It will protect you from them doing relay or ODB2 port key cutting. They can capture your fob signal and cut keys all they want. As soon as they go to try and use their working copied key that they think they have, the vehicle will then shutdown as soon as it is put in any gear.

You define an auth code for legitimately being able to start your vehicle. So, for instance, it could be that you need to pull the blinker stalk, followed by a touch to button 3 on the radio, followed by a press on the rear defrost, followed by the cruise control button, yada yada until your sequence is entered. Only then will the vehicle beep back at you confirming your authentication. At that point you can start the vehicle and put it in gear normally. Until that sequence is entered the vehicle will shutdown after starting and going into gear. To be clear, they will still be able to start the vehicle once they capture the signal etc and cut a key, but that's it. Soon as it goes in gear the party is over for them.

It also has a valet mode. So when I bring my truck in for service at Toyota they don't even know the tech is there. I temporarily put it in valet mode and they use the truck as they normally would. Then I take it out of valet mode when they are done the service. To enter the system into and out of valet mode you use the same auth sequence talked about above.

They're not cheap but I would do it again. A guy on this forum that I've been talking to is getting one installed by a Jaguar dealer up here in Canada for a 2024 F-type (i.e.: As part of the delivery). He is paying basically double what I paid doing it that way. I went directly to Autowatch myself. A lot cheaper. His concern was warranty, if anything went wrong it would be on Jag etc...At the end of the day Jag is getting Autowatch to do the work. It is the only way they can be installed.

I did a lot of research. My assessment is that this product is possibly the best on the market right now.

My experience has been terrific so far, and it definitely brings piece of mind. Hopefully you guys don't get to the level of theft we have here in Canada. It is unbelievable what is happening up here.

 

Thanks DMeister. I really appreciate the detailed response! I will look into it. Yeah the warranty thing scares me a bit too.

 

Yeah, I didn't have a warranty on my truck any longer to worry about, but I get it too...That stuff is always a concern.

Between not having a warranty, and trucks like mine disappearing out of peoples' driveways up here hand over fist, I made the assessment that it was worth the risk.

It's fine to say you have insurance, but in practical terms that doesn't help you with all the logistical supply chain problems that would have you wait a year or more if you wanted to have another 4Runner sorta thing with your insurance money etc...

A few angles to think about I suppose...

Best of luck

 

Security is a multi-faceted thing, no one solution will prevent a theft. The main thing you can do is make it take longer to steal your car (kill switch is a good idea, with caveats) or make it louder to steal your car. The latter can be achieved by beefing up your garage's entry points (exterior padlocks suck, deadbolts are a bit better, barred from the inside is better, a combination of multiple devices is better still), using a boot clamp, installing some sort of tripwire booby trap that makes a ton of noise (think tin cans on string like in cartoons!), etc etc. If you have an electric winder, be aware that most of those will freely spin so a thief may well be able to just walk up and open your door (test it!) - if that's the case, padlocked hasps (on the INSIDE) are a good idea as are pins that go through your door and the door tracks. Try to make it so they need to use power tools to access your garage. If you know a neighbour who's had a car stolen, ask them how the theives gained entry and focus on those areas first. I also highly recommend installing at least one wired security camera that covers your car - WiFi cameras are easily defeated with a few toys from Amazon and are not a valid security device. This won't help stop them stealing the car but it can help with recovery or insurance later.

To steal most modern cars (short of dragging them onto a tilt tray) they basically need the key or an emulated copy of it, so the two easiest ways to steal a modern car are MITM/relay attacks or simply walking into your house and taking the keys while you sleep. Disable keyless entry completely as this will disable the system within the car so nobody can talk to it - a faraday pouch means the car's keyless system is still open to attack, plus it only works when it's being used and relies on you to remember to use it. Relying on human habits and memory is poor security so you should aim to remove any chance that you'll forget something, for example instead of putting a sign on the door saying "Please close the door" a building manager should install an automatic closer to make sure the door closes 100% of the time. I don't care if you haven't forgotten the faraday pouch once in the past five years, remove yourself as the weak point in the system. Store your keys somewhere safe at night, not right next to the front door like 99.999% of people do, not in the hallway, and not somewhere else obvious like your study. Your bedside table is a good spot since most sophisticated theives just want to get in and get out and won't risk entering a bedroom with people sleeping.

The killswitch is a good idea, but by the time it's doing its job they're already in your car and they either have your key, or have emulated your key. This means they can come back any time they like and try again, so I highly recommend trying to stop them before they get to that point. I'm not saying don't go with the kill switch, I'm saying you should consider the kill switch the very last line of defence.

If theives are active in your area, the other thing you should be doing is reducing the amount of time your car is visible to the street by as much as you can. The only two times per day that my car is visible are when the door opens and it drives out in the morning, and when it drives back in in the evening - otherwise my doors stay shut unless they HAVE to be open for something. I wash my car at work so as to not be doing it in my driveway where I can be seen from the street. Review your personal habits and ask yourself if you are advertising this car to the street, if so then give your habits a tune-up. People are the weak link in any security system primarily due to fear, gullibility, laziness, ignorance, or vanity - e.g. smokers leaving an office door ajar because they're too lazy to take their keycard (or they don't want their employer to see records of them leaving for a smoke every 20 minutes), drivers leaving keyless entry enabled, grandma giving "Rajesh from the bank" her credit card details because he said they were going to close her account if she didn't, washing your $100k car on your front lawn where your neighbours can see, etc. You broadcast WAY more information about yourself than you think you do, so take a step back and think about your habits.

No one of these things will stop a theft, but all of them combined will a) reduce the chance a theif knows your car exists and b) make it just enough of a pain in the ar*e that they steal your neighbours car instead. That's about all you can do. Lastly this is a good chance to call your insurance company and do two things - first, check your cover is current and you're happy with the value they put on your car, if not negotiate an agreed value... second, ask what you are required to do to ensure a claim would be paid and request this information in writing. For example if your policy requires deadbolts on garage entry points, now is the time to install them if you don't have them already, take photos to document their existence (as well as photos of all the above stuff you've done), and send the photos to your insurance company with an email along the lines of "There have been several similar cars stolen nearby recently and, in addition to the extra security measures I have taken, I am providing these photos to ensure XXX Co. has evidence that I'm complying with my policy." If a sophisticated theif wants your car they will simply take it, so ensure that your insurance company has zero reasons not to pay out your claim immediately and in full.

In most countries for a warranty to be denied due to something you've done, they have to have evidence that the thing you did caused the problem. If you install a kill switch and the gearbox falls out a week later, they can't deny the gearbox claim unless they can prove that installing the kill switch caused the gearbox problem. If you had an electrical issue that could be tied to the kill switch, then that's a different story however your kill switch installer should have a warranty of their own which you would hope covers you for those issues (read the fine print). Of course this may not be the case where you are so confirm this with your local consumer rights organisation, and I would recommend talking to your Jag dealer about your concerns and asking them for advice.


Hope that helps

 

I'm a bit unclear about dangoesfast's recommendation to disable keyless entry. The manual for my 2017 S talks about passive entry not keyless. Keyless entry and passive entry are the same thing, right?

Assuming they're the same thing, how/why does disabling it make the car more secure? I'm clueless about the protocols for how the car and fob communicate with each other but would like to know. Is there a site that explains this. Thanks.

 

Passive entry is Jag's name for what everyone else calls keyless entry. Same thing.

A faraday pouch blocks the signal to and from the key, but the keyless entry system in the car is still active and an attacker can still talk to it. Disabling the system removes it as an entry point altogether. Another way to say this is that a Faraday pouch makes it more difficult to exploit the keyless entry system, whereas disabling the system makes it impossible.

 

dangoesfast how do you disable the key-less entry?
If you do how do you get into the car?
Maybe you can turn it on and off when needed?
.
.
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FYI... if you look closely in dangoestast post ($5 on this thread) the text "Disable keyless entry completely" is actually a link, one that will take you to a Facebook video made by a vendor in the UK.

Essentially, you use a sequence on you Key Fob buttons (when the car door is open and the fob is inside) to Activate or Deactivate the Keyless Entry feature. Watch the video for details

The video actually refers to Land Rover vehicles. I haven't yet tested it on my Jag. Has anyone else???
My suspicion is that by Disabling the feature, you'll just use the Lock and Unlock buttons on the Fob, just like you did on cars 20 years ago.

 

Exactly this and did it on my f type ages ago. No hardship using the key fob at all to lock and unlock. Still keep the keys in a faraday box though just for peace of mind.

 

Sorry I thought I replied to this earlier

I've used this exact video on my XE, that's why I posted it 😊 I just lock and unlock using the button, small price to pay for some peace of mind.

The coded kill switch is still a great idea, but it should be a small part of your overall security.

 

I just tried this on my 2018. It did NOT work. Has anyone in the US done this successfully? The car did flash twice when I did it, but it did not actually do anything.

 

From memory I had a couple of goes to get it to work, I think I didn't have the key properly IN the vehicle the first try. I did this over a year ago so I can't really remember...

 

Thanks for the reply. I did try it a couple of times but had no luck. I am wondering if it is due to a regional difference in the cars? I noticed that Dale Melton who did it was across the pond and you are down under. I have not heard of anyone in the US who has done it successfully.

 

You could use the same module I built for the "Claws out Mod" to interupt the fuel pump and program one of the homelink buttons to turn it on and off.
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/f...0/#post2362465

 

I was thinking something along these exact lines, remote relay to pull the fuse to the fuel pumps. I just don't know with the high pressure system how good that is for it. I know if you run out fuel, when you refill it you're supposed to let the car sit for several minutes to let pressure rebuild. I don't know if the pumps lose pressure without the fuse, otherwise every start could be cumbersome.

 

I tried disabling the keyless entry several more times and finally was able to disable it. Apparently it if very finicky. It ended up taking me six tries before I succeeded.

 

Thanks for the heads up on disabling keyless entry, it worked for my USA 2015.

 

I did notice one thing on mine today after disabling the keyless entry. It appears that it also disabled the button on the rear liftgate that used to close the powered liftgate on my coupe. The car beeped twice when I tried it. Using the button on the fob worked fine.

Could have just been a glitch though. The car beeps twice at me on occasion and sometimes I have no idea why.

 

Hmm my boot works fine up and down, both from the remote and the rubber button on the boot lid. I do get the occasional double beep but only when the lid is physically prevented from closing.