I hope you are all well.

I just wanted to check in and give my good fellow Ford owners a heads up as to how vulnerable some of our cars really are.

My pride and joy was stolen last night - Mondeo TitX Sport Estate, Black, 2011 with SatNav, 19's and the works. It was stolen from outside my home in Pudsey (Leeds) - EA61JWG if you see it by the way (and I will provide a good reward for any successful leads if it is seen). With a wife about to give birth the timing couldn't be worse either.

The alarm went at 8pm, by the time I got outside it was gone, a call went into the Police immediately in the hope for ANPR tagging but as of today nothing. The drivers window was smashed for access and being a keyless vehicle we (me and the police) figure they got it going via the OBD port.

So my advice is disable the port if you can, use an old school security bar on the steering and maybe invest in a tracker if you have the cash. As it turns out, someone with the right equipment and knowledge will not find it hard to steal these vehicles and have it away in minutes.

Best wishes

Ryan

Sorry to hear this

The curse of the OBD port strikes yet again.

Sorry to hear your pride and joy has been stolen...

Mine has keyless start, how do they get it started so fast via the OBD port??

Probably stolen to order, what gives these scum the right to steal, !Removed!.

Have you posted n Facebook it can help thought may be long gone on a ferry from Hull

sorry to hear of your loss why do ford insist in putting obd port in such aslly positon on the dash when it can be seen from outside the vechicle.

makes you wonder where the obd port will be in the focus rs when it comes out

Liam - it's just the diagnostic plug in used by technicians, I understand thieves can have a device to enter the system and get the car started.

Pete - that's what the police said. It did go straight on Facebook with a lot of shares but not too optimistic. I agree, it will be overseas now I think.

Paul - good point, I am told Ford are aware of this issue but until it is changed and they are so easy to get to I fear for everyone who has a keyless Ford, particularly anything like an RS, ST, Titanium's etc.

I have a disklok & a clutch lock & a tracker on both our cars - I only wish I could wire them up to 240v mains when they are unattended . . .

Any brand of car with keyless start is susceptible.

EU law requires the manufacturers to keep the OBD ports accessible both physically and at a software level to allow 3rd parties to do work on the vehicle.

I have an OBD security device fitted to my car, which I will just remove as needed for servicing and software updates.

Sorry to hear this. I'm not far from you so will kee my eye open.

Yunii

When i did scangauge ii mod in the ST oil pods, which runs from obd port, i re located the main obd port behind dash & got a spare obd port from scrapped focus & fitted in port housing for dummy purposes. I plan on getting a splitter obd cable& relocate to use for diagostic purpose.

Scangauge ii

Splitter cable

Yunii

Sorry to hear your news, hope you get back with no major damage.

I have moved the obd port if you remove the coin tray and unclipped some of the wiring harness, it is suprissing how much lead you have, I also then put a scrapped obd in the place but I have run a power feed to the unit from cig lighter on too 3 random leads and earthed. Hopping if the light fingered sh!+$ try it will short out their device, I know that they can get no info from the dummy odb. Also steering lock thinking about alarm up grade that removes the obd bypass, have seen the thread on the focus/st sites.

A clutch lock is must have on these cars where the clutch has to be depressed to start the car - got mine off e-bay & it's a really sturdy chunk of metal