Stolen van help

Our citroen relay campervan got stolen last night, driven away at 11.30pm, we still have both keys.

I have a couple of questions that I can’t really find answers to, so this is the obvious place to ask.

The night before the alarm was going off repeatedly, with no way of stopping it, even with the engine running it still kept going off for about 10 seconds, the stopping for a couple, then repeating. Could it be that the thieves were close by and cloning the key as I tried to stop the alarm with the key?

The van had a disclock steering wheel lock on, which they must have got off without too much effort.

Second question. The van has a tracker built into the computer I believe supplied by navman. I spoke to them today, but they said the van is too old to track, it’s not even 4 years old! This seems ridiculous to me, surely whatever signal was being emitted a few years ago is still getting sent out, and they have the ability to detect it and find the van? Do I have any way of making them find it?

This is our second campervan to get stolen.

Nightmare. Sorry to hear this.

Sorry to hear this – I can’t help answer your questions, but I hope the shits who stole your van get caught!

reg number, colour and location may well help locate it,

Sorry to hear that 🙁

Could it be that the thieves were close by and cloning the key as I tried to stop the alarm with the key?

I guess that’s possible – I understand that the “ecu” (or whatever it’s called – Body computer?) for these vans has been cracked so that thieves can reprogram it to their own key given access to the OBDII port (as was common for Transits previously). It could be they were trying something to make you leave the van unlocked[edit: maybe locked, but without the alarm set?] so that they could do that.

(although getting into the vans now appears fairy trivial:)

There were warnings ~18 months ago IIRC that theft of Fiat based motorhomes was increasing – the Relay is really a Fiat Ducato with a different badge.

The van has a tracker built into the computer I believe supplied by navman.

On ours, this is a subscription service – did you ever register it in your name? The Relays came with (I think) 3 years Teletrac & navigation, but after that you would have needed to renew the subscription. I hope they’re not too old to track, as I’m still paying the tracking only subscription for our (almost 4 year old) van. Navman did say that they would only deal with the police in the event of needing the tracking info though.

Shitty thing to happen 🙁

[Makes mental note to get an OBD2 port lock tomorrow]

Cheers for that, interesting information, if a bit late now! I definitely registered the sat nav when I first got the van, I don’t remember them saying I would have to pay for the tracking after three years, but it was a long time ago now and my memory isn’t the best. The bloke at satman definitely said it was too old to track rather than it couldn’t be tracked because I hadn’t paid the subscription, sounds like he was wrong. I will phone again tomorrow and see if I can talk to someone else

It’s really horrible especially given the price of vehicles these days. If I was to buy the same age and mileage van now it would cost a couple of thousand more than I paid for the van new. And that’s without all the time and money I put into converting it.

I don’t know what to do, our little vw up! barely fits the three of us in, let alone bikes and camping gear.

In case it does pop up anywhere it’s a Citroen relay, reg MA18XKP, located in central Birmingham until last night

If I was to buy the same age and mileage van now it would cost a couple of thousand more than I paid for the van new.

Remember the insurance should pay you what it costs to buy the same vehicle again right now, not what it cost you originally. Start finding and saving adverts for similar vehicles now so you have evidence of how much you should be getting from them so you can challenge their first (probably) low ball offer.

I just spoke to trackstar/navman again and this time he said that the tracker fitted had already been installed in a few other vehicles beforehand, so is now 10 years old, and they stopped supporting it in June 2021, so when the van was only just over 3 years old! Surely that can’t be right, or if it is then citroen have really cut a corner.

Hopefully insurance will come through as it’s looking increasingly unlikely that we’ll ever see it again.

he said that the tracker fitted had already been installed in a few other vehicles beforehand, so is now 10 years old, and they stopped supporting it in June 2021, so when the van was only just over 3 years old! Surely that can’t be right, or if it is then citroen have really cut a corner.

I struggle to believe that, tbh.

AFAIK the tracker & nav system were fitted by Citroen in the UK (either Citroen UK or the supplying dealer?) – I can’t believe they would fit a used tracker to a new van!

You could try Citroen UK if you wanted to push it.

Hopefully it either turns up soon, intact, or the insurance comes good.

Good luck!

I have sent you a PM.

ETA: Might be worth putting a few photos up & sharing on FB, etc.

Ah bugger, sorry to read this, especially a self build that you can’t just go out and replace 😔 There are far too many going missing at the moment.

Get some photos and details up on the C FB groups, you do occasionally see success stories.

I’m wondering what I can add to mine to make it a bit more secure.

Here are a couple of photos, if they work. I don’t really use any social media stuff so I am not part of any groups or anything that I can share to.

I’m sorry to hear about your van. I know it’s a bit late now but for the future. Disklok’s although good do have some major flaws. You can improve it by doing some moderations to them as per this thread. Bit ugly and they weigh a ton afterwards but greatly improved.

Images aren’t showing (Hope you don’t mind – let me know if you do)

What a nice van! 🙁

Gutted for you.

Thank you! What did I do wrong?

I’d just put some Michelin agilis crossclimates on too, waste of money that was! Didn’t even get to test them on anything other than tarmac. At least there was next to no fuel or adblue in there. Loads of camping stuff, wetsuits, duvet etc.

What did I do wrong?

I think it’s just a bit awkward sharing from google photos – I added the text and stuck them on my site because I couldn’t fathom google photos either – feel free to share from there (let me know if/when you want them taken down). I’m not in any FB camper groups, but hopefully someone on here is and will spread the word there too.

Cheers. The more shares the better, I’m not expecting much. The last van was a t5, that got stolen at just under 4 years old too, never heard anything more about it, always wondered what happens to these vans

I’ll put the pics on a couple of the FB groups for you.

I’ve shared this post https://www.facebook.com/508986281/posts/10160518127841282/?d=n