Did the Dealership wipe my Dashcam file?

[jrathgen]

Call me a cycnic but...
took my new Golf GTi into the Dealer last week as there has been a consistent "odd" noise on cold startup that lasts just for just a couple of seconds (like starter motor over-run).
Upon pickup, the service guy said the noise was normal for that engine and could not fault it.
I stated that I didn't think it was "normal" but would monitor over next 1,000k's (car has only done 1300km)

Anyways, when I got home, I remembered I had fitted my dash cam to the car a couple of weeks ago, and wanted to make sure they actually checked the noise when first started cold.
Lo and behold, every single file on the SD card, is playable EXCEPT the 2 relating to the car being started while at the Dealer.

How easy is it to "corrupt" a video file - any techie guys out there?
I would like to believe it is a fluke and they would not touch any other gear in the car.

Also, anyone else have this "noise" problem?

[Guest001]

You would have to go into the directory of the camera and edit them out and know how they were tagged and the exact time as most cameras record in short (3min) segments

What brand is the camera.

Mine were on during my last service and werent touched

If you turn off all audible and visual announcements they probably wont notice it.

Also mine takes up to 30secs to startup from when car is turned on

[jrathgen]

Dash cam is the same as the one in the link below.
Good little discreet camera with good quality video
Mounted up behind rear view mirror so not obvious in drivers seat or front of car.
It starts recording within a few seconds of engine turned on (so i would expect to see bonnet up or a tech standing near front of car - if I could view the file)

When I removed SD card and inserted into laptop SD card slot I can see all my recorded files (they also have date and time stamps so it is easy to tell which 2 files relate to being at the Dealer).
Only 2 dont play - the ones while at the dealership.

A118 1.5 inch H.264 1080P Full HD Car DVR Dash Cam 170 Degree Wide Angle Lens Video Recorder with Hidden Mode-61.30 and Free Shipping| GearBest.com

[donweather]

Well at least you know they turned your car on twice!!!

[Guest001]

What capacity card is in it. Be very careful with Micro SD cards as there a lot of fakes that appear to be 32,64 or 128GB cards that are actually doctored 8 GB or less.

Using one of them can easily corrupt files but it seems suss that just those are gone. Does it use a ciggy supply They may have just pulled it out. Mine are hard wired into the fuse box Do you have it all lit up as actually it is illegal to have the screen visible to the driver

Have been caught once and have a test program for them I have just bought a 128Gb form Amazon and it cost $80

I use these BlackVue DR500GW-HD Dash Camera | Auto BlackBox Australia

[jrathgen]

32Gb card - never had a problem with it, ran in my Fabia RS for 6 months prior.
I can see a bunch of files, before and after that time in dealership all with correct date/timestamp and the 2 file sizes compared to other viewable files indicate the ran the car for just over 2 mins then about 1 minute (within a 10 minute period).
It is plugged into ciggie lighter, but if they unplugged it there would be no video files recorded as the battery is crap and the unit wouldn't stay on.
As I mentioned it is practically obscured from driver as sits between rear view mirror and windscreen near top, put it there on purpose.
Thanks for your help, will monitor start up noise and revisit dealership in another 1000km or so.

[mattaus]

A118 1.5 inch H.264 1080P Full HD Car DVR Dash Cam 170 Degree Wide Angle Lens Video Recorder with Hidden Mode-61.30 and Free Shipping| GearBest.com

Sorry, I cannot be of any real help other than to say if they corrupted the files intentionally, they went to a lot of trouble to do it. It's not easy to make something look 'corrupted' without removing the card and doing some jiggery pokery on a PC/laptop.

Question for you: do you have a picture of that cam in your car? How well does it fit with the mirror?

[Guest001]

Sorry, I cannot be of any real help other than to say if they corrupted the files intentionally, they went to a lot of trouble to do it. It's not easy to make something look 'corrupted' without removing the card and doing some jiggery pokery on a PC/laptop.

Question for you: do you have a picture of that cam in your car? How well does it fit with the mirror?

They dont need to corrupt anything Just go into the Record (or whatever the name is ) and delete them. That model doesnt have GPS.

Another thing if the camera has an internal battery that is stuffed that will corrupt the last file as the car is turned off as the battery is to give the camera time to finish recording that file. If they turned it on and off in a very short time that could do it

One of my old cameras battery died and it did that fitted a new Lipo battery and its all good again.
My ones take about 30 secs to shut down after ign turned off.

Heres a neat one but not cheap

[nat225]

i know they (vw service) unplugged my front dash cam during service, just before the test drive.

but i also had a rear one and that was left untouched and recorded the whole thing.

i dont have mine for checking out what they did to the car but for my daily commute recording (in case **** happens).

i understand some people may feel uneasy having their work recorded.. but personally as long as they do proper job with respect, i have no.issues.

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[Transporter]

My Navman dash cam corrupted 2 micro SD cards over almost 3 years, nobody even came close to the driver seat.

[Transporter]

i understand some people may feel uneasy having their work recorded.. but personally as long as they do proper job with respect, i have no.issues.

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Maybe you should seek their permission first if you wanted to record the video in their workshop. It's their property so they have every right to unplug your camera.

[Umai Naa!!]

That's a very fair point, Miro.

There are a few dealerships out there now that are insisting customers either turn off, or remove their dashcams prior to work being carried out, on the basis of privacy and security reasons.

[Shortstuff]

If they're not doing anything wrong, they shouldn't have an issue with dash cams being left in cars. There's a few instances of techs being caught joyriding in customer's cars by the dash cam.

I can't think of any other reason it would need switching off or unplugging. Having worked in dealerships I'd say it's highly unlikely anything secret is going to be going on in the workshop

[Umai Naa!!]

There's the issue of the manufacturer's intellectual property potentially falling into the wrong hands too.

Most workshops don't have cameras in besides where entry points are monitored for security. Any more than that, and staff would have to sign off that they're OK with it. A customer's dashcam is no different. It is still an invasion of the technician's privacy.

[nat225]

and to be honest, i only saw my bonnett on most the clip duration (checklist: work on the engine, ticked) surely that helped with their privacy lol

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