Printer Friendly Forum Posts - how to butcher an install 101

looked at an inop remote start today... the previous installer used scotch locks and cut thru several wires leaving two or three strands of wire to conduct. when i took the wires off the wires came right out of the crimps. i am sick of bad installs and just needed to vent thanks for listening. oh and one more thing he cut the transponder chip out of the key and glued it to the pats ring in the car great job... i hope it was not some one who belongs to this sight. again thanks for listening

-------------

LMAO... Well, if I told you all the things I had to endure ( see ) in de-installing alarm systems.

M-hahahahahaha... You wouldn't even believe me. posted_image

Trust me, for every one good installation in a system that passed through our facility, there are 20 bad one's passing right by it on the line...

Worry not... You will see more !!!

Regards

EVIL Teken . . .

omg - what's worse is taking over another companys responsibility for the previous installers... sheesh - it seemed we had a never ending line of returns from some installer named "mickey D" who could find amazing ways of butchering cars that nobody else had ever thought of. scotch locks were his calling card (that's what made me laugh when i read this). it's like it would have killed the guy to use a crimp cap or a good butt connector. a lot of my favorites are the kind you described - where someone disables/bypasses the cars origional equipemnt so now it doesn't work the way it is supposed to (but usually the customer is none the wiser - which is why the installer got away with it in the first place). those are the ones who make everyone else in the industry look bad (like the mechanics who put new head gaskets on when you had a bad plug wire).

here is my next gripe... mechanics that think they can do my job. "oh that is easy i have all the diagrams any body can do that" yep that is why it overcranks like a mother and the heat does not blow until you put the key in. oh wait that is if they are lucky enough to figure out how to get that GM car with pass lock II to actually start for more than three seconds. ha ha
p.s. to everybody who thinks it is easy thanks alot i charge double for the techs who "thought" it was easy i love you guys

-------------

misterjimbo,

i agre, i love to here "i could do it but i would rather let you do it" ya rite, pay me three times (or more) than what the product itself cost because they want me to make a little money. mechanics can't eaven put an alarm in valet, so they do what? cut the wires to the siren and burn out the siren output. they cut both wires at once (stupid) then the customer comes to the shop and says, i don't know what happend- it just stoped working! till you find the problem and then the customer says posted_image

oh!yah! it was at the shop.
whats so hard about pulling the fuses (worst case) but no, i guess it's more easy to chop-chop-chop.

-------------
d.s.

i worked with a MORON one time that thought soldering ment biger the blob better the job. i don't know what the boss was smoking when he hired him. the moron also used acid core solder one time or more. bastard

You know I was thinking if some tv net work wants a funny ass reality show, just come out to one of our shops one day. You thought American choppers was funny, wait till they see American installer. LOL

-------------
The Clear Bra Guy
KCs premiere paint protection guru

Had an expert walk into my shop the other day, the remote starter wouldn't keep running, to low tach signal. He wanted some diode so he hook into the spark plug wires to get a stronger signal. 20,000 + volts is a little stronger signal, but hooking it up to tach input and bringing it under the dash dosen't sound like a bright idea.

That's hillarious!

-------------
My ex once told me I have a perfect face for radio.

Well in every field is a weak link...the hacks of installer are the weak links in this field. All I can say is don't become one. And some shops think once a hack always a hack...sometimes its true sometime they improve...

-------------
~The Rookie~
Rookie of the year that is...
Don't let the smoke out of your equiptment..it doesn't go back in.

I gots to know. Did you give the guy the diode? I generally don't like seeing people to stupid sH-t, but sometimes letting them make a costly mistake or two or three (hard learner) teaches their dumb a$$ a valuable lesson.

No, didn't give him the diodes, the only ones that I had instock that could handle the voltage were the size of grape fruit. He fiqured they would fit under the hood very well.

i am proud to say that i found a new job and work with a group of great guys. we shout stories of the best butcher jobs we have seen as we jam out cars. just like to say i found several wire nuts under the hood of a caprice the other day... that is too bad to call a butcher can nay one think of a name?

-------------

Usually you can tell in a shop when a hack has been weeded out or fired, because after a certain number of months that pass you don't get anymore warranty jobs that come in! Hacks are becoming extinct, due to the fact they can't "hack" it with the new vehicles every company is coming out with. The best installers I have seen so far besides half the stories you guys have said, which are so true, are the guys that use about 75 to 80 tiestraps to install a remote starter. Geez, didn't know the remote starter needed that many to keep it in the vehicle.

-------------
Kyle@Audio Obsession Sound

Similar story except with a sat radio. A customer came in complaining that they were getting poor sat reception after having it installed at another best buy. She then went on to explain that the antenna was mounted to the dashboard inside the vehicle because the installer told her it would not work on the roof of the vehicle because she has a small (four inch high factory) luggage rack. Yeah putting it inside the car will definately not block the signal as much.

haha gotta love the hacks. I had this kid come into my shop wanting us to "finish up" the install of an amp, sub, and speakers he did on his not-so-happy girlfriend's 97 cavilar for her birthday present. As many of you know those cavilar's are the ones where you have to pull the entire dash off to get at the radio. The kid decided pulling at the surround around the radio until it broke off was a better idea. He used the wires that you wire a house with for power switched and ground (hey its got all the wires all in one what a deal!!!!) for his 2000 watt legacy amp (what a great amp and 2000 watts out of a 1' by 1' amp how do they do it!?!?!?!?). I dont know how he mannaged this but some how got the power cables to run under his center console across the carpet then under the back seat to the amp. He cut out the grills in the front doors with, from the looks of it, somehting along the lines of a chainsaw then screwed the new speakers to the doorpanels. For the back speakers he just disconnected the rear ones and screwed the new ones up under the back deck next to the existing ones (dunno how he was expecting any sound through the metal). He then decided to ground the amp to the trunk lid arm. He also tried to install a line leve converter behind the radio but in the process cut the rear speaker leads....at the harness. When he came in he wanted us to fix the harness because he wanted to keep the stock deck an "clean up" the rest of it. He offered us 20 bucks hahaha.....we sent him on his way, way too much of a liability there.

-------------
Money is just paper
Power is fleeting
But your word is everything,
If your word means nothing,
You are nothing...think about it

fbird! hey stop cutting up my premium install.....lol. that is probably by far one of the worst user instals i've ever heard of.... yer the man.

P.S: i didn't install that system.... :)

-------------

fbird. I would say the gene pool needs some chlorine! I can somewhat relate to the nightmare you saw. I have some high tech rednecks on my wife's side of the family. They came to me wanting some fly by night alarm installed with remote start, the whole works installed in a dodge avenger. I gave them a price and they declined. Yes I charge my own family, becuase sometimes family can be your worst nightmare. Anyways they installed it themselves. After they installed it, they called me up to brag about it and invited me over to see their amazing feat of enginerering. They invited me before they even tested it to make sure it worked before bragging. As soon as I walked up to the car they said they didn't need some high dollar install man to wire up the alarm. The jackass them hits the remote start button and immediatly BOTH air bags luanch!!!! I'm still trying to figure how in the hell they managed to do that. Anyways the dodge dealership burnt them a new a***ole in the pocket book to have the car repaired.

-------------
Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.

airbags on demand. Thats awsome.

haha omg that airbag install has to top all. i cant even begin to imagine the looks on those guys faces when those bags launched

-------------
Money is just paper
Power is fleeting
But your word is everything,
If your word means nothing,
You are nothing...think about it

Thats probably the best install nightmare story I've ever heard, hooking up airbags, didn't they know that the wires in the yellow sleeve mean "do not connect or I'll deploy"? Guess not!

-------------
Kyle@Audio Obsession Sound

The idiots I think had the idea that was where they would find the colors they needed. The expression on their faces was like the apostles had when Jesus appeared to them after the resurecstion! They sure did see the light!

-------------
Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.

the success of the product relies on the quality of the installation. alarms and remote starts are a chance to do something than the same old deck and speaker installs. installers should take the time to make each install unique and use it as a chance to improve on the last one. if you feel you have to pound out one install to start another one... then maybe you should work the schedule book a little better. even for the best installers, a remote start on most newer vehicles should take 2-3 hours. sure there are some that can be like 1 to 1.5 hrs like a 99+ silverado, but anything under 2 hours raises some concerns. take your time, do it right. having a customer come back for warranty work hurts in numerous ways. you lose time for new customers, the labor is free, you already did the job once, and it only takes one bad experience for a customer to bad mouth your shop.

-------------
MECP certified installer

and just for the hell of it to mention, we had an alarm install come in where the siren was screwed into the exhaust sheild. sweet...

-------------
MECP certified installer

A friend ran his power cable up through the floor board of his car...just drilled a hole and presto you can see the ground while, looking down in the car

posted_image idoits

and just a couple days a go friend wanted me to take out his old HU that a guy installed for him and replace it with a new one, well I ended up rewiring the entire system...(high schooler trying to learn) posted_image , oh all the wiring at the harness had barewires at the butt connectors and the rca's, power, and the harness (newer sable) were all ran over the backseats bar,

I wonder after he installed it, if he thought to himself thats the best looking install I have done SO FAR...

-------------
If we learn from each success and
each failure, then we can improve ourselves

I just got done an install in a 92 integra, when it came in to me he hade 4 gauge wire running over his carpet to the back of the car, under the hood he obviously had no connectors so he just took a washer, striped the wire back and kinda shoved it inbetween the washer and the batery and tightened it. He had a nice fuse holder that had no fuse but instead ROLLED UP TINFOIL in place of a fuse. That was cool. Then everything else was somewhat normal for this type of vehicle. All wires over top of carpet, neon hanging everywhere, all hooked up improperly and the deck was wired in all wrong. They thought the deck was defective because the speakers didnt all work and the ones that did sounded like sh*t. He didnt even connect all the speaker leads in the car, he had the dimmer wire hooked up as a speaker wire and a few other wres hooked up which I cant even figure out where they came from or what they did but according to him they were speaker wires. Amzing enough when I wired up the deck properly it worked fine, I wasnt even installing that deck, he had bought another one from my store I was suposed to be putting, I just reinstalled the other one because he was so damn sure it was messed up I had to prove him wrong. The look on his face was worth the extra work.

ha all this stuff is so funny posted_image

, I really like the one with the airbags going off.

does anyone know how they did that??? i would love to now how i got a few enemys that id like to mess w/wire my own remote to there car : )

In regards to the airbags. Their mindset was that there is where they would find all the wires they needed. To them it looked like it contained the wiring for the factory start, windows, etc. A wire bundle to them wrapped up in bright color tape, must be where the alarm stuff, etc is at. One of the morons by the way is color blind!

I wish I would have taken my video camera with me, so I could show it to people who think they know it all.

-------------
Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.

I would agree with a previous post. There needs to be a show on TV called American Installer!

-------------
Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.

first i want to say thanks to all you guys for posting in here, makes me feel good to vent! love my new job but it is funny. My typical install includes the following... a radio four subs two amps four 6x9's and some new wire... okay a lot of new wire. i seem to get all of the "i tried i failed and now i need it fixed jobs"
the radio wires are all twisted together without tape and the ign and constant are going to the battery yes under the hood. the 6x9's are all going in the rear deck lid oh yeah and four tweeters on the b pillar pointed at the drivers ear.the power wire is where? going through the drivers door of course because going through a grommet in the firewall would be too hard. there is always one problem the hood latch is always broken. so a screwdriver and a hammer and i now have that solved. all that is left is the 4 subs, but of course the trunk lock cylander is blown out ant the trunk pop doesnt work . thatis always fun. so now that the install is done how do we get the car started? there is no ignition key and half of the steering column is missing so now it is time to get the customer... he brings a friend with him to help start the car because it is a two man operation with one man under the hood and another in the passenger seat? confussed yet? i am. this is the truth i work on about 1 or two of these cars everyweek. but i love it it makes me laugh.

-------------

^^^^^^^ ??? i am veryvery confused!!!

So this is what I'm going to have to expect when I start working in this business? And I thought the computer business (which I'm currently in) was bad. Funny how people are more brave enough to cut a hole in a door panel but when it comes to installing software they "don't want to mess anything up".

That's why I love this forum. From just reading you can learn from other peoplpes mistakes. When I first started doing stereo installs, I used to use crimp connectors and lots of electrical tape. I kinda like the fact you can make a set of wires look like a factory wire harness with some good 3m electrical tape. But the last time I installed a radio, in my own vehicle, i didn't have any crimps left. But I had a good soldering iron, a good wire stripper, 3 new rolls of tape, and plenty of solder. So now that's the way I do it. No need for connectors-solder is cheaper and lasts longer.

I've learned alot from reading the posts in this forum and from what I've read it's better to be safe than sorry. And in this business being safe gives you a better reputation.

-------------
Duane...

If you think you're confused, imagine how you feel. posted_image

damn straight...... i got some bozo who shows up twice a week with this Hack install trying to get me to fix something for him..... Get this: 90 Plymouth Acclaim, two 15's, two 10's, two 8's, 3x 1000bd's, factory speakers, guy pulls 145's in this peice..... Anyway, 1g. through the door frame, 'aftermarket' speaker wires running directly twoards the speakers, as in over the center console, constant and switched both running to the battery (8g.) through the firewall (i dont know why this guy couldn't put the 1g. through there). Three batteries with an isolator from the front, and the rear two batteries hooked up in parrallel (ya 24v). The 1g. goes to a distribution block that serves 10g. to his amps....grin. I repeatedly have to tell this guy to go away cause his car might catch on fire in my shop. He is the villiage idiot, all the install bays know his name and we all do impressions when were out afterhours. Anyway, DON'T BE THIS GUY.

P.S: Nice one on the airbags.

-------------

Wow 6 subs all different sizes. Sweet "custom" install. Just one thing, 2 12V batteries hooked up in parrallel still have an output of 12V unless of course you ment in series but anyw ays definately a good idea on not being that guy.

-------------
Money is just paper
Power is fleeting
But your word is everything,
If your word means nothing,
You are nothing...think about it

Guy I work with asked if I had a piece of equipment that he could borrow so he could install some 6x9s in the rear deck of his car.

What did he ask to borrow?

Oxygen Acetylene cutting torch.

I don't have a portable one.. but I'd love to watch this.

Jim

I would like to see that too.

-------------
Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.

well.....I had a kid one time who had a brand new '03 Civic that the kid was sure he could do a deck and amp sub ......know we all know how to drop the panel and remove the 2 8mm bolts.......well he didn't......and took a knife and a huge flat head screw driver to the dash to get it out......he got it out and blew out half the fuses in his fusebox......oh and he ran his power wire through the front driver side window.......I really wish I took some pictures....it looked like someone raped the dash, but anyway that's one of the worst hacks I've seen

-------------

I'll add mine:

To many to remember working in Virginia Beach.....but one stands out in particular:

it was an early '90s honda of some type...civic if I remember right.

all primer grey except the fiberglass hood and the white Acura frontend....that hardly even fit properly.....some kind of conversion!? Anyways...typical hack job install, I think some of these guys did some knifing action as well.

The most memorable was the entire roof was cut out....appearantly with a sawzall....into a large rectangle. To keep the rain out...they affixed a huge piece of thick plexi-glass overlapping the jaggedly cut edges and fastened it with bolts!

This thing had guages, wires...all kinds of crap hanging out from the dash, four different rims......typical hacks......but the roof! That had us laughing for a good while!

The HU wouldn't even light-up after the power wires were fixed......the speakers were still not wired properly...since these kids lied and said it was ONLY one speaker not working...we sent them on thier way before the rest of the car fell apart!