fire from aftermarket deck
Printed From: the12volt.com
Forum Name: Car Audio
Forum Discription: Car Stereos, Amplifiers, Crossovers, Processors, Speakers, Subwoofers, etc.
URL: https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=114666
Printed Date: April 29, 2024 at 2:54 AM
Topic: fire from aftermarket deck
Posted By: mike swanson
Subject: fire from aftermarket deck
Date Posted: June 24, 2009 at 3:07 PM
What do you guys think about a deck burning a car to the ground?
This kid had 0g wire from the 1st batt to the 2nd batt with NO FUSES AT ALL runing 2 amps that we DID NOT INSTALL
Our shop told him over and over to put fuses in and he didnt. Now his truck burnt down and he wants to blame us cuz we put a deck into his 1997 Dodge Ram truck
The deck has 2 fuses on it and runs through the factory fuse box with 2 more fuses.
I know we are not at fault , but still want some feedback on what you guys think.
Thanks in advance, Mike
Replies:
Posted By: ianarian
Date Posted: June 24, 2009 at 3:43 PM
If his insurance has the facts of what happened...they probably told him to go jump in a lake. If he lies to them and gets paid, they may come after you. I would take pics of the car and post them up in the shop. Show unqualified people the risks. A friend of mine didnt fuse a old 300w V12. That thing eventually went off like a firework between the seats of a standard cab mini truck. Caught their clothes on fire. WHILE driving down the freeway!
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This is what I do for FUN!
Posted By: DYohn
Date Posted: June 24, 2009 at 3:47 PM
As long as you kept receipts from your work and copies of your work orders, let him come after you. You should be in the clear. ------------- Support the12volt.com
Posted By: mike swanson
Date Posted: June 24, 2009 at 7:18 PM
His insurance didnt pay for it
also the truck is gone, long gone. 6 mos ago
Posted By: tommy...
Date Posted: June 24, 2009 at 7:31 PM
We had a similar situation...We installed a radio...Next day customer calls me and says his car caught on fire...I cant give you exacts about what went on...Someone else actually went to court...Was not are fault...Will ask him a little bit more and see if i can give you anything...! Where exactly did the car catch on fire at...?(or the whole car is literally burned to the ground...?)
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M.E.C.P & First-Class
Go slow and drink lots of water...Procrastinators' Unite...Tomorrow!
Posted By: mike swanson
Date Posted: June 24, 2009 at 7:37 PM
tommy... wrote:
We had a similar situation...We installed a radio...Next day customer calls me and says his car caught on fire...I cant give you exacts about what went on...Someone else actually went to court...Was not are fault...Will ask him a little bit more and see if i can give you anything...! Where exactly did the car catch on fire at...?(or the whole car is literally burned to the ground...?)
Never got to see the truck its long gone and he 1st said the fire came from the back where the 2nd batt was.
I know that im in the clear, but still wanted peeps feed back if a deck has ever burnt a car down Ive never heard of it
Posted By: i am an idiot
Date Posted: June 24, 2009 at 8:26 PM
A shorted output chip in a radio can get hot. I have never seen a radio that had actually caught on fire. The heat sink of the radio could get hot enough to melt some plastic, but I think it could only start a fire in Hollywood.
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Let's Go Brandon Brown. Congratulations on your first Xfinity Series Win. LGBFJB
Posted By: mike swanson
Date Posted: June 24, 2009 at 8:38 PM
I think it could only start a fire in Hollywood.
LOL
Posted By: lspker
Date Posted: June 24, 2009 at 8:54 PM
It would take very special circumstances for a deck to cause a fire. Take a piece of 18g wire, fuse at one end and short to battery. (don't hold the wire in your hand) Takes alot to melt the insulation. Same inside the deck. Yes, it could happen, but then I will win the lotto tonight. A shorted cap might even smoke in the deck, but with proper fusing, very unlikely.
Posted By: KarTuneMan
Date Posted: June 24, 2009 at 9:27 PM
The poor idiot is grasping at straws...... He screwed up, and now HE has to pay! he is not satisfied with that at all.
Posted By: tommy...
Date Posted: June 24, 2009 at 9:31 PM
So how long after the truck burned, did he contact you...? We have some wording that gives us first right to inspection/repair on our receipts when they sign, If taken elsewhere or not given first access , could possibly void warranty...! Sounds pretty fishy and is probably looking at whatever he can do to get a vehicle and sounds like he is just exploring/exhausting every possible avenue to get compensation...(probably was his only vehicle and carried liability insurance...) Knew a guy that loosened his own oil plug...(got an engine w/ about half the original miles!) Good Luck...And thats going to be a tough one to prove...He never even gave you access to the vehicle so i can only imagine your insurance will punk him down...Just tell him to not contact you again except by attorney and get kind of passive/aggressive! Take notes and those old voice recorders work great in your shirt pocket...!!!
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M.E.C.P & First-Class
Go slow and drink lots of water...Procrastinators' Unite...Tomorrow!
Posted By: haemphyst
Date Posted: June 25, 2009 at 11:30 AM
mike swanson wrote:
Our shop told him over and over to put fuses in and he didnt. Now his truck burnt down and he wants to blame us cuz we put a deck into his 1997 Dodge Ram truck
It was a Dodge... It was a fire waiting to happen from the day he drove it off the showroom floor!  ------------- It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."
Posted By: DYohn
Date Posted: June 25, 2009 at 12:30 PM
Any electronic equipment has the potential to start a fire. If it is properly installed and properly fused then the likelihood is very low. Any installation shop should always maintain sufficient records to prove that anything the shop installed was done properly, just to defend themselves against this sort of liability claim. ------------- Support the12volt.com
Posted By: mike swanson
Date Posted: June 29, 2009 at 2:42 PM
Well thanx for all your inputs. I never have been blamed for somthing like this EVER!
I do most the installs here and if an employee works on it i watch and guide them all the way
Posted By: daboss593
Date Posted: July 04, 2009 at 7:31 AM
the shop i get to work at part time goes beyond on this type of bs. they take digital pics of customers bs installs. than when pointed out put it on there bill. CUSTOMER IS IN AGREEMENT OF POSS HAZARDS AS INDICATED IN ATTACHED PHOTOS AND HAS REFUSED REPAIRS TO MAKE THIS SAFE ETC. we had some on come back with a messed up i know what im doing syndrom. so my boss ate the job but never again. may seem anal but if you had those pics and the above signed bill you would have no worries. sounds like you have no worries anyway. my dad runs a video cam and audio at his mech shop. due to people like to try and claim they didnt understand there bill? so they do the old c/c dispute thing. so we just burn a copy of the dvd and send it to the c/c company end or story etc. not only that it is a type of fraud, what this guy sounds like hes pulling on you?
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OWWWWWWWWWWW you said you discharged the cap!
Posted By: KarTuneMan
Date Posted: July 04, 2009 at 9:12 AM
Update please.....
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Posted By: mike swanson
Date Posted: July 07, 2009 at 10:39 PM
Well,,, he hasnt set a date yet.
I know we didnt do this and the deck dint start the fire thats for sure
the thing is tho ,,he tells every1 that we are at fault not to go to our shop or your car will burn down
So i figure i can put a counter claim on him due to all the people that will back me up on what he has said.
I cant wait!
Posted By: daboss593
Date Posted: July 08, 2009 at 1:35 AM
yeah you can and better yet get some one to tape him running his mouth about your shop. counter claim? id sue him now people in life need to learn lessons. i hope you teach him one.
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OWWWWWWWWWWW you said you discharged the cap!
Posted By: KPierson
Date Posted: July 08, 2009 at 6:00 AM
When I used to work at Circuit City our shop had a policy that if any amp wires (or other power wires) were unfused we would fuse them. We generally would use the cheap 30A waterproof fuse holders so the cost was fairly low. I installed quite a few myself and never complained about it - the 5 minutes of work to make a customers car safe for them and their family justified it. As professionals, installers should never let their customers leave their bay with potentional hazards like unfused power wires. Unfortunately, some people just don't know any better! ------------- Kevin Pierson
Posted By: mike swanson
Date Posted: July 08, 2009 at 6:55 PM
I warned him for this and he didnt want to fix it.
Now we wont work on any car like this we wont even pull it in the shop
We ask what kind af lay out they have. If they say 2nd bat we look
So we have turned alot of work away due to street installs like this.
Im sure glad it didnt start a fire in the shop and no1 got hurt
But, for the system he had with a 2nd batt and 2 2500w amps, a 30amp fuse would just pop or melt and still cause a fire. We dont install a 30amp fuse on any amp we sell.
He needed 4 ANLs on 0g I cant give $100.00 in fuses and blocks away just for free Plus install them? Wow thats asking alot!
I will send all my customers over to CC if they dont want to pay for fuses LOL what a joke
Posted By: KPierson
Date Posted: July 08, 2009 at 7:24 PM
haha, yeah that's a lot of fuses. ------------- Kevin Pierson
Posted By: scottr8
Date Posted: July 09, 2009 at 7:23 PM
this is an interesting thread. please keep updating us.
cheers scott
Posted By: nissan370z
Date Posted: July 10, 2009 at 3:47 AM
3000 watt RMS at 1ohm Powerbass extreme amp two 12" mojos 4ohm kenwood excelon headunit. forgot the model i have the box somewhere around here. haha air ported box at 4cubic feet 35hz memphis tweeters pioneer 6x9s and 6.25s forgot what model but they were the best they had powerbass 600.4 amp 0guage kicker kit 2400hc kinetik battery for reserve 200amp alternator ohio gen im also doing the big 3 with 4guage wiring might get another battery to replace my doodiety car battery. the shop thinks i need it. what do you say? acura 3.0 CL 1999 probably get some sound dampening too.. not sure i read about this.. so i dont want my car to burn to the ground.. the guys at the shop were telling me they were going to be putting quite a few fuses.. one from the battery. another for the 2nd battery. and i think one to the alternator.. is that correct? anything else?
Posted By: mike swanson
Date Posted: July 10, 2009 at 10:37 AM
Hey Nissan Dont forget the FUSES!
Just yesterday a kid comes in with 3 kicker comps and asks me are Mojos Louder? Ahhhhh Yeah.
So I look in his trunk and find he has a normal car batt in the trunk hooked up with 2 4g NO FUSES. I ask him why he had a wet batt in his trunk? he said he took it out of his last car that burnt down. OMFG What are people thinking?
I told him to park his car away from my shop and I wouldnt wofk on the car til he takes the 2nd batt out and discos the power wire.
Then I said I would have to install 0g with fuses and a dry batt to install 4000w and 2 Mojos. He looked at me like I was crazy.
So I sent him to CC to get fused. LOL
I forgot he also had a 4g off the batt, black tape holding 3 other 4g wires that ran to 3 diff amps for his dist block.
Posted By: KPierson
Date Posted: July 10, 2009 at 11:17 AM
I would have fused the heck out of it - 6-8 parallelled waterproof fuses per cable and he would have been set. I would rather do that then let his flaming out of control car cross the centerline and hit my wife and baby head on. ------------- Kevin Pierson
Posted By: mike swanson
Date Posted: July 10, 2009 at 6:55 PM
Ya then he could win because YOU were the last to touch that part of the system.
You still think that 6-8 30amp fuses would have been enough to keep the batt charged and amps working and not catch fire?
You would need 5 on each line min. What a mess that would be.
So that makes it bout 20 cuts and blocks and fuses.
The Memphis 2500w needs and comes with a dual 250amp fuse and he had 2 of these amps, but lost the fuses. So just alone before the amps he needed 1000amps worth of fuses.
*****We didnt touch that part of the system because we do it right or not at all.
Note: Dont drive anymore because 1 out of say 100 cars that have steet installs done have NO fuse on the 2nd batt.
You prolly would get hit by a drunk driver 1st.
Wow just got a killer idea of what im going to do on saturday
Put in free fuses all day long then go to the bar and make sure no1 drinks and drives
Posted By: KPierson
Date Posted: July 10, 2009 at 7:55 PM
That was sarcasm and irony. No, I wouldn't really put 6 fuse holders in parallel (sarcasm) and I would only be worried about the unsafe things that I had a chance to correct but didn't that impacted my life (irony). I wouldn't worry about being the last person to touch it, because IF I touched it I would do it right, and thus have no reason to worry. What I would have done was, if the guy was willing to pay my shop to work on his car, install ONE 30A fuse per line. I would then tell him that once he leaves my shop he can do what he wants with it. If he turns it up and blows the fuses thats on him. If he removes/bypasses the fuses that also is on him. I wouldn't pass up the opportunity to work on a car that has an owner that obviously doesn't mind spending money on his car just because the installation was missing fuses. That would be a great opportunity to educate the customer and become the customers go to guy for all his equipment and installation needs. Of course I've always been more customer service oriented then anything else... ------------- Kevin Pierson
Posted By: mike swanson
Date Posted: July 11, 2009 at 11:45 AM
KPierson wrote:
That was sarcasm and irony. No, I wouldn't really put 6 fuse holders in parallel (sarcasm) and I would only be worried about the unsafe things that I had a chance to correct but didn't that impacted my life (irony).
I wouldn't worry about being the last person to touch it, because IF I touched it I would do it right, and thus have no reason to worry.
What I would have done was, if the guy was willing to pay my shop to work on his car, install ONE 30A fuse per line. I would then tell him that once he leaves my shop he can do what he wants with it. If he turns it up and blows the fuses thats on him. If he removes/bypasses the fuses that also is on him. I wouldn't pass up the opportunity to work on a car that has an owner that obviously doesn't mind spending money on his car just because the installation was missing fuses. That would be a great opportunity to educate the customer and become the customers go to guy for all his equipment and installation needs.
Of course I've always been more customer service oriented then anything else...
The point was that he was Not willing to pay. The customer looked at me like I was crazy.
I was running with your sarcasm with a mental pic of how it would look and how many 30 fuses we would need. OMG that would look funny.
Also I wanted to fix it, but I had to do it right or not at all.
Have you ever seen a cheap 30amp fuse and holder melt together due to over amps?
I have and that could of happen again if I did 30amp fuses.
I hope your not mad, but really You would put the 30amp fuses in? and be liable for that if it melted together and didnt pop. or fried the amps and then have to pay for them.
What would you other guys do? Would you put 30amp fuses in?
I cant save every idiot that dosnt listen to me.
I tell people what they need to make it right and if they dont listen then I cant do anything about it.
Just like a Drunk Driver. Just try to take the keys from him and tell him Not to drive
Posted By: mike swanson
Date Posted: July 11, 2009 at 1:17 PM
"the guys at the shop were telling me they were going to be putting quite a few fuses.. one from the battery. another for the 2nd battery. and i think one to the alternator.. is that correct?"
Nissan,,, Make sure the put a fuse per amp off the 2nd batt.
So from the 2nd batt put a fuse 6" or less b4 you run to the amp
???Dont we have a fuse layout diagram here?
Ill look, if not Ill make 1
Posted By: KPierson
Date Posted: July 11, 2009 at 7:16 PM
mike swanson wrote:
KPierson wrote:
That was sarcasm and irony. No, I wouldn't really put 6 fuse holders in parallel (sarcasm) and I would only be worried about the unsafe things that I had a chance to correct but didn't that impacted my life (irony). I wouldn't worry about being the last person to touch it, because IF I touched it I would do it right, and thus have no reason to worry. What I would have done was, if the guy was willing to pay my shop to work on his car, install ONE 30A fuse per line. I would then tell him that once he leaves my shop he can do what he wants with it. If he turns it up and blows the fuses thats on him. If he removes/bypasses the fuses that also is on him. I wouldn't pass up the opportunity to work on a car that has an owner that obviously doesn't mind spending money on his car just because the installation was missing fuses. That would be a great opportunity to educate the customer and become the customers go to guy for all his equipment and installation needs. Of course I've always been more customer service oriented then anything else...
The point was that he was Not willing to pay. The customer looked at me like I was crazy.
I was running with your sarcasm with a mental pic of how it would look and how many 30 fuses we would need. OMG that would look funny.
Also I wanted to fix it, but I had to do it right or not at all.
Have you ever seen a cheap 30amp fuse and holder melt together due to over amps?
I have and that could of happen again if I did 30amp fuses.
I hope your not mad, but really You would put the 30amp fuses in? and be liable for that if it melted together and didnt pop. or fried the amps and then have to pay for them.
What would you other guys do? Would you put 30amp fuses in?
I cant save every idiot that dosnt listen to me.
I tell people what they need to make it right and if they dont listen then I cant do anything about it.
Just like a Drunk Driver. Just try to take the keys from him and tell him Not to drive
I think, in all honestly, it would be an intersting situation. Chances are, the guy would never let you install 30A fuses because then his amps wouldn't work. But, if nothing else, it would show him the seriousness of NEEDING fuses. They arn't recomended, they are required. I, myself, am pretty sensitive to the whole fusing issue because I've sat in a customers car that ALMOST caught on fire. The guys buddy had installed his remote wire driectly to the battery, ran it to a non insulated toggle switch by the drivers seat, then to the amp. I was sitting in the car messing with the deck and hit the switch with my foot. The sill plate was out of the car for some reason (thats how he brought it to us) and the switch grounded out. Just like that, the entire car was full of white smoke. Luckily the hood was open and my boss at the time saw what was going on and grabbed and ripped the wire off the battery - again lucky for us the remote wire was literally wrapped around the battery terminal. The guy driving the car had no idea how unsafe the install was, he thought his buddy knew what he was doing. I guess in reality that installing a 30A fuse wouldn't be the best idea, because it wouldn't "fix" anything. The more appropriate thing to do would be to disconnect everything. I'm guessing the customer wouldn't allow that, either though! ------------- Kevin Pierson
Posted By: mike swanson
Date Posted: July 12, 2009 at 3:44 PM
Ya thats what I wanted to do was disco everything that was a fire haz, but "NoWay man" he needed his beats.
I have seen test on 16g wire and it never caught fire it broke by then, got real HOT tho
It sure will smoke alot tho
I still wouldnt take a chance on no fuse on any wire thats hot or switched
Posted By: mike swanson
Date Posted: July 27, 2009 at 4:43 PM
Ok,,,I asked for a detailed police/fire report
and it came in the mail a few days ago.
It says "As I pulled into the mall I noticed a small fire in the back seat of the truck where the subwoofers and amps are. By the time I was able to park the truck the fire had begun to spread thoughout the cab of the truck."
THIS IS WHAT HE SAID TO THE POLICE/FIRE DEPT.
Now that we faxed the report to his Att. They decided to drop the case. Why they didnt have it IDK????
Now should I still take him to court for slander/defication?
What would you guys do?
Posted By: DYohn
Date Posted: July 27, 2009 at 5:45 PM
mike swanson wrote:
Now should I still take him to court for slander/defication?
I would definitely take him to court if he defecated on you.  ------------- Support the12volt.com
Posted By: joch1314
Date Posted: July 27, 2009 at 8:33 PM
mike swanson wrote:
Now should I still take him to court for slander/defication?
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"I would definitely take him to court if he defecated on you. " LMAO!!!! Ohh man, that was hilarious!! I think the word you're looking for is defamation. ------------- ...half of the truth can be worse than a lie. <----Roger Russell said that..
Posted By: mike swanson
Date Posted: July 28, 2009 at 8:54 AM
joch1314 wrote:
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<TD class=bold>mike swanson wrote:
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Now should I still take him to court for slander/defication?
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"I would definitely take him to court if he defecated on you. "
LMAO!!!! Ohh man, that was hilarious!!
I think the word you're looking for is defamation.
Ahhh yeah that would be the word LOL
As I was typin I thought of defication knowin that the word was Defimation and still typed out defication.
,but yeah he practicly did that also with all the shat he was talkin
You know what I was sayin
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