Am I getting screwed?

[Nateg]

I bought an eclipse3000 from a local dealer and had it installed by them. it took no more then 5 minutes and cost my $60. I was happy thinking it would be done correctly. I got in my car and it sounded great, I took off and turned it up to my listening level and it was pure shit. The speakers crackled poorly. They were my factory speakers so I though that I just needed better speakers. I road around with the volume just below them crackling.

Eventually I got enough money saved up for 4 infinity speakers in the car doors. Kappas in the back references in the front, 6x8 for all. I had a friend take a look at my system with the factories in and he said there is no reason at all that they should be popping since the bass was turned well into the negatives and the volume wasn't very high. Much lower then I listened to them with my portable cd player plugged into a tape. He installed my infinity's and it still sounds the same, if not worse. He told me he wouldn't touch my cd player as it might void something from the people that installed my deck.

My cd player, when you turn the fade all of the way to the left you hear NOTHING from either the front or the back speaker. It was this way before the speakers were installed. The radio is almost twice as loud as the cd player, but that might be a function that I hadn't adjusted on my player. When I had it installed I was told that the settings were all adjusted properly so I wouldn't have to touch a thing, which I didn't.

I took my car out to have it looked at today. The guy assured me that my speakers were blown. I explained to him about 10 times that they were brand new and never turned past crackling. He ends up taking out the cd player and looking at the connections and tells me that I have a factory amp and he is 95% sure its going bad and thats the problem. He says I will need to make an appointment which I am happy to do and then tells me it will cost about 79 dollars at which point I laugh and drive away.

I bought the cd player for like 269 dollars, with their install it came out to be $330.

I bought my speakers for $250. So now I have about $580 into my system and it sounds worse then playing through it through a portable cd player with a tape adapter.

My feeling is that I paid them money to have it done correctly. The cd player was installed incorrectly because he didn't bypass the amp the first time if it was going to be a problem. The sound has been exactly the same since I drove it out of their parking lot.

I would love to hear what some of you guys think about this.

My car is a 1998 Mercy Mystique.

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[edwelly 10+ year member]

The shop should have told you in the beginning that you had a factory amp - in my opinion. As far as how to by pass the factory amp now, I think the should charge you the normal fee MINUS the $60 you paid the first time.

Just my $0.02

 

[yne721 10+ year member]

just from the fading problem, it kind of sounds like you have some crossed wires somewhere....

but i'm still learning and i might be completely wrong.

 

[mrnobdy]

if i recall there is an amp in the trunk on the pass side ehind the spare tire thats up there. if you take the tire down there is a little football amp back there. there is also a harness you should have gotten that has a double ended plug on it./ unplug both ends of wires from that amp and plug them into that double ended harness. that might solve the problem

 

[azbass 5,000+ posts]

you have a factory amp. no shit your getting bad sound. they did not bypass it.

on your car the factory amp is behind the glove box.