The worse installation job I've ever seen

[krstofer 10+ year member]

Hey Guys. I just fixed a friends "professional" installation and I thought I would share it with you because it is so ridiculous.

My friend has a mazda 3 hatch, as I do, with a stock HU and he installed a sub himself. He tapped one of the rear speakers and ran it back to the amp into the high level input. The only think he did wrong is use black and red wire for the speaker wire.

So he brings his car to a "professional" installer to install a new amp. The guy tells him he needs to install a LOC and will do everything necessary for the install.

About a week later his speakers stop working. He goes back to the shop and they can't figure out the problem. They assume it is the amp and gives him a new one. It still doesn't work. After 2 trips he asks me to take a look at it.

I remove the HU and see some really bad tape job. I disconnect the HU and check all the connections. To my surprise there is no LOC. I try to figure out how he is getting the sound to the new amp and I realize he took the audio out from the sub and ran it into the new amp.

This means all four speakers and the sub are getting the sound from one rear speaker connection. He cut the wires from the HU that he should have hooked up to the HU and just taped them and left them disconnected. So he cannot use fade or balance and he is not getting any music in stereo.

So I installed an extra LOC I had and ran the composite audio cables back to the amp. While I amdoing this he looks around to try to see where the power is coming from for the amp. When he sees it, he realizes the guy spliced the power wire (about 4 gauge) and just taped it all up instead of using a distibution block. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/eek.gif.771b7a90cf45cabdc554ff1121c21c4a.gif

So after much work and wiring we got everything working. But to top it off, somehow the guy screwed up the HU and the cd player no longer works.//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/rolleyes.gif.c1fef805e9d1464d377451cd5bc18bfb.gif

I could not believe what a mess it was and how bad an installation it was. He paid for stuff the guy never used and got a crappy quality install on top of it and broken equiptment.

Oh yeah, and to ground the new amp, he put a sheetmetal screw through the bottom of the trunk.

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[Dozy_production 10+ year member]

how much did your friend spend on the install? This sounds like a sub par best buy install.

 

[steveyblack 10+ year member]

shit man that sucks, i would go back to the shop and ask for a refund and any money you used to fix it

what shop ?

 

[05fronty 5,000+ posts]

i fixed a guys amp that kept cutting out. he had it put in by one of his boys.well looking at the install,whoever put the amp in grounded the amp to the rear of the trunk by scrapping some paint off and duct taping the ground wire to that spot. some funny crap

 

[sanzyuryu]

Not only that, but on the Mazda 3, the deck is frequency limiting at higher volume, so the higher the volume, the deck cuts lower frequencies to the speakers to protect factory speakers. You don't notice at low to mid volume, but crank it up and see what it does. We experienced this when these cars first came out. Totally bit. Not much you can do if you have to keep the factory deck, because thats where it is limited, not any external amp to bypass or tap on in front of.

 

[95volvosx 10+ year member]

tell him to get a refund, and to give him a new HU

 

[bluelceii 10+ year member]

i fixed a guys amp that kept cutting out. he had it put in by one of his boys.well looking at the install,whoever put the amp in grounded the amp to the rear of the trunk by scrapping some paint off and duct taping the ground wire to that spot. some funny crap

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/eek.gif.771b7a90cf45cabdc554ff1121c21c4a.gif That's crazy because I just got through fixing my friend's amp because some had it the exact same way... and on his HU, he had the 12v and memory wires hooked to the ignition wire so when he turned the car on he had to reset everything EVERYTIME.... I laugh the whole time I was fixing it. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif

 

[azbass 5,000+ posts]

whats wrong with black and red speaker wire?

 

[Naledge503 10+ year member]

krstofer and sanzyuryu you both got PM's

 

[steveyblack 10+ year member]

you got a shop name, becuase after hearing this i really want no one to get there shit ****ed up again

 

[azbass 5,000+ posts]

whats wrong with black and read speaker wires?

 

[Ignatowski 5,000+ posts]

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/needpics.gif.edd6d28e76618c28c46f343991bcced5.gif

 

[azbass 5,000+ posts]

and what shop is this, so i can go there and punch em.

 

[krstofer 10+ year member]

I'm not sure how much he paid and The shop is protech, in lodi, nj.

He is going back tomorrow to raise hell, I wish I could go with him but I have to work.

whats wrong with black and red speaker wire?

Well it wasn't actually speaker wire. It looked more like power and ground wire.

When I first installed an amp in my old car, I grounded it to the seat when I mounted it my accident. haha. I didn't realize the back of the seat was metal.

Good thing they were really old Radio shack amps.

 

[krstofer 10+ year member]

steveyblack, where in NJ are you?