If You Want Something Done Right

[m4gic]

Ok, so I received a bunch of parts a few days ago; I've been reading up, and was going to wire in a circuit to do the following:

-Hardwire my sirius radio (TSS radio hardwire kit. Nice and clean.)

-Activate Sirius with RAP (batt feed via relay, as per instructions found here)

-Switch to activate Sirius with external FM transmitter regardless of RAP on or not (so I can leave my tuner and transmitter on at the jobsite and listen on the portable radio)

-Provide an easy to access, high-current capable RAP switched circuit for future use

 

Figured I could easily make it look and work as close to a factory (or at least dealer installed) addon as possible.

 

I decided I'd go take a look under the dash to see if I could locate some of the things I'd need to work with. MBEC, firewall penetrations/grommet, etc.

 

And, I see this ****ing rat's nest:

 

Click for crappy cell phone photos

 

I paid a local company who had the balls to call themselves "Superior Engine Repair" to install a compustar pro system last year. Now I'm wishing I'd just bit the bullet and installed it myself. I mean honestly, how can you wire something like this and call yourself a professional? The Compustar module is literally HANGING by its wires, and wedged behind the electrical box and some factory wire bundles. Nothing is any order whatsoever. The fuses and relay are hanging by wires and stuffed behind a factory harness. They've pulled a grommet out of the firewall and just run the wires through the hole. Apparently the grommet didn't have enough room to accomodate one extra... what? 28AWG wire? They ran the LED to the dash, and mounted it in the faceplate, with a wire so short I nearly tore it taking the faceplate off; that I noticed right away and fixed by putting in a JST connector right after I got the truck back from them, but I never did look UNDER the dash till now. I'm so pissed I can hardly think straight. SOMEONE tell me that's justified...

[focijoe]

I agree it looks pretty crappy. Its easier to pay somebody to do things but if you're not looking over their shoulder all the time you never know what you're going to get. It sucks that some installers just don't care. They just want to get done, take your money and move on to the next job.

[m4gic]

I agree it looks pretty crappy. Its easier to pay somebody to do things but if you're not looking over their shoulder all the time you never know what you're going to get. It sucks that some installers just don't care. They just want to get done, take your money and move on to the next job.

 

 

What pisses me off the most is that the reason I decided to pay to get it installed was that I had just bought the truck, and not knowing specifically what was involved, decided that I'd let a "professional" tackle this and try something simpler myself on my first try. It wasn't that I didn't have the time, tools, or knowledge to be able to do it, just that I wasn't confident in my abilities and was worried I'd damage someting and be stuck with it. Being that this is the first vehicle I've owned, and the last one I drove was a '89 GMC Safari - There was a bit of a learning curve.

[tanked_darren]

I agree it looks pretty crappy. Its easier to pay somebody to do things but if you're not looking over their shoulder all the time you never know what you're going to get. It sucks that some installers just don't care. They just want to get done, take your money and move on to the next job.

 

 

What pisses me off the most is that the reason I decided to pay to get it installed was that I had just bought the truck, and not knowing specifically what was involved, decided that I'd let a "professional" tackle this and try something simpler myself on my first try. It wasn't that I didn't have the time, tools, or knowledge to be able to do it, just that I wasn't confident in my abilities and was worried I'd damage someting and be stuck with it. Being that this is the first vehicle I've owned, and the last one I drove was a '89 GMC Safari - There was a bit of a learning curve.

 

 

I hear ya man I had a sirius unit installed (100$ unit to clip onto the dash) and I asked the guy repeatedly if they were going to drill holes in my dash, and I told them I wanted NO HOLES, he said that would be ok, and what do ya know they drilled a ****ing hole for the power wire. I mean they did a good job on the install, it looked clean so I didn't care too much, but I was still pissed that a paid for a service that wasn't done correctly to what I asked!

[AllBlkdOut07]

That's ART right there. Some people amaze me, what a slob.

[m4gic]

I've been toying with the idea of rewiring it one wire at a time so as to make sure everything ends up wired properly and at least somewhat neater, but I'm unsure of whether I should or not, especially since every time I think about it I get depressed.

 

The other this is that every time battery power to the module is lost or rather every time voltage is dropped (have a parasitic somewhere killing my batt, going to get a new batt - this one's the original from '06 afaik - and install a power tender to maintain it when parked over long periods) the damn thing refuses to start the verhicle. It runs, stops, trys again. Happens a few times and then the remote signals start error 08 (tach sense fail). When I took it back last time, they said the module had to be reflashed and charged me $25. Could I have a defective module here?

 

Anyone with experience with compustar remote start/security systems have any input?