Subwoofer Sorrows

[Cl0ak]

Well I had a friend "help" me with my system install. He couldn't get the damn thing installed the subwoofers wouldn't work and he had no idea why. Yet he told me he knows what he is doing and installed tons of systems. Well he ends up mis-wiring something and when I turn on my headlights to leave (he put in my headunit, that was supposed to work) and my headunit goes off than back on. I didn't think anything of it at the time but when I got home my father told me that my taillights werent on.

Turns out he blew the fuse that controls my tail lights and speedometer illumination. Than I go to remove the head unit because it kept blowing the fuse and I see a spark I assumed it came from the ground wire, with that spark my over head map light thing shut off and so did the trunk light and my power locks stopped working. Im not the best when it comes to wires and things so I'm totally screwed until my brother in law gets back in 2 weeks from a business trip and can help me sort this out.

So now the car runs and my tail lights work from the new fuse I put in but my over head light and trunk lights don't work and when I change the fuse they still don't work so I think some wire crossed somewhere and it keeps blowing the fuse. Im afraid to let him near the car again since he spent 3 days "trying" to install my system and all I ended up with was a few hundred dollar paper weight and a assload of electrical problems.

Thanks buddy you really helped me with this install...I just had to vent, but if anyone has any idea's what wire could keep blowing the fuse because I was under the impression that the headlights had nothing to do with my head unit? Well enough of this rant...

[kittedb18bt]

there is a fuse box under the hood of your car, i would check those also. fuses can be blown when they look fine. i hate people who say they know how to do stuff, when they dont know how to. if something in you car goes terribly wrong, or something needs to be replaced, i believe that your friend should have to pay for it.

[chicago_guy]

Yea so do i. I was taking a puddle jumper from cozumel to cancun a couple years back and i swear to god the pilot didnt know how to fly the damn plane. When i boarded the plane the guy was reading the manual to the plane....and then on our approach he couldnt figure out how to get the landing gear down. When we finally landed and i got off the plane, i leaned into the cockpit and said "Muchos gracias...gilipollas." That guy scared the shit out of me.

[TexasF355F1]

You called your friend and bitched him out right?

[Cl0ak]

Yea I called when I got back from replacing the one fuse to get my tail lights working. I'm going to go out today and since I took the head unit out I'm gonna split all the wires and re-tape the ends to make sure he didn't cross any wires and just leave them out until someone gets here that actually knows what they're doing. Hopefully that fuse will be fixed that controls the interior lighting once I get all the wires away from each other. But I replaced it once and it didn't work.

[Cl0ak]

Well I called him to come help me out and remove whatever he did but he never showed so I decided to fix it myself. I took apart all the mess of wires and got it back down to just my stock wires.

Than I hooked up the stock radio which was suprisingly really easy to reconnect. I looked at the fuse chart on the cover for the fuse box and tracked down another fuse that had blown out because I found that he left a wire stripped with nothing covering it, just exposed wire that touched metal. So I replaced the 2nd fuse and it works. So now I just have to battle with the return department. I found out that the subs I ordered are still in the factory and they sent me the wrong ones, they werent labeled but the lady on the phone said they are 120 watt subs and not the 600 watt subs that I ordered so she said she'd take them back and refund my money, this time I'm going to 1.buy better quality subs 2.have a pro installer do the work. Its pretty expensive to learn your lessons.

[nubiannupe]

Almost one of those cases where 'you get what you pay for'. I've been installing for roughly 15 years and I STILL have friends of mine that won't let me install their stuff because of similar horror stories with what we refer to as "shadetree" installers/mechanics.

I definately agree with kittedb18bt in that you should at the very least get your so-called "friend" pay for some of his screw up. Otherwise, he's going to think, "oh, my boy's got my back on this and it's all good in da hood!" when it really isn't.

[BP2K2Max]

no offense but your fried sounds like a jerk. he claimed to be able to help you out. took 3 days to incorrectly install a system, and then didn't show when he said he'd come try to rectify his fuck up.

you shoulda told him not to try anymore after the first 2-3 hours. a head unit and subs is easy.

[airforceone]

Whenever I do work on my friends' cars, I either a) have done it before or 2) know I can do it. If I mess up their car (which I have done on one occasion , I told him I didn't think I could do it but he convinced me to try) I pay for the damages . In this case, I split the cost with the guy. It's called integrity. Get your friend some! The people I've done work for don't get charged much either. Depending on the task, payment ranges from lunch to $150 plus lunch and dinner . The $150 charge was for brakes on all four (Chevy Cavalier), new tires and rims, mount and balance (discount tire would've done it for free but she said she didn't trust them, plus I had access to the equipment) oil change and transmission service, plus troubleshooting the ABS system. I should've charged more.....