Who DOES this?

westzx3 · May 30, 2011

Just wanted to share a little story that infuriated me.

I got my first gen ZX3 about three weeks ago, and I've only hated one thing about it so far: the stereo cuts in and out. Naturally, my assumption was a loose wire, but I hadn't had the time to fix it yet. So around nine tonight, I let a buddy talk me into doing just that. We pulled the panel off from under the steering wheel and got under there only to discover that the previous owner, who installed an aftermarket Pioneer CD player, didn't even bother to splice one of the wires; everything was being held together with the Force or something. Seriously, who DOES that?! We didn't have a set of strippers on hand, so I did what has to be the worst splice of my life (and I used to do in home satellite installation, so you can bed I've been forced into bad splices before). It's patched, for now, but my driver's side speakers still cut in and out sometimes. Has anyone else ever encountered something like that upon buying a used vehicle? I think I'm going to rewire the whole thing when I actually have the time to pull the head unit out next weekend and do it correctly.

But seriously, who DOES that?

Mike_Mac · May 30, 2011

no, but you would be amazed by the stuff i have seen at my high school. wires twisted together with no insulation or anything. remote starts dangling there with unsoldered connections. also seen people try to ricer mod there cars. best was they put in DOT5 fluid in because the bottle said RACING!!!!! took us like 2-3 hours to get the gel out of the lines.

if i ever went to buy another car and it had an after market stereo ill probably have them pull it too look at the wires, not like its hard or takes long. electrical issues in a car can be the hardest to find and fix. and if they burnt up caps, diodes, resistors on the GEM or PCM boards you will probably be hunting for that damaged wire forever.

BowerR64 · May 30, 2011

I wouldnt even wait that long. If you do wait dont use it. Keep it off

You dont know if the shorted speaker could be shorting to ground and it could eventualy blow the finals in the radio then you wont have any output on that side.

Sometimes a blown output could even avalanche and work back up the system and even kill the whole radio.

Fix it right away or pull the fuse to the radio.

mikebontoft · May 30, 2011

hey try twisting the connection at the drivers door, the BIG one yes it turns. I had an issue where the passenger side would cut out and it ended up being the loose plug at the door.

Oh and MAN I got one to show you.... I know others have said theyve seen worse but this is the worst Ive personally seen and it was on the car I bought.

Caps, random inline fuses, wires twisted together, oe harness cut off... Etc etc it looked like several harnesses spliced together... Ill post the pic when I get home
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BowerR64 · May 30, 2011

My favorite is duck tape insted of electrical tape. That stuff sucks to get off. If it doesnt dry and get all powdery it gets all gooey and gets goo all over the wires and stuff.

mikebontoft · May 30, 2011

Oh yeah my antenna connection was like that :I
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Indy'sexclusiveZx3 · May 30, 2011

I got one for you. When I first got my truck everything electrical was all f up mind you the truck is a 1978 f150 with glass fuses. I had to make a brand new harness and everything. I never had used so much wiring and electial tape in my life.

Duhamel · May 31, 2011

When I moved a few years ago I needed a car right away, bought a 95 Cavalier for $1000. The previous owner said there was a stereo and amp which were removed, could still see the wires in the trunk, I figured "no biggie"....boy, was I wrong. Me and my girlfriend grab some end tables at IKEA one day, I put them in the trunk, we get in the car and start to smell smoke...... long story short, I had to put out an electrical fire in my trunk, which I did by pulling all the wires apart....only a few small burns, but successful. The idiots who removed the amp left all wires still attached, like the power lead from the battery! I don't know whats worse, the fact they left it hooked up, or the fact there wasn't an inline fuse, so there was nothing to stop it once it found a ground. Lesson learned.

Tymes · Feb 11, 2012

My first car was inherited from my father, nothing special an 86 cavalier wagon. The OEM stereo was junk, and it only had 2 speakers in the dash. While we were traveling to my oldest brothers wedding, we drove it to Toronto and flew out from there, my father brought the car to a professional stereo shop and left it with them for a week to install a Clarion deck, new front speakers and add in speakers to the rear hatch. It was an amazing upgrade.

6 years later, the car became mine, the deck was now out of date (having a tape player in the cd age, this was back in the 90's) so I picked up a new pioneer cd deck. When I pulled the old deck out I was more then surprised to find the pro shop had run all new wiring, and had left the original wiring cut but not covered and still hot. For 6 years we had been driving the car with 2 live wires loose in the dash.

JCH841 · Feb 11, 2012

Bought a car with a non-working metal cased aftermarket tachometer. Started troubleshooting and discovered that the guy used only one color of wire, but lots of it. So I'm sitting in the drivers seat with the tach in my lap and after making sure all the connections were tight, started the car to see if that made a difference. I almost made a hole for a sunroof getting out of there! The SOB had connected the ignition points to the ground, on the metal case, laying in my lap! (The flyback on the primary side is close to 200 volts, that's what the condenser was for, to prevent arcing and burning of the ignition points.) It's funny now, and making the right connections fixed the problem, but since then I've always been leery of unknown connections made by morons.

zx3_bmxrider · Feb 11, 2012

If it was held together with the force, then I believe Yoda might do that. My car was like that too when I bought it.

diesel_travis · Feb 11, 2012

I had a dude who I thought knew what he was doing put an aftermarket stereo in my old Tercel. He had wired the amp to run off of the cigarette lighter and used scotch tape for all connections!

Who DOES that?!?!

JCH841 · Feb 11, 2012

And a lot of people use cheap electrical tape and or use it wrong. Buy a quality tape like 3M and stretch it about 50% as you wrap the connection. The tape will rebound (shrink) and make a real tight seal. Cheap tape will rip and shred when you stretch it. I learned the right way to splice a long time ago in the US Navy Electricians Mate Class A School.

Tymes · Feb 11, 2012

I am a firm believer in soldering connections and heat shrink them, especially if you plan to leave it for a long term use.

westzx3 · Jul 30, 2013

Time for an update!

I rolled around with the fuse yanked from when I posted the original post until a couple of months ago. I finally decided just to pull the head unit out and resplice everything.

Red and green duct tape. It's not as bad as the guy that said his was spliced with scotch tape, but my stuff was held together with red and green duct tape. In the spirit of truly fixing instead of patching, I bought a new wiring harness, acquired a new head unit by trading a friend for computer parts, and bought butt connectors. My system would work great, if the car would run.

Who DOES this?

westzx3

Mike_Mac

BowerR64

mikebontoft

BowerR64

mikebontoft

Indy'sexclusiveZx3

Duhamel

Tymes

JCH841

zx3_bmxrider

diesel_travis

JCH841

Tymes

westzx3

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