My old 8 yr. old Eclipse head finally died last year. I had it installed at a stereo shop and ALWAYS had bad alternator whine etc.

I finally decided it was time to replace the HU. I have kept up to date on car audio stuff, but never in my life tried to install anything. It has always sounded very intimidating to me so I never wanted to try it for fear of screwing something up.

So, a couple of weeks ago I took out the old HU. It was barely sitting in the radio pod. The installers years ago really did a bad job, those jerks. The wiring harness cut and spliced to all get out. They wired the speaker wire from the amp thru the car and spliced it up to the stock speaker wire behind the CD player. They wired up the power, ground, remote and power antennae leads to a relay.

<a href="https://www.thirdgen.org/stereo/100_0933.JPG">Here's a bad, out of focus, HUGE image of the wiring mess!</a>

You can see the relay w/ the 4 connectors attached to it in the middle left of the pic.

I cut out the relay and cut out their extensions on the stock wiring and wired up the HU. I got everything right on the first try, except for the illumination wire, woohoo!

For now the speaker wire is still a mess, but Justins86Bird is coming over in a couple of weeks and we're gonna put in the sub box he built me to replace my crappy one, get my alpine V12 in, and put in my kick panels w/ MB Quarts! It's gonna be great, finally!

I'm ecstatic now that my alternator whine is completely gone! It musta been caused by the grounds and power going through the relay.

The new headunit:
Pioneer DEH-P8500MP.

<img src="http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pio/pe/vgn/images/portal/cit_3442/38309DEH-P8500MP.jpg">

So far it's fantastic! Sounds great and looks even better.

Just thought I'd share with everyone

 

It's amazing the hack job's some installers do.. Installing a head unit is defintely not very hard and now at least you know it's done properly! Good choice on the head unit though, I have the same one (well, its the premier 850MP with the extra set of outputs) and I love it! It's a great deck.

 

Woot Woot! I knew you could do it

Now when the Solobaric and kicks with the MBQs get installed, you'll be able to hear Maiden for miles!
:rockon:

 

I went to a certified dealer/installer you know the guys with all the plaques on the wall, and the badges on their shirts.

I bought a pioneer, top of the line pioneer for the year (they sell alpine etc) This was one of their lower end decks..anyways I had seen their installs really good stuff.

My truck was brand new, I wanted a really nice install, it was the base for subs and component sets. I belive because they were assuming I was never coming back, they didn't do a good job. I made sure they would get an adapter (not just cut my harness) and here's what they did

First, they cut the harness, peeled back the tape and spliced everything in with butt connectors. I was pretty pi$$sed especially when it made it near impossible to re-wire.

They cut all the noise filters and inline fuses in the pioneer, so the wires would be shorter and fit better. I guess they figured the trucks fuses would work..

The speakers they installed in the door were a hack job, and when the mounting screws failed, the speakers slid own and grounded out on the door.

What I am sayign is just because it's a professional shop, doesn't mean they are going to hold your car in high regard, new or not.

DOn;t get me wrong some installers are top notch, and take a lot of pride in their work, BUT no one can taake as much pride in your car as you. If you want it done right, take the time out and do it right, yourself. Even if instalation is free or otherwise cheap.

 

Dirk, do you mind if I ask whether you bought it at a chain store, or a local car audio shop? I've seen so many hacks come from "professional" chain stores that it would make your head spin. Half of our business was fixing their crap.

 

Cool! Glad to hear that you cleaned up the wiring, too!

Lykan, I wonder if you got a "trainee" that hacked up your truck. Usually the high-end shops will put their best guys on the full-blown, all-out custom systems- and leave the new guys to throw in the small stuff. Strange though, because it would've been faster to do the install the "new" way- using butt-connectors to splice the radio to a harness adapter, and plugging the harness adapter into the factory plug.

Wait- you said that you made sure they got a harness adapter? What'd they do with it if they spliced the radio into the factory wires?

 

I have no idea! it wasn't in the truck tho.

**edit**
I get what you're asking. I told them to make sure and use the adapter, I didn't verify they had one, or actualy see it ;(

 

It was actually a local car audio shop They even charged me for a harness. It's a bit too late to go back now, and I won't set foot in there again!

After I met Justins86Bird a couple years back, we were walking about it, and he has had nothing but bad run ins with a whole bunch of the local car audio shops, including the one I went to. He just goes to the local shops to buy some of his stuff (not have them install). So maybe some of the others in town do good work, but not the one I went to

 

Actually I wont buy anything from the local shops, and I've been to just about all of them. Local shops are just a waste of time and money. I buy online now or maybe bestbuy when I need something fast. Ebay is great. Plus places like sounddomain or partsexpress have a good selection of cables and terminals. Even bestbuy and circuit city have better prices on the exact same stuff as the local shops. Of the shops in town that I've seen their installs, I have only seen hack jobs. Its disgraceful.

 

I buy everything online also, it's much cheaper.. The only thing is you don't get that warranty where you can just head back to the store and have it replaced.. But if you're careful with you equipment it shouldn't be necessary in the first place unless something is defective.. I went to a local privately owned shop and had my viper alarm installed, I had some wires underneath the dash and they tangled everything together with the alarm, not to mention its just stuffed under there packed so tightly, I had to go back 3 times for them to set things properly, I told them to have the hatch set the alarm off and they never did it, the third time they ran the wire and never hooked it up to the alarm! It's just sitting under the dash.. I told them to put the passive alarming on so the alarm will arm itself, so they turn it on, ok the alarm turns on but now the doors dont lock with it! "oh you've gotta tell us exactly what you want".. I also went to a local car audio shop for tint, they dripped water all over my amp, left olf tint all over the backseat (and i took 85% of it off myself in the first place), yanked off my rear defrost wire about 5", and didn't tint the strip around the outside of the rear different (so i had about a half inch of light coming through around the whole glass).. My experiences with local car audio/stereo shops has been horrific and I'll never leave my car at any of them again.. *end rant*

 

It's a shame that you guys have had bad dealings with local shops.

Buying online is not so bad if you know what you're doing, and if you know how to install it. I buy most of my stuff online now that I don't get the dealer-accomodation discounts that I used to. Unfortunately, I've seen SOOOO many people buy the wrong stuff, or get themselves into a jam because they walked into a situation that they didn't know enough about. Unfortunately, most often they don't even realize it. They think their mismatched equipment is the best thing since sliced bread. Although it costs more to buy locally, if you can find a *good* shop that can help you with product selection and installation, it's well worth the costs.

 

Update? How do those MBQs sound in the kick panels?


Maiden for miles...I want that kind of system

:rockon: