Poorly installed aftermarket parts

[HondaTechJoe]

Today I received a repair order that stated the customer started there 2005 Civic then saw a puff of smoke from behind the steering wheel, now the car won’t start. Upon removal of the steering column covers (in the parking lot) burnt wires and an aftermarket remote starter was found. Junky splices, poor solders, and a ball of zip tied wires were also at this party. The remote start failed internally, shorted out the immobilizer, and took down the k-line on the DLC. 2.5 hrs later and the car has several repaired wires, a restored k line, and no remote starter. The car starts, without the smoke show.

What is the general thought on aftermarket parts that interfere with systems such as immobilizer, and ECM/PCM?

Topic

[Elfy]

Well.. I have that on my honda too.. the aftermarket alarm just to make sure no one steals it… but it needs to be done right lol… i hate it when people mess it up… I say just have a professional do it if it has to do with aftermarket stuff.

[Physioex]

I am going to agree with Elfy. I have a friend with a 96 Civic that lives in an apartment complex and works in a public area. That car has been stolen three times and has been recovered everytime, thus the problem with Hondas is that they are prone to theft. I had a an aftermarket system installed by a professional without any problem for several years no theft. This leads me to conclude that this job must be done by a competent person using quality parts…….

[3SheetsDiesel]

That’s one of the things that I see a lot of where I work. People attempt and put aftermarket parts on their cars, or even just try to repair their cars themselves, and then they mess it up and then it gets towed to me to be repaired. Those are usually the same people who then complain about the price that I charge to un-mess-up their cars before I can even begin to fix them correctly.

For example, I once had a customer who brought his first generation Explorer to me because he said that the windows didn’t work. No big deal I think, probably just a bad window regulator or something. Well, It turns out that most of the electrics in the truck didn’t work, because he apparently really wanted a TV in his truck, but was too poor to get the kind that lives in the dash. So, what he had done was gotten himself a little black and white TV, like what you would have in a kitchen or something, put it on the passenger seat, cut the plug off of the end of the power cable and spliced it into the truck’s wiring. I forget exactly which wire he tapped, as this happened years ago, but needless to say he’s lucky he didn’t burn the truck to the ground. After an hour and a half of laying upside down under the dash repairing wires, I finally gave up and told him that I couldn’t do anything else for him. I gave it the “old college try”, but I know where my limits are. Half the connectors were just so much melted plastic, and most of the wires, rather than being green with a yellow stripe or what have you were either black or brown, depending upon how shorted they had been.

That guy put a lot of effort into that truck. Not very much thought, but a lot of effort.

[TexasCoder]

I agree with Elfy, you have to have aftermarket systems installed by a professional. Even then, take the time to meet the installer, talk to the person and get a feel for their competence. If you have any doubt walk away…heck RUN away. I have installed enough aftermarket remote starters, alarms, stereos, dvd players to know, if you don’t know what you are doing, and do not have a basic understanding of electronics and 12v systems…you could hurt yourself and burn the vehicle to the ground.

That job you are talking about sounds like a hack job, I am glad it did not turn out worse. Good job on tracking it down and getting it fixed!

[dseries16]

I think the problem lies with the owner not knowing enough about the product, procedure as well as their car to attempt some of the things that I have seen done to car. I am a DIY guy myself but before I tackle any project I read and read and when I think I have read enough I do a little more reading just to make sure I didn’t miss anything. I do this with anything I haven’t done myself before.

So yeah I think that anything that you aren’t willing to take the time to learn how to do it right the first time, should be taken to someone who knows the right way.

[Third Gear]

I’ve seen my fair share of jenky ghetto wiring. Actually my 99 Sierra had an amp that was ghetto wired straight to battery. The positive wire was kind of just jammed into the connector and a wire went straight into a gromment to the left of the brake pedal. I really should have removed it immediately, but I was lazy about it. Sure enough, the insulation on the wiring got thin in one spot and shorted itself on a metal brakeline. The wire caught on fire and melted a couple feet of wire, smelled aweful, caused a momentary loss in engine power, and scared the heck out of me at a stop light. Needless to say I ripped out everything after that. I found additional spices made by just twisting two wires together and wrapping them with electrical tape… geez.

I could go on and on about other things I’ve seen friend’s cars and mine, but we’d be here all day.

Take the time to read the instructions and have wiring diagram to put in things correctly or just take it to a professional.

It took me hours looking at a wiring diagram when I put in an aftermarket tach in my friend’s car that didn’t have one. I had to figure out what circuits were suitable to splice into, and then actually find the correct wire in the bundle, test it, and then properly tap into the wire. The worst part is finding the right wire because a lot of the time the manuals don’t show you where things are. In the end it looked professional and worked great.

[Author]

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