OK, I have a question for you audio experts.

1. Install new double DIN head unit
2. Treo 650 Cellphone install
3. Rockford Fosgate Omnifi (display in "mail slot")
4. Sirius SIR-1

No amps, no speakers - keeping that stock for now. How much time does a good audio shop take to do this? Is this more than a 2 day job?

 

no, this sould be a 1 day job in a Z. maybe 2 if they are taking more time. max

as for cost, hmm depend on which double din i guess, if its a nav unit it may be slightly more...

but a good shop i would guestimate 200-300 bucks total?

 

if you buy the equipment from them, then you get installation for free.

 

I brought in the equipment, and their estimate was $270 - though I would bet that much that they are going to try to charge me more when it is all done. I am concerned because they told me 2 days, and at 4:30PM on the second day I called to see how late they will be there because I have to arrange to drop off my rental car. Since they didn't call me at all, I figured everything was on schedule. The shop owner gets on the phone and tells me the car is in a million pieces and that they aren't close to finished. When I mentioned that he told me 2 days and that I wasn't crazy about paying for another day to rent a car, he goes on to say that he told me "2-3 days, maybe more, and that he expected to have the car through the end of the week" which is a complete lie, and that I could "come down now and pick up the F'in car" and he will just throw the pieces back inside. When did customer service truly die? I can't remember the last time I got involved with a company that either tried to rip me off in some way or just didn't do what they promised to do. He said that there was a lot of wiring to do, and that there is no way it was a two day job. He said he would have told me that if I hadn't left so quickly the morning I dropped it off. I guess he forgot that he showed up late for the appointment, was on the phone, and walked into the shop completely ignoring me. I then waited for 30 minutes before I gave up and just called the rental car company to pick me up, leaving the keys with an associate. Why is it so hard for people to admit they made a mistake? Shouldn't he just have called me that morning when he realized it would be a longer job and told me to make plans to be without my car for longer? Am I being too demanding here? All I wanted was a good reliable audio shop to do my system, and now there is no way I will bring my car back to do the next phase. I think it is because it is a low-dollar job and not a hummer with 85 subwoofers, I get treated like garbage. What do you guys think? My prediction: the work is substandard, they try to charge me more, and they forget several items I asked them to do. We'll see if I'm right.

 

dude, i just had a bad experience myself trying to get a simple satellite radio installed....i had a few requests and no joking, they ignored all of them....the car looks horrible now and i don't even feel like turning the damn satellite radio on cause it just reminds me of the bad experience...i feel the same way you do right now and it sucks.....i thought i did my homework with the shop but apparently i overestimated their customer service skills....i work in retail (banking) and if i ever treated my customers this way i'd be out of a job.

sorry for the rant

 

There are so many ways to screw up the install, I have complete respect for
Pro shops that do a great job. I would let the shop take as much time as
they need. It's a tough job so it's wise to be nice but keep high expectations.

Here's a list of potential bad HU install issues even though it may seem to work fine:
)New Rattles (wires not tied down, loose/broken/tab/plastics and dropped bolts!)
)Open contacts from bad press fits instead of soldered
)Short contacts not being adequately insulated
)Unwired antenna amp power causing bad radio reception (from this site!)
)Extra undefined wire on harness connected to something, instead of taped off
)Permanent new marks/scratches in/outside
)AC/elbow-console/3-meter panel broken from damaged cables

You better test it all before the brake light warranty expires!

 

I had my system in my SUV installed at Sound systems or whatever next to Oakridge (this was awhile back) and they did a pretty good job. They quoted me 4 days but it lasted 2 more extra days but they did call me and told me so. I think most of these shops warranty their work for 6 months to a year if anything goes wrong so I guess you have to remember to ask for warranties and such and also do research before you hand over your car.. hope everything turns out alright for ya...

 

I don't see how a shop would need the car for more than a day. I did my AVIC-D1 double din nav unit, dedicated Sirrius and XM radio, Motorola blue tooth hands free kit for my Treo 650, PS2 with power inverter all in about 4-5hrs. Having the car for more than one day is absolutely rediculous.....unless you are having custom work done like fiberglass or something like that.

 

Well, I got the car back today and was pleasantly surprised with the work. I think I was overcharged a little, but the guy was much nicer to me when I picked it up, and he spent some time with me to answer my questions. I believe what happened is just that this is a very busy shop and mine was a low-dollar job by comparison - so therefore it didn't get a lot of attention. I went to several audio shops before this one, and no one would even really take the time to talk to me. I asked several places if I could email them my system plans, and no one would spend the time. That is why I wasn't suprised that this shop didn't pay much attention to the detailed system outline I gave him. The work came out pretty good except for the fact that they put the bluetooth controls by the driver's side instead of in the change bin like I'd specified. I am going to have him move that over when I do the next phase which will include the subs and the amp. The other thing that I don't like is the Sirius antenna being on the outside of the car. Anyone done this somewhere inside the car and still have decent reception? Also, my AM radio doesn't seem to work very well, and only the two most powerful stations in town work. What does this mean? If the AM antenna was left out completely, would this happen or would it not work at all? I will post some pictures here tomorrow after I take some. They were supposed to secure my Z Comfort Rest as well, but they said that this would have to be done by their apholstery guy - I need it snapped down so it doesn't slide all over the place.

 

I spent the better part of the afternoon cleaning the car, and these are the things I found. I trust you guys to tell me if I am being too picky or not. The grand total was around $420, including some adapter I had to buy to allow the Pioneer deck to interface with the cellphone, the Sirius, and the Omnifi. If they fix all of the issues below without charging me extra, I won't feel ripped, but I am doubtful that they are going to do it all without expecting extra $$.

1) Bluetooth controller in the wrong place
2) AM radio signal non-existant
3) Carpet in the trunk is not secured, and panels in the back seem very loose. I lifted up the carpet and found several screws unfastened and clips laying loose.
3) The dry cleaning hook on the passenger side is missing
4) There is a space underneath the head unit - looks kind of crappy, but I am not sure if there is anything that can be done about it.
5) The bluetooth controller stays on after the car ignition is turned off
6) There is a scratch on the silver finish of the deck

I am going to go back on Monday and ask for them to:
1. Make me a cover for the "mail slot" so that the Omnifi is hidden
2. Fix the AM radio
3. Move the Sirius antenna to the strut bar
4. Secure some of the loose panels
5. Move the bluetooth controller to the change bin, as originally specified

All of the pictures are here, and the last couple of pictures are of the problems with the deck install.

 

Mount the serius antenna inside the third brake light housing. If you have tint you wont even see it. I have perfect reception from that location. I cant even show you with a picture because you cant see it with my tint.

 

Thanks for the nice pics! I really like the leather cell platform tower. What brand is it? It's much nicer than a cold plastic flex tube.

The bad reception is likely what I warned about.

)Unwired antenna amp power causing bad radio reception

The stereo harness label is confusing as "power antenna", (not amp), so an untrained Installer won't wire it. But if this were the mistake I'd expect the FM reception to be compromised too? Your Shop will pig squeal about taking the dash apart to check it. Ask them to produce their install notes on the wiring harness matchups. If they can't, they did it wrong. If that klutsy shop rechecks their wiring without removing the stick cap they will further scratch your dash. Buy a new AC/shift plate from Nissan. Since you have sat and need amps/speakers installed soon. If they do not graciously make you happy, don't redline your blood pressure, just have a Pro shop remedy them with the upgrades.

 

The cellphone mount is a Kuda - ask for Dirk. They were really helpful and knowledgeable. They actually helped me put together a sort of unique system; they found the cradle for me special because I was trying to figure out how to use their mount and have the phone charging at the same time, so we used a combination of the two. The cradle I believe is made by "Carcomm", but I got it from Kuda.

Regarding the antenna problem, can you explain that a little further? I want to be sure of what I am talking about before I call the shop, and I am still a little confused. I have to handle this very delicately because I already know the guy is kind of short-tempered. I do expect them to move the bluetooth controls free of charge, but I don't know if they will charge to move the Sirius antenna.
Thanks.

 

By the way, I LOVE the bluetooth cellphone thing - it rocks. The stereo mute thing works great and people can actually hear me when I talk! Though now I will probably be on the phone so much that I will never listen to my stereo. The other problem I am having now though with the stereo is that the Omnifi isn't getting any power. I don't know what it is, but it won't turn on at all. Looks like this is going to be the start of a nightmare that will end up costing me a fortune. Sigh, what else is new with this car.

 

The wiring harness plugs into the OEM plug to keep it easy to rewire. There is pin-5 wire on the patch harness from American International (Metra is probably the same) that is labelled "Antenna Power". This is on the dual row 10-pin on Nissan's stock connector M40. From its Lower Right counting left. <5> 3 1. I read a post from a guy that had no FM reception who realized he didn't connect it. The pin-5 signal is power for the RF amp located directly under the antenna. The PA pin must be connected for decent reception! What's strange is you haven't complained about your FM reception?! So if the shop did fully connect the wiring harness, your FM works fine, your antenna is in and you still aren't picking up AM's 1GigaWatt channels... then your HU must be defective. That is pretty much near impossible since AM and FM tuners now use the same frequency generator circuit! So they need to check the harness wiring. With your omnifi DOA (bad fuse?) they need to debug both issues.

Good luck. Please keep us posted on how it works out!

...

)Unwired antenna amp power causing bad radio reception

The stereo harness label is confusing as "power antenna", (not amp), so an untrained Installer won't wire it. But if this were the mistake I'd expect the FM reception to be compromised too? Your Shop will pig squeal about taking the dash apart to check it. Ask them to produce their install notes on the wiring harness matchups. If they can't, they did it wrong.

 

I'd like to hear more. The real test in my situation will be how they handle the concerns I have now after I've paid. I am predicting a total nightmare, and will probably end up having to dispute the charge with my credit card, blah blah. Why oh why can't these things ever go right for me. I wrote up such a detailed set of instructions, yet I knew they would be ignored.

 

MY FM radio seems to work OK, and I get one or two AM stations - but only the most powerful ones. All of the other AM stations are dead. There has to be something wrong with the AM antenna, and I am thinking that it is very unlikely there is a problem with the head unit itself - although that is the likely response from the installer since he will assume that response will cause me to just forget about it. I listen to AM radio quite frequently however, and this will bug the crap out of me. Unfortunately I bought the head unit on eBay months ago, and I can't imagine a return is going to go all that smoothly. Sigh.

 

With FM fine they wired the amp power harness correctly! But they may not have plugged in the antenna coax far enough into the HU (it's quite tight). Then its purchase became loose when they wrestled the HU console back in place (scratching your AC plate ), thus rendering it a high frequency/power pass filter.

Was the HU used? i.e. maybe its previous owner liked AM too. I doubt it's a bad HU.

You could also try attaching a longer antenna to improve AM reception? Although most
folks are trying to get by with shorter stubbies.

 

my guess is the power antenna wire is not connected because the shop assumed there is no power wire and thus doesn't need that to be connected. the fm signal still works, just not very well in all places, and the am works even less. that's exactly how it is in my car because i made the same mistake when wiring my headunit and never bothered to fix it.

this should not be hard for the shop to fix. they most likely will not have to pull the whole dash apart. they can just slide the radio out front and get to the wires (hopefully they left the wires long enough for this).

 

I finally was able to reach the owner today to set up an appointment to bring my car back in. When I mentioned the AM reception problem, the response I got was that you can't expect the signal to be as good as it was with the factory radio. When I reminded him that the radio that was replaced was in fact an aftermarket Pioneer head unit, he said that every head unit is different, and that my new model doesn't have a "super tuner" like the old one, so it wasn't as good. Something about this reply just doesn't sit well with me. I mean, is there really a logical reason that my 10 year old Pioneer head unit would have so much better AM radio reception than my brand new Pioneer head unit? I checked the specs here, and see that this unit in fact has something called "Supertuner IIID", and I just can't swallow this explanation. I looked at the manual from my old deck, and see that it had a "SuperTuner III". What do you guys think? Is he just avoiding some extra work? He claimed that he just hooked up the new one the same way the old one was hooked up, but some stations that I used to get crystal clear are now dead air. Any ideas on how I can strengthen my case here? I don't know much about audio hookup. Truth be told, I don't know if I even want him to pull the deck back out because they will probably scratch it or make some other careless mistake. You guys think a product like this would help? Though I hate to pay them to install this if it isn't necessary.