# Funniest thing you have seen working on cars.



## jaggerwild (May 21, 2007)

I figured I'd lighten it up a bit as the Christmas(remote starters) rush is over, so now it more car audio season and alarms too. I have seen a few funny things while working on cars, traveling to dealer ships as we used to do mobile installs of alarms and remote starts.

One time I was called to a dealer ship to do an install on a brand new S10 blazer set to be delivered that night. I arrived to find the dealership had there low level tech try to install an alarm in it already. This wouldn't be a problem but right off I sensed that something was not right when I looked at his installation. So first thing is to make sure the auto is in good working order before I proceeded, I went to start the truck and right away i hear a hissing noise coming from under the dashboard? I get on my back under the dash to see a hole in the fire wall the tech had drilled to run the siren wire outside the cab to the engine compartment. No problem right? Wrong, the hissing noise is coming from this very hole in the firewall. So I put my finger over the hole and the break pedal proceeds to hit me in the head LOL. It seems he had for got to estimate where the break booster was in his rush to do the install and he drilled right into the firewall and through to the booster. I called the manager over to show him my findings and cover my collective ****, he said thanks asked me to finish my part of the job and to see him after I was done. I finished up and was promptly offer a job as they needed somebody to install all the code alarms they had purchased from there suppliers.

Next one isn't as long but still funny as hell, a guy from the sales department was doing his own sound system in his brand new pick up truck. He bought all the top quality stuff and pretty much knew everything he needed to, to make a very nice sound system. The box went together good so he wanted to paint the insides of it and put Plexiglas over it to show it off. He had for got that in fact the box was still fresh paint(full of paint fumes) and proceeded to turn on the system, the coils omit a spark when they fire and his box proceeded to blow up from all the fumes that had collected inside it.:laugh:

Please feel free to share your experiences with us also! :wave:


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## SABL (Jul 4, 2008)

:lol::lol::lol:


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## lcurle (Oct 5, 2008)

I was working on a 98 BMW 5 series and the customer wanted a Memphis 10" mojo and a 500 watt amp. The battery was in the trunk and he had a stock headunit so I needed a Line Level Converter. I figured, "easy install" everything is in the trunk. Ran the power and ground to the battery (5min), wire up subwoofer and put in the box (5min) attach LLC (10min), sercure amp in the trunk to the box and attach all the wires(10min) sweet almost done, all I need is a remote wire...you know the signal that tells the amp to turn on. I removed the rear sill plate and proceeded to probe the wires until I found a switched 12v. T-tapped into it, connected the remote wire, and voila done the install in about an hour from start to finish. Backed the car out of the garage, the amp shuts off......***??..pull the car back in...the amp comes on.....perplexed I re-checked all the wire....everything looked fine....backed the car out again.....amp shuts off...The customer was watchin inside at us pull the car in and out multiple times, I went up front and told him were testing the "Slideability" of the box in the trunk, yeah a+ for me.
Long story short I had connected the remote wire to the auto headlights, when it was dark, the headlights were on and the amp was on, take it outside in the sun and the headlights turned off...so did the amp. I found a solid switched 12v source and problem averted.
Phew!


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## Raylo (Feb 12, 2006)

Circa 1984 I installed a Clifford III (one of the first, if not the first, RF wireless fob controlled systems) in my 1978 Firebird T/A. First time... it wasn't a neat install but it worked. A couple years later the brain died and I mailed it off to Clifford to fix or replace. On that system one wire of the siren was connected to +12v and the other to the to the brain which got switched to ground during alarm condition. I don't recall why but when I removed the brain I disconnected the siren wire to the brain in the engine compartment but did not disconnect the +12v wire. It had been that way for a few weeks, no problem... until we went away skiing and I left my car at a friend's parents' house. Somehow that loose wire moved enough to make ground somewhere somehow and the siren went off.... and kept going off for 3 days. No one had cell phones back then so they couldn't call us. The parents were a little clueless... the hood had an external release and alls they had to do was pop the hood and move the wire. But nooooooo. Needless to say I was persona non grata around there for awhile. Oh, those sirens draw such low current the battery was fine and the car started right up. Good thing were weren't gone for a week!


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## jaggerwild (May 21, 2007)

LOL! NICE WORK MAN! I loved the CLifford's, man they gave way too much stuff with each unit. I guess they got bought out now by DEI or so I hear.........


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