[Mk2] [Turbo] Halfrauds killed my car!

[DAN_REV1_TURBO]

Yeah I suppose I could yack the original sub out and replace it with something new. Dont think I will be getting it from Halfords though!

At the moment if you turn the volume up, and then put a bit of bass on, the speakers distort REALLY bad, to the point where you think theyre gona blow up lol

I`m going back at 12 today and will mention to him what you guys have said.

[Tiamat]

How the hell can you mess up an install? It should be plug and play, I assume its an ISO cable in the back?

As for the terrible sound, do bear in mind they are 13cm speakers, therefore they will not have much bass attached to them.

[DAN_REV1_TURBO]

Well yeah, but to be fair my car has been butchered, thrashed and is taking a long time to get right. Theres always a problem to solve when doing any job on it!

Well yeah thats the thing, why have they fitted the 13cm speakers when I specifically said I want to buy an amp to power some meaty speakers and get a good sound, these 13cm things may as well have been run straight from the headunit and saved me the cash buying the amp.

I need to find a place to customise bits like this for me and make things fit, you would think halfords would be capable of cutting a hole in a doorcard or doing something to fit a larger speaker. They arent even allowed to shorten the wires coming off the amp because theyve had complaints that they havnt been crimped properly So thats why my boot looks like a bowl of spaghetti.

[jasongtr]

i sold some of those speakers on here a little while ago, ok for what they are, but id imagine a powerful head unit would distort them let alone amping them up - they're just not man enough for the job mate.

you can always tell with speakers by the weight of them and these were very light, big weight = big magnets and bigger power capabilities - simple as that really

[Tiamat]

They arent even allowed to shorten the wires coming off the amp because theyve had complaints that they havnt been crimped properly So thats why my boot looks like a bowl of spaghetti.

Thats always fine with me, means it can be reused if necessary, especially if I am paying for it. I got a load of free wire after an professional install on my mate's car, they charged him for the whole reel but didn't use it, made him ask for the rest of the reel as they hadn't used it. Turns out they did, on other cars. So gave my mate (so to me) a whole roll of gold speaker cable.

[madbasshunter]

Take the door trim off and check they have fitted the speaker correctly, it needs to have the back sealed away from the front or the soundwaves from the back will cancel out the soundwaves from the front causing it to sound very poor, here is a pic of how not to fit a 13cm in an mr2

All it needed were mdf adaptors, I am told the halfords fitters training is a DVD !

[Steve-O 2007]

you can always tell with speakers by the weight of them and these were very light, big weight = big magnets and bigger power capabilities - simple as that really

same as batteries, Cheap poundland batteries weigh nothing, Duracells weigh a ton

[DAN_REV1_TURBO]

Yeah just been back and told them to remove the speakers, and they discounted me ten percent on a set of beefy vibes with tweeters, and a sub to mount somewhere behind the passenger seat. Showed him where the fuse was that had blown aswell

But they arent allowed to modify or make any kind of spacer or touch my doorcards or get a bit of mdf and make a mounting point.. So now I have no sounds at all Just need to take it all to a decent audio specialist and have it connected up/spaced/mounted properly. Will be an easy job for them though as all the wires are sorted, amp is mounted and headunit is in. Just needs the speakers fitting properly and job done

So halfords, if you have a newer car and want like for like swaps speakers/headunit, I`m sure they would be fine. But anything that requires just a slight bit of DIY to fit, or use of the human brain they cant do it. Very disapointing, I imagined they would have a bit of workspace out the back with a bit of wood and a jigsaw or whatever for jobs like this. I would have gone somewhere else in the first place if I had realised they arent fully equipped to fit stereos, they do advertise a lot of in car entertainment and make a point of saying `we fit`. Anyway, it`s getting there! Thanks again for the advise people! Very helpful, and now I know which fuse for the alternator, reverse lights and ABS

[madbasshunter]

Yet Autoleads (who Halfords sell) do the Autoleads SAK-2912 mr2 speaker adaptors.
They are bad I have lost count of how many cars have been brought to me to sort out after Halfrauds touched them, even halfords used to ring us at the shop I used to work for to see if they could send cars down, yet I had an interview at halfords to be a fitter last month and never heard back, and they wanted to know if I could hardwire a car they meant reconnect an iso block not run wires round the car I wouldnt trust their wiring I have seen powercables around the door pillars etc and as for new cars, their grasp of canbus leaves a lot to be desired as the bloke who designs and makes the leads found out when he went into our local superstore and asked them some questions !

[mrfil13]

If you want a job doing properly do it yourself

I needed spacers to fit my 6.5" alpines, even had to grind some of the door away

The difference between having a system setup properly and by the muppets at halfords will be massive.

I was lucky enough to borrow a tool to see the sinewaves coming from the amp. Allowed me to setup the gain perfectly so that the HU and amp matched, also i could setup the crossover on the amp for the correct frequency.

[DAN_REV1_TURBO]

If you want a job doing properly do it yourself

[Moo]

I was lucky enough to borrow a tool to see the sinewaves coming from the amp. Allowed me to setup the gain perfectly so that the HU and amp matched, also i could setup the crossover on the amp for the correct frequency.

Do you know of any companies that offer this service? I had an ICE install done by a professional company but the amp gains and crossovers were set up by ear and experience. It sounds good enough but I bet if it was done with one of those tools it would probably sound better. I'm in Newmarket, Suffolk. Have tried searching for somewhere in my area but all the audio and ICE places I've spoken to set things up by ear.

Apologies to the OP for the hijack!

[mrfil13]

Im afraid not, i cant remember what the device is called either.

It was an oscilloscope, not many people will have one, maybe schools i borrowed it off an electrician that used to fix tvs etc. Once i worked out how to switch it on and take a reading it was simple. I found mutiple mp3 tracks which had the frequcancys i wanted and played them through my ipod to try and sort the crossover.

[mrfil13]

How did you get on with the car.

[south_wales_MR2]

This is quite a worrying thing to read:

Just walked down to the car to have a look because I cant rest. Reverse lights will not work still, wires allover the show in the boot and front trunk. I see where the amp has been mounted in the trunk, and a wire coming off either side of the battery to it.

Are you saying that they have run the earth from the battery to the earth on the amplifier? If this is the case then thats a massive NO NO. The earth from the amp should be mounted to a bolt/screw/firm fixing point in the car touching bare metal. This would definitlely cause serious wiring problems in the car.

[madbasshunter]

This is quite a worrying thing to read:

Are you saying that they have run the earth from the battery to the earth on the amplifier? If this is the case then thats a massive NO NO. The earth from the amp should be mounted to a bolt/screw/firm fixing point in the car touching bare metal. This would definitlely cause serious wiring problems in the car.

Why would you say this ?
The battery is the best place to earth the amps to what is the point in the earth going from battery to metalwork and then to the amp The best route is straight back to the battery, obviously on cars with the battery in the front and amps in the boot this isn't always as practical but in the case of an mr2 where the amp is generally over the battery it is ? You want to upgrade the battery to bodywork earth, engine to bodywork earth cables to 0 gauge really anyway as most people put a good cable from the battery to the amp and a good cable from the amp to earth but the earth to battery cable is generally ignored.

[south_wales_MR2]

Sorry what i meant was as opposed to earthing the battery to the original point, but earthed to the amplifier...and no-where else. i.e the whole car earthed to the amplifer

[ryan]

Sound like they couldnt get their head around your car having the original 'active' system, with small amps in the seatbelt reel inclosure and sub in small box behind seat
I had a headunit and auto changer put into my old MR2 9 years ago by halfords, and it did take longer because of the 'active' system already in place.

[DAN_REV1_TURBO]

The lads in Halfords just dont have the skill to do it. Not the younger guys anyway, all they have done is work at Halfords and learnt none of the old skool skills. I can pop off the plastic surround and unscrew the cage and wack in a new headunit if its just plug and play/straight swap, but I dont know what I`m doing with wires allover the place/setting amps up/making speakers fit correctly and sound good. Neither do they lol! Also I dont have the workspace or equipment to do it properly, neither do they! lmao.

They told me they `fit` car audio systems `professionally`. No they dont! It`s false advertising really, they can only do straight SIMPLE swaps. I will NEVER have anything done there again. Should have bought all the kit myself and spent time figuring it out and asking peoples advice and had a go myself, or waited and found a specialist round the leicester area to take it to.

The car is fine no issues, still havnt had the speakers put in properly, havnt had time with xmas and work. I dont think there is an issue with the amp/battery earthing by the way, think it`s all been done ok.

Wont be sorting the speakers for a while now as its into 3S for a few more important jobbies on the 4th

[lightweightbaby]

Glad you got it sorted mate. If they did that to my car though halfords would be feeling my wrath! IMO they should of been straight out asap to sort your car, reckon you could of got a lot more than 10% off!
Ill be getting a new headunit for my car in the next few days, defo wont be getting halfords touch it though!