Stu @ M Developments

iTrader: (12)

Ive seen some really gruesome installations in my time, and i recall seeing some pretty fooking horrible installs pictured on here... anyone got any pics to hand?

Im having a new Clifford installed by BSC over the next few days and told him i would get some piccies for him to have a smile at...

RichardPON

Cue Christian, and his hot-glued Clifford ECU......

frog

Had an alarm fitted to a Reno 5 a few years ago, driving back from the shop, I got stuck in traffic and suddenly smoke is pouring out of the engine bay

Got out, luckily the fire put itself out

Turns out the loom burnt itself to a crisp, so, after a recovery job, I naturally call the shop and asked them what recourse I had, they were the last ones to dabble with the car's electrics after all...

They tell me that it shouldn't have anything to do with them

A short conversation with an auto electrician later, it turns out that he reckoned the radiator fan got stuck solid as it isn't fused as standard, being sat in traffic for a long time you can imagine what happened... A common problem with those cars apparently .

Nothing wrong with the alarm install then, but still sort of related

I have used the car stereo shop in question ever since and never had to question their workmanship or knowledge
Things aren't always what they seem at first glance.

Dave Henshall

all this tat was ripped from mine when i rationalised the security on mine... 3 seperate imobilsers,,, and 2 alarms FFS?!?!



(more to follow when i get home)

TurboShed

Oh the picture above reminded me, how the hell do you get the steering wheel hub off, I've removed the big nut and have pulled like hell on it but it won't come off. Mine's a Sapphire but I'm sure they can't be much different. What do I have to do???

Oranoco

When I was working on Stu@fordsport's XR2 we decided to remove the proffesionally installed alarm as it was no longer operational. The more I took it apart the worse things got. I found loads of ScotchLocks and even household 2 core wiring for it

Will post pics later as I can't acces Photobucket from work

Graceland

turboshed - remove big nut, crack steering wheel to loosen it off the column, and then put the keys in the ignition and turn to release the steering lock, wheel will come off

Graceland

i found twin and earth on my old runabout sierra for the alarm wiring

TurboShed

Thanks, I'll give that a go.

TurboShed

My Saff has a set of alarm sensors sunk into the dashboard. Yes, someone's used a 10mm bit or there abouts, and sunk the little cylindrical sensors into the dash, must have thought it would look cool but it just looks Pikey

AND they aren't even the set of sensors in use, they were from an old alarm obviously, but if I removed them it would look even worse

Rs Dave

mines playing up atm.... it was fitted by halfords in 2001 its a clifford concept 300 and it constantly goes off through the night every night for the past week and i cnt find any1 who wants to have a look for less than 50 quid an hour i live near chelmsford in essex and cnt affordto leave it unlocked at nite

Dave Henshall

maybe worth buying the clifnet software and dongle, about 50 quid, and you can log and see what is happeneing -

mine when my concept 600 was playing up it was the wiring to the pin switch for the bonnet , a grommet hadnt been used where they had run it through the bulkhead, every time it it rained or was damp the alarm would go off, it took 10 mins to find this out with the software

JamesH

iTrader: (21)

Rs Dave

yea am about to go and check all sensors.... just rang the company that fitted it and their fitting sensor no longer exists.... and another company wants 5o quid and hour just to look at it and they recomended replacing the alarm....

richm

This sorted it out
lots of scotchloks, black tape and not much else... oh - except for the Cat2 certificate

Stu @ M Developments

iTrader: (12)

Loving some of these installations!

Keep em coming folks.. Stu will love these!!

cfoster

I had to remove an alarm out of a Sportrak 4x4 thing to fit a newun, fook me never seen nothing like it! Unfortunately no photos but to give you an idea the wires were looped around the steering column, bare wires were a gnat cock away from the foot pedals, and under the bonnet the numpty had zip tied the bonnet pin wire to a hot water hose!!

richm

Comedy aside for a moment, it is pretty scary how many so-called Cat2 installations there are about, WITH certificates, that are plainly not even close to the required standard.... You buy a car with a certificate of installation, and the first thing you have to do is take it to pieces and fit the system properly!!
When mine was fitted in the Sapph they wanted the car for a whole day minimum, and asked that if possible to have the option of holding on to it overnight.
You read soo many reports of people having problems and saying crap like "clifford (or whoever) are shite.." - 9 times out of 10 it's simply appaling installation that causes the problem.

Stu @ M Developments

iTrader: (12)

Drives me nuts too, it really does... this topic is going to prove what the REAL problem is....

An alarm is ONLY as good as teh installer. End of story.

Most modern alarms are pretty good, and they are all relatively simple devices, what causes problems is the idiots who install to the minimum time possible to get maximum profit instead of to the maximum quality possible for teh customer. The main triggers of most any alarm simply relies on voltage sensing, so your alarm is in essence a large multi input multimeter, and because of this, any tw@ who twists wires together and uses scotchloks and bullets on the signal feeds needs to be sacked and get a job at McDonalds where his skills will be utilised at least 50%

Clifford G series for me, but only if pro installed, and usually that means more than 1 day installation. If your installer seems suspect and likely to rush, you may as well buy something cheap and crap as thats what your clifford will be if installed by a monkey

In Fact, stu collared me earlier and told me "Due to the poor quality of the previous owners install, my car may now not be ready until Friday... So thats THREE days for a decent install... Take note people.

I wonder if Stu would mind me taking a few pics?

RichardPON

My old Clifford was installed by a well known company (at the time).

Let's just say..... power wire, wound together by hand, and cabled tied to hold it tight

Wait till you see Christian's - it'll blow your mind!

Stu @ M Developments

iTrader: (12)

Ive just popped across to Stu's, and grabbed three piccies of my own now the lower dash is out:

One of the old Alarm's ready for Bin... Thankfully, wired ok apparently.


A horrific display of old alarm, stereos, phone kits and add ons....


The new Alarm, soon to be installed PROPERLY.


Reminds me why i hate electrical jobs and tend to fire em over to Stu!!

Christian and Beccy

iTrader: (14)

FPMSL. Where the fook do I start???!!

When I first got the RST it had the original Ford alarm, which decided to have a proper hissy fit the first night I got the car and had to be 'humanely' destroyed (read Tin snips and lump hammer). I then took the car to.....

Norwich In-Car Entertainment

.....who proceeded to rob me of over Ł1000 for a Clifford Concept 600 with all the trimmings (Intellistart/Intellivoice/Wizard etc etc).

Following that I had 3-4 years of problems that I just cannot describe, because I will be here all day.

During this time, my car got Paint strippered, which I am sure was down to a neighbour who had decided that the recurring twin-siren nightly display was too much.

I have lots of pics and lots of letters which went as far as European Sales Managers for Clifford and even the USA, before I got their attention.

Anyway, here are a couple of the highlights......

This is the Wireless Immobiliser. This is one of the 3 factors of the 3-point immobilisation for which Clifford is reknowned......





The sharper amongst you will notice the wires have been bridged and not insulated. Probably because this immobiliser is a little more than a 5 minute job to set-up and as they weren't earning much money out of me and all that!!

Remember that Cliffords Thatcham guidelines state that all wiring connections should be soldered and blue-heatshrunk.

More to follow......

Christian and Beccy

iTrader: (14)

Here is the Tilt/Motion sensor. It is critical that this sensor is fixed down, obviously......



I improved this performance of the alarm NO END by fitting this sensor in a better location and fixing it.

Here are a couple more examples of wiring that was either twisted together or at best soldered, but not insulated......





One Intellivoice Internal Speaker that had red bullet connectors that were loosely fitted. You can see this by the fact that the wires have pulled out. this speaker wasn't fixed down. It was tucked behind a lump of wires......



To be continued.......

BlueSmoke

Stu, is all that crap in that middle pic in your car?

Stu @ M Developments

iTrader: (12)

Sure is jay.. and pretty much every cossie ive ever worked on looks the fooking same behind the dash... horrifying isnt it?!!?

Christian and Beccy

iTrader: (14)

One of the Sirens used to get wet and cause False alarms. I returned the car several times with this complaint and their eventual resolution was to tape a piece of Bubble Wrap, yes thats right BUBBLE WRAP over the Siren opening. That looked lovely. I actually moved the Siren, which I felt was a much nicer solution. However, when I took it off it was broken.....





Not really sure how that happened. I can only think it was because it was prone to water. I actually emptied water out of it.

Anyway, the Finalé is coming up!!!

Christian and Beccy

iTrader: (14)

The following 2 pics show the Alarm ECU's as they were fitted in my car. Clifford state that for Thatcham, the ECU's should be attached. If it was me, I would have made a bracket and bolted them down. Infact that is what I did when we reinstalled the alarm......





You can see in the following pictures what a wiring nightmare it actually was, including the famous 'Hot Glue' used to hold it all together. If a passenger put his/her feet right into the footwell, they could have 'stood' on that lot!! There was a lump of wiring about an inch or more thick going across the car behind the dash that was so rigid you couldn't do anything with it. So when we can to remove the dash to do the Battery tray we had to rip the alarm out anyway......

rsnissan

iTrader: (9)

feck me man i cant beleive that installation didnt cause enough grief to have it ripped out 3-4 weeks later nevermind 3-4 years

Stu @ M Developments

iTrader: (12)

In fooking credible!!

So what did you do in the end Christian?

Christian and Beccy

iTrader: (14)

Also, I wish I had a photo of the many many Fuse holders that took residence beside my Battery. It was comical.

Note also that this was the re-installation after the first time that I made them pull it all out. So this was supposed to be the improved version!

Anyway, I eventually, after much fighting and many many letters managed to get Clifford to inspect the whole thing and replace all the wiring looms. Gary and I reinstalled it. Now the ECU's are BOLTED to the car and the Alarm has its own Fusebox. All sensors are fixed down as they should be.

Anyway, here is the company that did it......

http://www.niceincar.com/

Be sure to show your appreciation!! Clifford tell me that they are their top installer in East Anglia.

dexterc

Im suddenly much more comfortable with my car not having an alarm. Some of that stuff is ridiculous.

Stu @ M Developments

iTrader: (12)

That reminds me of an interesting, and slightly embarassing Story about my sister.... watch this space.

Christian and Beccy

iTrader: (14)

I have to say, we had all the Carpets/Dash/Trim etc out and now its all far far nicer. We added Smart Windows too, so I have one-touch operation. We still have some of the odds and ends to get sorted like Intellistart, but thats a mission in itself with aftermarket management.

Big up Gary for taking it on. NO WAY would I have ever anticipated that on my own.

BlueSmoke

Fookin hell, there's some right eye openers in this thread

Now I know why my old Golf's toad used to go off at all hours. I ended up sleeping with the fob next to me as I could click it from my room without getting up

Neil S

iTrader: (1)

Christian, I remember reading about all that before.

Makes me glad I know a lad who can be trusted 100% with alarm installs.

Given the choice, I'd still rather do it myself (as I'm a tight fooker!), but he takes as much care as I would, and you need the cert for insurance purposes

Stu - I guess the other Stu will be tidying that little lot up too?

Neil.

Stu @ M Developments

iTrader: (12)

Back in our younger days, my Sister and i both had modified Sierras, hers was a pretty mint and well sorted XR4i, anyhow, time came to buy an alarm, and she chose, what at teh time was pretty much, the De'Facto unit.. The Clifford Concept 50.

My sister worked 7 days a week in Morecambe, so being without the car for more than 1 day would be a logistical nightmare as i was dropping her off for work and picking her up again later from Blackpool, so, all we had to do now was find a suitable local installer.

We tried a chap in Blackpool, and he stold us no problem, decent price, but 3 DAYS to install!! Val made her excuses and tried a few other places, turns out that no one else in Blackpool was authorised to do Clifford's0 so she headed further afield, to, i recall, Blackburn...

"No problem luv, can do that in about 4hrs... no problem"
Excellent, car was dropped of, val ferried to work, car collected later that night... simple. What a quality piece of kit it seemed to be too.. apart from the occasional (Hourly) false alarm... "It will need time to bed in" they said, when she complained.. "Bedding in" period ensued.. false alarms continued... (hourly)

Back to Blackburn, day off work... "Fine tuning" is carried out...

Val drives home, outside lane of motorway at, i expect, 70mph clunk, engine stops dead. No ignition....

Coast over to hard shoulder with no power steering....

Car starts again and is fine, for a few days, until.... going to work in Morcambe.. 70mph again, clunk, engine stops dead again.... and theres a burning smell eminating from behind the dash!!

Anyway, cut a LONG story short, it turns out these cowboys have made a hash of the installation and the main circuits are being imobilised live... Val gets onto Clifford HQ and they arrange for her to meet the UK area rep at their nearest appointed Clifford Dealer... hmm.. now wheres that? You guessed it.....

The chap who wanted too long to do the job in teh first place.....

So, the local clifford dealer carefully strips back the cowlings under the watchfull eye of Clifford uk and after some carefull investigation, it transpires that the dealer had actually INTERUPTED teh MAIN Live feed to the Ignition and sent the whole fooking lot through the Clifford, so the poor thing was literally melting inside!!

Once it was concluded this was definately what was wrong, in Front of this dealer and my sister, the Clifford UK chap gets on his mobile, calls this place in Blackburn, asks for the manager and then, in earshot of everyone says "Get all your Clifford stock and point of sale stuff together for collection please, im sending a van across, youve lost your dealership as of this second"

Val got a thousand appologies, Clifford paid this local dealer to install a totally new alarm properly and this local dealer got on very well with Val from then on, even fully understanding why she went elsewhere to start with, we all saw how a job should be done properly and WHY it takes so long to get them 100% right, and, well, one thing led to another and Val married him some 3 years later.

The local dealer in question, is of course, Stu@BSC over the road from me.

RichardPON

That's a cool story - if she hadn't taken it to the shitty place, she might not have married the person she did

bud-weis

sorry but that's how i read it to start with^^^ just one word difference

some shocking stories, i have a mate who does wiring, but it's shocking what you actually pay people to do

richm

What a top story stu!!! funny old world eh!!!

MadMac

God sake I remember that, we spend hours trying to work out if some of the wires were actually connected to things. One of the wires was even earthed on the steering by wrapping the wire round a screw And wires that went absolutely nowhere

Can't really see it to well in this picture but there is all the wiring hanging from the steering and some of it was tucked up





This is all the crap wiring we removed. Steve has the house hold wire in his hand.