parthiban Posted January 23, 2015 Report Share Posted January 23, 2015 I am meeting Niraj next week in the evening, but unsure which day yet, I will PM you details as & when I know them and if you are free please feel free to join us, possibly at or near the Ace Cafe, or a bit later that night I am meeting a guy off the TypeAccord forum and he is near Cockfosters if that is any better for you, or hook up somewhere in between? Weekdays can sometimes be tricky for me but let me know when you have a date sorted and if I can make it it'll be great to catch up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djwozza Posted January 23, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2015 Do you still drive the IS200? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P4UL T Posted January 23, 2015 Report Share Posted January 23, 2015 I love the OEM look, well done fella 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
parthiban Posted January 23, 2015 Report Share Posted January 23, 2015 Do you still drive the IS200? Yep I've still got the IS. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted January 24, 2015 Report Share Posted January 24, 2015 Is that Niraj from LOC..... If yes he's been off the map for years. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djwozza Posted January 24, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2015 Yes he's a married man these days Tony. Parthiban I've sent you a text Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Posted January 24, 2015 Report Share Posted January 24, 2015 Professional looking install there Wozza, top job 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djwozza Posted January 24, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2015 Cheers buddy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted January 25, 2015 Report Share Posted January 25, 2015 Yes he's a married man these days Tony. Parthiban I've sent you a text He's a nice kid.... If i recall he took a bit of a beating when he first joined LOC due to his odd posts but very soon members realized he just had a great personality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djwozza Posted January 25, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 25, 2015 He's a top fella. Looking back, although things didn't end well on LOC, I made some lifelong friends there such as Gord, Geoffers, Aido, Niraj, Y2Kanjar & yourself, plus I learned a lot about modifying cars, so in the end I gained far more than I lost. Oh & I went to the Nürburgring, put in some decent laps for a ring virgin, & I didn't crash. I did have a few "moments" tho, but that just proves I was trying hard enough..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P4UL T Posted January 25, 2015 Report Share Posted January 25, 2015 He's a top fella. Looking back, although things didn't end well on LOC, I made some lifelong friends there such as Gord, Geoffers, Aido, Niraj, Y2Kanjar & yourself, plus I learned a lot about modifying cars, so in the end I gained far more than I lost. Oh & I went to the Nürburgring, put in some decent laps for a ring virgin, & I didn't crash. I did have a few "moments" tho, but that just proves I was trying hard enough..... Agreed, LOC was great back in the day. Some great meets and shows. Went on three Nurburgring trips as well as the Toyota F1 tour 😃 Met some great people, shame it all went down hill. But everything comes to an end I suppose. (Sorry to take your thread even further off topic Woz) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djwozza Posted January 25, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 25, 2015 I'm just as guilty buddy 😎 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoffers Posted January 25, 2015 Report Share Posted January 25, 2015 Looking great fella! Not enough pics this time though. It's good going through peoples difficulties with them - makes you appreciate the work gone into things. Say hello to Niraj when you see him. Haven't heard from him for years. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon Posted January 26, 2015 Report Share Posted January 26, 2015 Top job mate looking forward to meeting up on the 20th 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djwozza Posted February 17, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2015 So I started tackling another job I haven't had time for recently. The remote controls for the JL Audio Bass Amplifier plus the Audio Control Epicentre we're routed thru to the driver dash cubbyhole. However I obviously wasn't happy with them just sitting loosely inside as they not only looked untidy, but also were difficult to use as they were not anchored in any way so I hatched a plan. £4 worth of eBay black Perspex later & the idea is taking shape.... A quick measure No bandsaw at home so out came the Dremel again and after many test fits a nice snug fit was finally found.... Now it's time to drill some holes. More updates later.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djwozza Posted February 17, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2015 Gloss Black panel in place. Connect up in the daylight tomorrow & that is that job done!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Posted February 17, 2015 Report Share Posted February 17, 2015 Looks good mate and probably the best place to put them as access will be easy. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted February 18, 2015 Report Share Posted February 18, 2015 Good job and stealthy once again. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted February 19, 2015 Report Share Posted February 19, 2015 Woz an i getting this stealth thing all wrong on my car Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djwozza Posted March 25, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 25, 2015 No that's spot on mate, the Old Bill think all cars should look just like it, as do the local chavs..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djwozza Posted March 25, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 25, 2015 Ok so a bit of an update.... As you may well know I have been thru the mill a bit of late on a personal level. Getting this install finished has been the one real positive thing to happen over the last few months. It was with a huge amount of excitement (& indeed expectation) I was looking forward to my first meet of the year, & where several friends from more distant parts of the UK would get a chance to hear the car for the first time. So there I am sitting in the car wash just along from the meet, I only had LBC on the radio during the journey, so I decide to crank it up a bit to get it nicely warmed up for the many demos I was expecting. All seemed fine initially, but as soon as the bass kicked in the sound virtually cut out from the subwoofer AND the front speakers. Honestly you couldn't make it up!!! I visibly checked all the connections, nothing was loose, nor indeed had been actually touched since the install was completed. To say I was crestfallen just doesn't do how i was feeling justice. I was absolutely devastated. No amount of tinkering with the Head Unit could solve the issue, however the rear door speakers were still working absolutely fine. This made no sense whatsoever. Anyway I had a pretty miserable meet, and really couldn't at that stage start to comprehend what could be the issue. The amplifier under my driver seat was working fine for the rear doors, yet my two main ones were BOTH cutting out at the same time. On the way home I had not handsfree bluetooth, nor indeed Sat-Nav guidance as they all function thru the front speaker set up. I pulled over on my way, and was checking again for anything lose, yet forund no issues. Wothout a multimeter to test signals etc my thoughts then turned to the Pioneer Head Unit, maybe it had somehow got in a tiswas, so I did a complete Factory Reset on that hoping to fix the issue, but to no avail. All I did was completely lose all my set up benchmarks for time alignment, navigation, bluetooth and various other bits. Once I got home, for the next 3 weeks I didn't even want to look at the car let alone drive it. I was so utterly fed up, and with finances being tight atm, I didn't even want to contemplate something that could possibly be an expensive fix. Finally I decided to grab the bull by the horns. After much pondering in the armchair, I had narrowed the issue down to the rear battery, or something connected to it. I knew nothing had been touched on the install, I also knew the car was still starting fine, so the front battery must still be ok. 3 things didn't quite add up though. 1). Both AGM Batteries were bought at the same time and are identical. 2). The Amplifier under my seat is connected to the same boot mounted Fused Distribution Block as the other two amplifiers, yet was working perfectly. 3). I install things properly, and for 2 high quality amplifiers to exhibit similar failure at the same time was more than a little coincidental, in fact the chances of it happening at exactly the same time are ridiculously remote. So finally out comes the multimeter & a screwdriver or two to check things over step buy step. Amplifier Terminal connection tightness? Check Turn on signal to amps? Check Power to amplifiers? Check Audio Signal from the Head Unit? Check Battery connections tight? Check Earth? Barely at all. WTF????????? Both boot mounted amplifiers were connected to a huge Earth Block in the boot, then a 0AWG Earth Cable is routed alongside the Power Cable out of the boot, and passes in conduit under the car and up into the engine bay, where it terminates directly to the Battery, which in itself is connected with upgraded earths to the car body, and engine/transmission. Earthing really should never have been any kind of issue. Putting the probe on the ring terminal showed there was a good earth. Now my heqad was beginning to ache. So I checked under the car, but the cables showed no sign of damage to the conduits containing them. The the probe was touched onto the slightly exposed part to the cable end (just under the heat shrink) yet barely had a connection. What??? I had crimped that terminal myself using a pretty big hydraulic crimping tool that would have applied a massive crimping force. This still disn't add up. So off came the heat shrink, and a check again with the meter showed barely an earth at all, so I pulled through a little spare cable, and cut off the terminal. Once again though, there was barely any earth at all in the cable. I stripped back more of the insulation and discovered the nasty truth. As a cost saving excersize I had used 0AG CCA instead of 100% OFC Copper for the Earth Cable run from the boot to the front battery. CCA is Copper Clad Aluminium, and is somewhat cheaper than 100% pure copper. It is aluminium cable strands making up the cable, but it is dipped in copper so 90% or so is aluminium and the outside has a thin layer of copper. As most of the power is used up by the amplifiers, the return earth will have a much easier job carrying the current back to the front battery to complete the circuit. It is used by some people on their installs for the power run too, but you just need to usually go up one gauge on the cable to ensure it can handle the same power safely as 100% OFC Copper, as CCA of the same thickness is rated slightly lower. Anyway saving some cash wouldn't have been any issue at all, exept I seem to have had a bad batch of cable, the aluminium in the cable itself seemed to have oxidised in some way and was corroded to the point of falling apart. Stipping back more of the cable showed it had corroded more than 12" along the cable length, albeit to a lesser extent the furth I stripped back. Basically the entire cable needs to go in the bin, the only problem with itis that it is not readily accessible, and is covered in conduit, so pretty much a full day or at least a few hours will be needed to strip it all out and run a new cable in it's place, along with securing the entire run back in place under the car. The corrosion goes further than I could actually remove, so as a temporary measure, I have cut the cable back as far as I can in the engine bay, and crimped/soldered an new earth ring, but this is only a temporary fix so I have sound again, there is no option when I am feeling up to it, the run must be replaced. I am going to have to try to get a refund on the cable, as it is obviously faulty, but will more likely go for 100% OFC Copper as a replacement. Lightening should never strike in the same place twice, but tbh with the total ball ache of replacing this cable, routing in conduit etc & the time to actually do it, I'm not going to tempt fate. At least the car is back with proper sounds again, and has improved my mood quite considerably. Those of you wondering why the amplifier under my seat which powers the rear doors was still working fine? Answer: this amplifier runs a seperate earth under my seat to the chassis. Anyway after all that, who wants to see some pictures? 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djwozza Posted March 25, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 25, 2015 Just a couple I haven't posted up before..... Here is my Alpine Freeview DVB-T TV Tuner, underneath the front passenger seat Finished & time for the seat to go back in This is the driver door card getting a thin layer of CCF (the black stuff) used a a decoupler to help prevent any vibration from the door itself against the door card. Similarly on the passenger doorcard. Notice the black square at the rear. This chunky bit of paper mache (left end) was removed from the door cards so the inner door skin could be sealed up but the inner skin covering of silent coat to provide a proper sealed enclosure for the speaker within the door itself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djwozza Posted March 25, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 25, 2015 More Silent Coat, this is on the front & rear doors, this particular picture shows the inside of the very outer door skin. Applying the inner door skin with silent coat The finished door panel prior to the door car being replaced. Note the crossover mounted above the speaker, and the Foam F.A.S.T Ring around the speaker itself. This provides a seal so all the speaker output goes thru the door grill and into the car, rather than some of it lost to inside the door card etc. MDF mounts are hidden uner the foam. Explanation of the F.A.S.T Rings here and more info/pics here Apologies for lack of pictures for the final parts of the install, but getting the car finished was the priority and time was a factor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Posted March 25, 2015 Report Share Posted March 25, 2015 That must've been so disheartening when the sound stopped but well done for finding the problem. It sounds like it's not worth chancing it with the cheaper cable again, I would definitely go with the OFC this time. I can't see the photos, work blocks photobucket so I'll look later 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djwozza Posted March 25, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 25, 2015 I was just unlucky with a dodgy batch, I wouldn't have used it at all if I felt it wasn't up to the job, so just a bit of bad luck really. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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