2020 RAV4 hybrid with Frank

[vwdude]

Long story short, when I first bought my car my wife told me to just pay to have a shop install my system because my time is more valuable with work, my MBA program, and the kids versus the cost of an install.
I went to a reputable shop and went over all of my expectations and what equipment I was bringing and I arranged to leave the car with them for 2 weeks. My plan was for me to build a fiberglass enclosure for my 12” phase linear Aliante, and they were to install a mosconi dsp, dynaudio speakers in front and rear, and use two modern PG amps. All was to run off the factory deck.
After I got the car back it had bugs galore. As I removed panels to find the issues I found corners cut at every step. The shoddy work and considering the amount I paid, this shop should be out of business.

I ended up ripping it all out and starting over. The mosconi dsp ended up being junk, so I swapped it for a helix dsp. Amps are now Frank amp’n Stein and an M100.

[vwdude]

Here are pics of the shoddy work that I discovered...

[vwdude]

And here is my construction of the subwoofer box...

[vwdude]

And now for my current install...

[vwdude]

More...

[vwdude]

And finally...

[vwdude]

The factory head unit was not going to work after all. I couldn’t find a decent aftermarket deck that fit the car well so I ended up buying this Chinese unbranded unit.

The audio out is actually decent, plus it fully integrates with the car features and it looks factory. Of the unbranded Chinese units this one is the most expensive, if that means anything.

[ttocs]

Man that SUCKS you had to pay your money and time/money again. I worked at a few shops and there was only one time I had a customer give me the luxury of leaving it with me for more than a night. We were always on a time crunch to try and get it back to them and when that happens corners sometimes have to be or end up being cut in the rush to finish on time. The uninsulated wire looks like just a quick oversight but the fuse holder, now that is on a different level...

I am wanting to do a nice dsp in my current build and have been leaning towards the helix. You happy with it? What was up with the masconi?

[vwdude]

Yeah, lots of corners were cut. The I insulated wire thing I think you missed the point. They didn’t use butt connectors or solder or any approved method, they stripped it, push the née wire through the strands and then twisted. That’s a method found on Facebook in one of those home craft videos, not an approved method to connect wires. A much simpler option would be to get a reverse harness, solder the new wires to that, and completely avoid damaging the factory wiring harness.

[ttocs]

that type of connection is/was a fairly common wiring connection that I was actually taught to do by DEI/Viper alarm training people. Its called a military splice and they like to use it because soldering can actually cause problems down the road because of the vibrations on what becomes a solid section of wire, and because with no parts/tools needed they can do it in a pinch if they need to. The only thing they forgot was that they need a wire tie on the two wires to hold them together in case they get pulled out. Now with that being said I still preferred to solder or crimp but as I said above I have owned cars long enough that vibrations on soldered wires caused them to break years after they were done.

[vwdude]

Hmm, interesting. Well I am about ethics and if someone is paying thousands for an install you at a minimum let them know what you “had” to do. He had no explanation when I asked why they did that, other than “the factory wiring is aluminum so we couldn’t solder it”.

[ttocs]

there was only one shop that I worked at that actually wanted me to do that type of connection and when I could solder and they did not see, I did.