What's your biggest car audio facepalm?

[B1GR3DDD]

Thought this would be a funny post for everyone to share your biggest failures while doing any type of car audio work.

Two stupid ones happened to me thus far. Most recently, I helped a friend install a soundstream touchscreen headunit. He has a Volkswagen, so there was a couple things different about his car that made me a little unsure about how the wiring would work out. After getting everything all put together, I gave it the first test turning the car on, and nothing happened. I spent almost 15 minutes trying everything I could think of to get this **** thing to turn on. Eventually, my friend kept pressing the power button, only to realize that it needed to be held in for 2ish seconds to power up. Feeling stupid was an understatement.

Second in my earlier days, I was doing my first amp install on my car. Got everything wired and spent a good amount of time making sure it looked clean and cables ran nicely. Finally turned on the car to see the amp powering up, but no sound whatsoever coming out of the sub. After troubleshooting every wire and connection I made, I eventually figured out that I needed to turn the gain up. Noob move.

Anyone with similar experiences?

Click to read more...

 

[UsAmpsFreak]

I left a drill in a sub box once, sounded like an angry gorilla was trying to beat it's way out. Was pretty hilarious.

 

[adulbrich 5,000+ posts]

With my banda 7k and the 9912Z in my car, I was having bad voltage drop, even though I had a 320 amp alternator and XS D3100. Was dropping in the 10's.

When doing the big 3, I forgot to upgrade the ground wire from engine block to battery, which was 8 gauge //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif

Once I fixed that, I didn't drop below 14v //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[Roland 10+ year member]

Haven't had one with a car system, but troubleshooting a very large aquarium system last month I had a major facepalm. A Electric issue had me testing and replacing some breakers that were in series. Turned off MOST of the power sources (yeah I forgot about the remote pannal) . While I was bypassing the main 100amp 220 volt 3 leg main breaker on the panel in front of me I was treated to some serious fireworks. How I didn't get zapped into tiny pieces, is a mystery. Maybe more of a get down on my knees a thank GOD than a facepalm.

 

[des343 10+ year member]

Had 2 audiopipe 3000d. Was tired one day and it was dark out but I was insistent on doing something idr what but i had things disconnected and when I hooked the power and ground back up I got them crossed and fried one //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif still have it

 

[SimulatedZero 10+ year member]

It was actually on my own car... When I first got it I knew that Nissans interior plastics were brittle so I took extra care, but I had to keep going into the dash for various stuff behind the radio and I ended up shattering part of the radio faceplate in my Pathfinder trying to snap it into place... Still haven't replaced it and now I have rewire things from under the dash if I want to change anything on the radio............

Edit:

I take it back, I just remembered way back when I first got into car audio I tried using the crossovers on my radio. Long story short, my radio got reset and I didn't turn the crossover back on. I demo'd my system for one guy and smoked one of my door speakers.

 

[germanyt 10+ year member]

I put a screw into the amp rack of my old Grand Prix and it went though the sheet metal and into the gas tank. That was a PITA.

 

[wew lad 5,000+ posts]

shorted alternator positive to the alternator case, lots of pretty sparks lol took a small piece of metal out of the alt case but didnt damage anything.

I usually disconnect my batteries now unless im just working with a distro block or swapping an amp. tape up the wire and it shouldn't short.

 

[BoomTaco64]

watching adulbrich try to pull off a build log. lol...//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/dont.gif.ed5870f9483b695f9745036963f41c24.gif

 

[dev199505]

Just recently was so excited about my new sub I dropped it in the box and turned on the stereo to hear the bass and was sad when I didn't hear anything when threw all my amp wiring before pulling the sub and finding out I forgot to connect it

Sent from my Z812 using Tapatalk

 

[Umbra]

I haven't messed up too bad yet. Touched a live power wire to the frame for a fun little spark and had a pair of subs wired out of phase for a bit - got next to no bass.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk