I came across this today and it got me wondering.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/31/man- ... stall-gon/

I installed my own unit but after reading this, I'm wondering "what constitutes a fire hazard?

I used a aftermarket wiring harness and used butt connectors to connect the D3's harness to them. I also had wrapped the connections with electrical tape as well. There really wasn't any splicing other than the VSS speed wire, and I did CUT and reconnected a ground and line for the SWI-PS adapter (again using butt connectors and a little bit of soldering for the resistor (And again wrapped around in electrical tape). Should I have anything to worry about?

I'm not going to get into the smaller details about that story but...

No, you shouldnt worry about anything, and neither should the owner of that vehicle. A lot of times dealerships see aftermarket equipment and freak out because they dont get it or are trying to make a buck. If done properly, you should never worry about a fire hazard, your car isnt going to burst into flames from adding a D3

as long as you didnt hack up your car and are sure of all your connections you will be ok. i have seen cars that have caught on fire some from circuit city some from best buy and other local shops. mainly burnt modules from alarm remote start installs that melted all wires together. the most expensive one i have seen, again from circuit city was a 15,000$ claim on a honda crv where the installer not only fried the imobilizer system but the parking light, alarm, bcm and ecu(i'm assuming chain reaction). the short that he caused melted the ecu and bcm wires together so that all needed replaced. while pushing the car out he also broke off the sideview mirror. this was about 4 yrs ago but still the joke of the installers around our area.

Yeah, I'm sure Circuit City did a shitty install. But causing $12,000 in damage? no. That is just the Honda dealership blowing things way out of proportion.

Ya, half that amount looks to be labor. You could re-build the whole car in that many labor hours. Wow

I guarantee you they disassembled the entire dash just to replace the piece of heater duct the guys melted with the heat gun. Probably where most of the labor went.

And why do they even mention that they installed the GPS antenna on the inside of the car instead of the outside? That doesn't matter one bit. In most cases, it's just as good, and sometimes better.

I guarantee you they disassembled the entire dash just to replace the piece of heater duct the guys melted with the heat gun. Probably where most of the labor went.

 

And why do they even mention that they installed the GPS antenna on the inside of the car instead of the outside? That doesn't matter one bit. In most cases, it's just as good, and sometimes better.

Especially since in some honda/acuras the factory gps antenna is inside the vehicle....

i am the last person to defend circuit city. but i will say that i know how car dealerships are, and if they see anything aftermarket, or any wires tapped into, they act like its the end of the world. im sure circuit city did a poor install, but 12k? thats half the price of the whole car. did they blow the motor and trans too? that number is ridiculous. and by the way, ive seen plenty of cars roll into the shop that i really dont understand how they are not on fire, because things are done so badly. so i dont think any of you have to worry. you really have to do some outrageous stuff to start an actual fire. ive seen 4ga power wire running across a fan belt with no fuse. and a battery that was too tall for the car, and the hood was hitting the terminals. and neither of those cars were on fire.(yet)