Just like the age old “Jam and Cream” debate there is definitely a parallel here…
A Wosson ‘Ere Post all about installation quality
Dare I say it (and don’t shoot me down) but whichever way you choose to assemble your cream tea, in theory, they should taste the same. A parallel can be drawn with vehicle installations, every installer has a different idea of how to achieve a purpose and providing the installation work is carried out to a safe and sustainable standard then in our opinion there is nothing wrong with this. We often look at installations carried out by other reputable installers and although the way they have achieved their goal is very different to how we would have completed the installation we can only praise their thought process, quality of work and end result. But sadly more often than not we see installations that have not been installed to such a good standard, where they have damaged the vehicle and sometimes where the work is simply dangerous!
Our industry seems to suffer from “Have a go Harrys” who have very little knowledge of vehicle electronics and everyone seems to have “a mate who can do it for them” or is a “mechanic” or “electrician”. Vehicle electrical systems are complex, they use multiplexed can bus data networks and the vehicle manufacturers invest lots of time and money making their vehicles as safe to drive as possible. All of which can be compromised very easily when a wire is connected in the wrong place, there is a shoddy cable run or a poor electrical connection. Best case scenario is the new piece of equipment doesn’t function correctly but can quite easily escalate into something more serious such as; damage to the equipment, the vehicle, a dash fire or an injury to an occupant. Let’s face it modern vehicles “don’t come cheap” and the vehicle manufacturers will simply refuse a warranty claim and hand over a hefty bill if their procedures are not followed to the letter.
Here is an example of a dashcam install we saw last week whilst we were fitting a reversing camera to a brand new car. We weren’t told who did the installation but it certainly wasn’t installed with care, the trim had been marked and damaged, excess cabling was stuffed into the dash and the cable had been routed dangerously directly over the curtain airbag!
This method of tucking the cable behind the A Pillar trim has become common place and I suppose you could say “out of sight out of mind” but if the vehicle was involved in an accident then there could be some serious consequences for the person sat in the passenger seat.
It’s probably not a good idea to show a picture of how it should be done as we do not wish to make this a training document for the “Have a go Harrys” out there – after all “a little bit of knowledge is dangerous”. That being said we couldn’t just leave it as it was (and we do want to sleep at night) so the bare minimum we could do was re-route the cable correctly so although the rest of the install was still untidy, it was no longer dangerous.
When it comes to having an aftermarket piece of equipment installed it is often overlooked that the installation is actually more important than the equipment itself so its worth giving careful consideration to who you appoint to conduct the installation. Our advice to every customer is whether you choose us or another company for your installation make sure you go to a professional installer, with a good track record and reputation – ideally a specialist in the product you have chosen.
