Blog update 22/10/2010
Last night after much connecting and disconnecting of the battery and swearing at it, one of the convertibles came back to life. Now that’s remarkably handy as otherwise I would have had to get up at some ridiculous hour to drive the wife to work. First thing this morning it started a dream and I went back to sleep happy knowing that whatever this mystery gremlin was, it had left the wifeys car for a bit.
However, soon after she left, I got woken up by the phone ringing and an upset voice. The stereo isn’t working. No idea what I was dreaming of, but pretty sure it was more important than learning the wife couldn’t listen to a Gobshite Andre CD on her way to work. So I mumbled something probably offensive in most civilised societies and rang off.
A little while later I figured I should get out of bed and do something. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no Jeremy Kyle candidate, I work for myself so the hours are pretty flexible, I study in the evenings and I’m a stay at home Dad during the day too. Most stuff is done somewhere between 11am and 2pm depending what time the little un gets put for a nap.
Anyway, I decided to spend a bit of time googling this damn alarm problem. After a bit of time between drinking coffee and mailing sponsors, I figured that this is actually quite a common problem with Fords. There are realistically 2 solutions to it; a) take out the alarm control which is in a reasonably accessible place (but I’m not telling you where), or b) replace the module in the drivers door behind the door card. The first option appealed as a reasonable temporary fix so I followed the advice that I had found, and the 2 wires I need to disconnect could be any of about 30 in that one spot and as I don’t know too much about this sort of thing, I figured we would go for a proper fix. So I put the panel back and peeled away the door card. You may remember that door card as the one I’ve only just put back on.
With the door card off, I’ve peeled away the sound insulation, followed the firm bar to where it meets with the module and stopped. How the hell do I get that bad boy out? Gonna take a bit of figuring out, so time for another coffee. I went indoors just as UPS arrived delivering me my new subwoofer with enclosure. Woohoo. Playtime. Boooo, not playtime. Baby woke up.
An hour or so later, wifey arrived home grumbling how horrible it was that she couldn’t sing along to Dolly Parton on her drive home and what had I done to her CD player as there wasn’t any sign of life at all. Figuring it must be some sort of Panasonic anti-theft system as the battery had been off for some time, I proceeded to gut the office, kitchen and front room trying to find the stereo manual with the all important unlock codes. Then it dawned on me that that was a complete waste of time as it’s a face off and they generally don’t have the security code system. Time for another coffee.
With a fresh approach in mind, I opened her car door, turned to ignition on, then tried the “POWER” button. Magically it worked. I had assumed that Mrs Me would have tried that first so I hadn’t bothered to try it. Grrr.
By now, it was way past 4 o’clock so to get some parts sorted and fitted was looking slim but I figured I’d give it a go. There’s a breakers not too far away called “Ring and Bring” and the guy that answered the phone said pop down, bring a couple screwdrivers, there’s a P-reg escort there. So that’s going to be a permanent fix for one, just got to find another escort being broken down for the second. I’m aiming to collect the module tomorrow and get it fitted within a few days.
Right – so wifeys car good to go, time to get the important bits done. I know the amp was for the front speakers but it now looks so pretty bolted to the back of the sub enclosure so may need to get another amp. The sub is linked in by a mono wiring setup and I’ve just got to pick up some RCA leads, a power wire, fused switch and a grounding cable. Then it’s going in the scumrunner.
Another mini hurdle yesterday that I forgot about was that the bonnet stay fell off. I have to balance it carefully each time I go under there now as it’s already closed from full height onto my hand once.
Unfortunately at the moment, my internet is off so I am typing this into word and hope to be able to cut and paste this. I only mention it in case the fonts look a little wrong.
Hopefully tomorrow is going to yield a fix for the alarm system, some power cables for the sounds and a few more sponsors. I’ve started preparing the initial graphics to go on with details of how to sponsor us but got to get it just right I feel.
Hmmmm, an early ish night is called for. But I will have one last attempt at turning the modem on and off again.
************************************It's now tomorrow...
I had a good go at feeding the speaker cabling from the amp in the boot through to the front footwell and have come across a bit of a problem in that how do I get the new speaker wire through the cluster of cables and the rubbery hose into the door pod. May just wire it to the basic cabling behind the stereo and accept the lack of quality cable. But that'd be the simple way of doing things. Instead, I've just been on the bay again and purchased a slightly lesser set of speakers to grace the front, and I'll put the original replacements into the back.
Yet again, the door card is coming off. Had a swift look on the forums to see how to replace the rear speakers and the back card has to come off and thats only accessible by removing the bench seat, so lets see how entertaining that is. But the theory now is to have the amp power sent to the sub and rears and just upgrade the fronts and hope they can draw enough from the head unit to sound half sensible.
Well, I'm still having no joy in terms of the alarm system, so I've given up with the google way of life and hunted down a Haynes manual for a bargain £5 including delivery. Gotta love eBay - Thanks again Keith if you're reading this.
Loads to do, so I'm off for a bit. Updates coming in a while as I get to grips with the alarm / immobiliser.
Savage.
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