My first Mod gone wrong:
Ok so I decided to change my fog lights on my type s to yellow hids. WELL wasnt really knowledgeable in cars so I brought it to a place to install them. Installation done few weeks later lights turn off completely. Bring it back found a fuse blown. :\ didnt really knew what that ment but ok. NOW that I know they should have checked all the wiring etc. They changed the 10v fuse to a 20v fuse. 2days later y entire electrical system for the fogs, fuse box and entire dash harness blew. Found when I brought it to Acura.
1988.53 (with a 15% discount to fix) && the place is blaming it on the lights. I blame it on theyre laziness, saying theyve been in business for years working on hondas---wouldnt they know why fuses blow. well now i do. smh.

This makes me not want to touch the car ever again. Except for the door visors and roof spoiler that arrived yesterday--but i have no vehicle to put them on, havent had it since last Sunday.

 

That is F'd up. And your installer F'd it up. You don't increase the voltage on a fuse without insuring all the circuitry can handle the extra power.

What they did, instead of fixing the problem (short-circuit or whatever it was), was covered it up by not allowing the fuse to do it's job, which is protecting your wiring from too much current.

You should push them to get your money back. Maybe up to and including filing a suit in Small Claims court.

 

damn, that blows!

hope you get your car back soon

 

Definately is, && I've had the car for 3 months. So depressing. They dont want to pay either because they're saying its not their fault. Clearly it is. So off to court we go.
Luckily having close family friends as lawyers on my side. Praying it all works out well.

 

 

amps, not volts, but yea..good luck definitely the installer's fault on that one. Safer to use relay harness too.

 

Sorry to hear =(

Hope things turn out well =)

 

They are held responsible for the install. you should get all your money back and then some for time loss w/o the car. Keep all records and fuses/parts. Stock wiring is not meant to hold 15 amps. they should've used a relay kit not just connecting ballast/bulbs to stock harness. Where did you get your HIDS from (even though it doesn't matter) someone will ask.

 

I'm sorry to hear this. I agree with others. Take it to court if they do not pay. Have one of your family friends that is an atty write a strongly worded letter. Good luck.

 

Hope you get it resolved.

 

this is why i take caution when i work on any electrical work, but i have experience so i know what im doing

 

Right!! Thanks for the correction.

 

thats fucked up bro...you just cant swap out fuses with diffent AMP rating...

I would take it back and have them refund every single DIME....report this to BBB and see if this gets anything worked out....if not, hit the court....

 

Did you sign any paper work for the work they performed? Sorry to hear about the situation hopefully it will all work out in your favor, keep us updated.

 

mg those mother f'ers!! make them pay.When you're paying for an installation it's because they're supposed to be professionals at what they do. Why pay someone and still take a risk it might get fuked up? I did my own hid fog lights and i just made my own harness with a relay so the harness from the stockies are just laying around within the bumper. that's 120% their fault and should be paying for it.

 

I have never heard anyone messing up a simple install such as a hid fog conversion.....what place did you go to

 

Got them from Ebay; smh never again, although its not the companys fault.


nope; no paperwork was signed. i have many witnesses for payment installation and problem when it happend. not sure if its a good or bad thing.

One Touch Auto Detail in Paterson, NJ. Well now i guess why its called that. One touch & nothing works? :X

Already got a lawyer, they refused to pay more than once. So hopefully the judge is on my side even though the lights were defective. They did cause the problem get as huge as it did.

 

hopefully it works out for you. What the point of even having a fuse if your gonna put one in so big....sort of elminates the whole purpose of a fuse....

 

true true lol, for the stockies harness i believe they're running on a 15 or 10 relay, but on the extra one that i've created since i have the harness pumping 2 55w ballasts for my foggies I put a 30 one and that didnt do shyt to my car. If anything probably it wasnt the fuse that fuked up your car but they probably touched something they werent supposed to touch and didn't tell you anything. Prolly they crossed some wires you never know lol.

 

^^ yeah but usually the solution to a blown fuse is not to put a bigger one in....hahaha..."well shit that must be too small lets throw a 50amp in there I bet it will never blow then!"

 

lol those fuking immatures

@OP: Dude i'm sure this is a win for you if you take it to court. If they can't assure you a good job done. You might as well should've tried to do that job yourself lol. It would be less risky.

 

You said the lights were defective first, were they "defective" because they both didn't turn on or were flickering?

If yes that means they were NOT getting enough power to start up and stay on because the factory wiring couldn't handle it.

The shop put in a bigger fuse (which should NEVER BE DONE) unless you upgrade ALL of the wiring from that fuse forward and back to the batter/distrubition points at the risk of melting a wire and causing a fire.

The shop is at fault for putting a higher amperage fuse 20 Amps instead of 10 Amps and thus caused the harness to be overpowered and "blow".

Take them to court and they will loose. As well you might want to go to the police and tell them of their negligent practices and how fires may start with the work they are doing.

 

Yup! very true. The factory wires couldn't handle my hids when i tried to install them like that at first.

 

Stock Type s fogs come with a 10am fuse. it will blow due to starting amps of the ballasts. One will usually turn on first then the other due to low voltage/high amperage becuz the wire is not made to hold it. A regular Ballast, just 1, pulls anywhere between 6-9 amps at startup to generate the 23000-25000Vdc to light the bulb and then lower amps after the bulb is on.... The fuse blowing the first time was a direct effect of this. They should've installed a relay kit or make one for an extra $10.... Make sure ACURA has documented everything they noticed when they removed everything. and if you call the shop, record the conversation. Have them admit they replaced the fuse with a 20Amp after the factory 10 blew.

 

this is why i let noone touch my car, you cant trust people. this website (acurazine) can teach people alot. ...... I.E. the search function........ is awesome, but time consuming

 

Silly Question but did you take this to Park ave Acura?

 

nope; no paperwork was signed. i have many witnesses for payment installation and problem when it happend. not sure if its a good or bad thing.

Reason i asked is because some companys will say in small ass fine print that they arent liable for damages. I fully agree with most in this thread that you would win this in court. Its BS that they wont take care of it. I may have missed it but what is their reason for not fixing the issue?

 

sucks to read your incident! that is a bummer!

however, i must say i'm trying to figure out how much of a pain in the butt it would be to change out that harness!!!

 

The whole point of the fuse is to protect your electrical system and components. It is designed to trip if to much amperage is running through it. Was this a hole in the wall place, or a reputable shop? Who really changed the fuse??? If it was the shop then they are completely responsible for the damages.

 

live & learn. I wouldn't have taken my car back to them. hope everything works out.

 

you should review these guys on Yelp.

I tried looking for em and I cant find them.

 

any updates ?

 

She got her car back!! After a week & 1/2.
Well Finally the car is done; after a total of 2,031. Now off to small claims court.
I had found out that the ballast for the fogs was the problem because the light didnt turn on and the ballast over heated when i connected it to a battery. So that was the reason for the original 10 amp fuse to be blown. When I brought it back the second time to the shop they should have looked into what caused it instead of just inserting a higher fuse. So it is their fault, Im guessing if they checked it out they would have found something was wrong.


no they just turned off the first time w the 10 amp fuse they found it had blown.

Yea Park Ave Acura in Wayne :|

Well honestly being that they didnt know what they were doing the first time i had brought it to them and what they did caused the major problem i didnt want them touching the car.

 

The ballast doing that now doesn't mean it was the cause. It probably is doing that now due to the low voltage getting to it earlier when the cables were frying and everything overheated. I say the problem was with the increased amperage on the cables due to the HIDS, causing them to burn and eventually short out. This could've been avoided with a relay kit, not changing the fuse to 20 amps when the cable only holds 10. Basically the cables burned insideout within the wireloom and caused other cables to also heat up and melted the insulation which in then probably caused a few shorts in the system. I have 4 sets of HIDS in my TL and am an EE. Blame it on the shop for not increasing the wire size instead they took the easy dumb route an increased your fuse.

 

^^ yea definately. well my dad helped me out went to the shop---maybe because im a female they thought they were going to get one over. but they agreed to a payment plan all the details will be drawn out next week! very excited.

today just put on my door visors at acura and going to do my roof spoiler when i get home from work. but its gona have to sit in the garage for tonite since its supposed to rain!

Glad everything is falling into place when I was having a heart attack of being stuck with the bill <3

 

how much of the bill they covering? Females always get the shaft when they go to a shop... Always bring a male friend or research acurazine first. TRUST ACURAZINE!!!! lol

 

This.

 

Amen brotha !!

 

the whole thing! $2,031 working out a payment plan this Thursday.

 

That's good. Still went thru this headache but it was hopefully a learning expierience. Reseach and if you can't find an answer, you can usually find someone to ask.
<======= hates shops!