EpicPopsicle

I bought a 2006 TL about 8 months ago on craigslist for my girlfriend, pretty clean. It's what you would expect for having ~120k miles. The price was good, a little below what others were selling for at the time.

I was in the process of installing a hard wire for a radar detector on the dash. When i started pulling the bottom plastic from the bottom of the dash is when things started looking ugly. There's two black boxes with a bunch of wires that have been spliced into the main wiring harness and the wires are way over sized for what is stock. Everything is held together with electrical tape, no butt connectors at all!!!

One box is an immobilizer override and i'm not sure what the other one is because there's no labels from what i can see, but there's relays taped with electrical tape onto it!!!

I'm not sure what i'm dealing with here so any help is appreciated!

tristann616

Did you run the VIN online? Something may pop up.

Try this: https://www.nicb.org/theft_and_fraud_awareness/vincheck

EpicPopsicle

I tried that website and it came back clean. I think we had a carfax ran on it, but i'm not 100% sure.

guitarplayer16

iTrader: (8)

Could have been for a remote starter?

EpicPopsicle

Maybe it wasn't stolen, I'm just really curious as to what has been done and what the reason was. Is it safe to drive, should i get rid of it, etc.

I do have a clean title for it, it is insured, it has tags.

04WDPSeDaN

iTrader: (1)

Omega IB-H34 (ibh34) Type C Bypass Kit (Fixed Firmware) for

Remote start and or alarm system.

EpicPopsicle

I'm not sure, but who ever did this should not be doing anything electrical. I can't believe how badly this (whatever it is) was installed...

There's a cable with an LED going to the bottom plastic cover under the dash. There's a connector that is poking through it, kind of looks like a headphone jack, but smaller.

EpicPopsicle

What about the huge relays taped to an unknown black box? I would think that a remote start kit would look more contained and not require things to be taped to it.

flyromeo3

You need those relays for remote start.
If the job was done correctly, you would of thought..Wow, I have remote start in my vehicle. Opposed to holy shit, wtf is this mess.


Not going to lie, I saw that picture and almost had a heart attack.
Who ever installed it, I hope is out of business. Takes only a few minutes to tidy up the wiring yet an hour or so to install the remote start.


Sometimes people need to be taken out back.......................and beaten with a stick.
I would definitely see about getting those wires crimped together. Eventually the tape will become loose and expose the wires which will touch something and ..........................you get my drift I hope.


btw....does the remote start work?

EpicPopsicle

I had no idea it even had remote start, it did not come with any additional remotes.

I plan on ripping it out and doing it correctly as this is obviously unsafe. Hopefully I can get some more information as to who the manufacture is so i can get a new remote for it.

Thanks everyone!

aiea_tl

I would agree that it had some sort of auxiliary start function added. Unfortunately, that kind of wiring is still typical of smaller, cheaper shops.