I've now done two do-it-yourself repair projects.......and I think what you see can best be described as "Beetle juice." :-) It looks like screws, bolts, grommets, wire harnesses, and Barbie-pink radiator fluid!
I want to applaud Zach for being so patient, waiting for this post, because back in March he helped me with project #1: ripping out my defunct aftermarket stereo system (I think I fried it in the hot hot summer down in Mississippi), and installing a new iPod adaptable MP3 player system.
I've been meaning to post about it, but I figured to wait until after I got the news that I'd have project #2 to complete as well: replacing a badly corroded radiator. That was completed today!!
Alas, this is part 1 of a 2-series posting, covering the two major surgeries I've performed. I'd like to think I'm following in the path of a typical person that works in the automotive industry: practicing for my work, outside of work. :-)
The series begin here..........
Surgery #1:
It all started with the light display on my aftermarket Blaupunkt CD player. Every time I'd initially turn the car on and drive around, the light display would start to flicker. Within 5 minutes, the display would entirely burn out. This meant I could not see what radio station I was currently tuned into, nor which track on the CD was playing. The stereo still worked, but it was just a nuisance. And when you're obsessed and identified with your car as much as I am, it was a HUGE nuisance. :-(
[BEFORE: The in-panel I've had since I was in high school, with a Blaupunkt San Diego CD32 stereo system. I loved it.]During one of my visits to Zach's house in January, we pulled the stereo out to check its circuit board. Perhaps it was fried? We figured the programming wasn't right anymore because a metal chip on the board melted or something. Well, we pulled it all out, unscrewed the plastic garnish, poked at the exposed circuit board, and found no root cause. We popped the stereo back in the car, and I started price-shopping for a new product, surrendering to just cut my losses and replace the whole thing.
I was a very pleased Blaupunkt customer, so I knew I wanted to buy from them again. Besides, I wanted the German stereo brand to match the fact that it is a German car. Hee hee. :-)
I settled on buying a straight AM/FM/MP3 player. It does not have any cassette or CD player. Your only choices are to listen to the AM/FM radio, or to plug in an MP3 player. But for me, this was great!! Think about it, now that 'iPod' is as household of a name as is 'pizza cutter,' any CD I'd want to listen to, I've got electronically filed on my iPod. So instead of storing clunky plastic CD cases in the pockets of my car doors, or in my glove box, and having to change them out WHILE driving down the road........I just have all the CDs neatly filed on one itty bitty iPod, where all I have to do is scroll with my right index finger to play them. So clean. No clutter. :-) :-) And that is Ashley's favorite! No clutter.
So, on one fine Saturday in March when Zach came to visit, we pried open the in-panel of the Beetle and wired down and through the center console, a cord that plugs into the base of my iPod. The cord is long and discrete enough that the iPod happens to lay on the console right between the two front seats while plugged in. This makes for close and easy access to your hands, instead of reaching forward towards the in-panel.
We could have plugged the new Blaupunkt box right into the in-panel, because the same electrical harness could have been used. (Since we were just swapping from one Blaupunkt to the next.) However, upon pulling out the old Blaupunkt, we discovered the root cause: a crappy, "professional" wiring job where the wiring harnesses were only crimped together. (Thank you to the Green Bay electronics store I took this to, which I'll respectfully not name here.) After years and years of driving, squeaks and rattles, bumpy roads.....one of the plastic crimps actually bit down and completely SEVERED its own wire! This wire must have been the one that dictated the light display, causing it to flicker. When/if the exposed metal at the two severed ends would bump and tip into each other to complete the circuit again, I'd see the stereo light up. But as soon as I'd start going down the road, the wire tips would jitter away from one another, so I'd see the stereo go dark. Make sense?
[ROOT CAUSE: Picture of the wiring harness we pulled out of the Beetle. See the two light blue wires protruding up from the lower left corner of the picture and ending in the center of the picture? Yeah, they're supposed to be piggy-backed TOGETHER inside the clear crimp. The top blue wire is the one that was chomped down on and severed.]This meant we had to create our own new wiring harness, after all. Zach let me play, by providing a soldering kit, heat shrinking kit, and wire-cutting kit. :-) Here are pictures of me in some soldering action, as well as holding the completed product:
[Look! So nice and clean. So streamlined!! Thank you Zach for helping me do this the RIGHT way! Much more secure and stable to solder the wires together, rather than simply weave and crimp them into one another.]
[Proudly holding up my finished product.]
[On the left: the rat's nest of a wiring job the "professionals" did back in Green Bay years ago. On the right: the wiring job Zach and I did on our DIY (do-it-yourself) wiring. Booyah!!]Side rant: I'm glad I'm stepping it up to learn more and more on how to handle my own car maintenance, because these projects have caused me to unveil some deep dark chinsy secrets on my car that the "professionals" cut corners on.
With this project, I realized we had to remove the heated-seat control unit from the bottom of the in-panel, to get our hands inside to work. I always noticed how this control unit hung like a loose baby tooth, like it wasn't screwed in all the way.
When Zach and I removed it, all of this fractured plastic and sheared screws immediately came tumbling down!
What you get when you hand your car over to "professionals." NO WONDER why the control unit felt like a dangling loose tooth! These parts in my hand were supposed to be the ones holding the whole thing up!!! Can you tell I'm disgruntled?!It turns out that this Green Bay electronics store really reefed on my car during their install job, and completely broke off the screws and clips that were intended to hold that control unit up. Hrmph.
Zach and I did some rearranging though, found two new screws, and upon re-installation, screwed the control unit back on nice and snug. She doesn't go anywhere now! And I love it. Before, you don't know how many times I'd be driving down the road and I'd reach my hand down to the unit and wiggle on it, just because it bugged me how it was not attached all the way. I'm paranoid, I know. :-)
Anyway, we tucked all of our wires in, popped the Blaupunkt box in, placed the faceplates on, closed up the in-panel, and brought the Beetle back to life by trying to turn her on and play the radio. After only one trial-and-error where we had to pull the stereo out and double-check a wire, we had success!! All speakers throughout the car projected sound, all buttons on the radio's faceplate were functoinal, the lighted display was beautiful, it recognized my iPod, and the remote control the system came with, even worked.
Zach, thank you so much for your help, guidance, and patience on this project. It was probably one of the most productive Saturdays I have had in awhile, working on that project with you. I think we make a solid, compatible team. How rewarding!!!!
Here are the end result photos:
[My new in-panel, with a Blaupunkt Brisbane MP3 player.]
Zach and I did some rearranging though, found two new screws, and upon re-installation, screwed the control unit back on nice and snug. She doesn't go anywhere now! And I love it. Before, you don't know how many times I'd be driving down the road and I'd reach my hand down to the unit and wiggle on it, just because it bugged me how it was not attached all the way. I'm paranoid, I know. :-)
Anyway, we tucked all of our wires in, popped the Blaupunkt box in, placed the faceplates on, closed up the in-panel, and brought the Beetle back to life by trying to turn her on and play the radio. After only one trial-and-error where we had to pull the stereo out and double-check a wire, we had success!! All speakers throughout the car projected sound, all buttons on the radio's faceplate were functoinal, the lighted display was beautiful, it recognized my iPod, and the remote control the system came with, even worked.
Zach, thank you so much for your help, guidance, and patience on this project. It was probably one of the most productive Saturdays I have had in awhile, working on that project with you. I think we make a solid, compatible team. How rewarding!!!!
Here are the end result photos:
[My new in-panel, with a Blaupunkt Brisbane MP3 player.]
[All lit up at night!] This little guy does everything! It comes with a remote control (which is so honky-tonk fancy for me, I have never used it), it allows you to custom-name any aux/MP3 player you plug into the car (so we set it up for the display to read "IPOD" when my iPod gets plugged in), and you can even do this color scan thing where you can choose WHAT nighttime display color you'd like, out of 4096 colors in a spectrum! GEEZ. How do you think I did in the picture here? My goal was to match the purple-blue lights in the driver's instrument panel (or "combi-meter," as it is called in the car world).
CONCLUSION: I am one happy, satisfied customer again. The Beetle and I have had many pleasant drives into work and about town, cruising with some new tunes and the windows opened up. It has been gleefully convenient and cool to just think of a random song I'd like to hear, and be able to reach down and find it on my iPod to start playing it. I used to have to wait until I got back home to pull the song up, if I even remembered at that point, since it was a song not within my stash of 12 CDs crammed in the crevices of my car's interior. :-(
That is the case no longer - the Beetle is back up to speed and makes me feel even more spellbound by her. It's been 7 years with her and I still look at her like it is the first day I've ever laid eyes on her. :-)
*Insert sigh here* I love this car. I have a love for her that we as people typically have for one another. She's always there for me, so loyal, and matches my mood and taste all the time. That's a lot to pin on a car, I know. But this car.....something about this car and its styling, just makes it feel alive to me. :-) She listens to the same music as me, or even just listens to me when I've had a long day (and never interrupts, imagine that! Ha ha), likes the windows down, wants to go for joyrides, and understands my mood as soon as I wrap my hands around her steering wheel for a hug. I don't even have to open my mouth and explain a damn thing about the tornado of thoughts whirling through my head. She just sucks it up, instantly understands, and begs to start driving it off.
We've been through a LOT together and she has caught all of the stress and growing up I often just suck up and keep to myself. (If this car could talk.....hoa boy!) :-) The Beetle has been there with me through it all, so I'm humbled to be able to give back to her like this.
Alright - enough being sappy and freaking you all out that I'm some space-case flower child hippy! Time to go take care of other things. :-)
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