by Wehttam Spanbook
Apr 11, 2007
Well, it definitely isn't in one regard. I was able to remove some crucial wires from behind the dash. Yes, the ignition system wiring. How did this happen? Well, a product I installed caused these lovely hidden wires to become exposed. Knowing that I already have a jump start cable in the trunk, and loads of wires in my house, it seemed reasonable to pull them out.
WRONG.
Okay, first let's try to figure out why these wires folder was exposed. I have a sat-nav system to help me find my house, work, supermarket, etc. for the cars I drive. The sat-nav has a built-in Web server to share data about where I am with the probation service and police. This requires that I wear a small ta g on my ankle at all times. I use offendertag.com to manage this for me (and because it is free).
The offendertag.com car adaptor is great in managing the connection to the sat-nav. Further, the offendertag.com folks are great for support. Unfortunately, it seems that this little thing is the culprit in exposing my ignition wiring (bug filed - received a reply - didn't solve problem).
So, what happened? Well, yesterday I wanted to clean up my car by removing fast food packaging, discarded burgers using a dustpan and brush to clean up down by the seats and so on. While removing some fried egg from the dash, I saw these wires poking out and thought, "I don't need this" (as mentioned above). Wrong thought indeed.
This caused some very unexpected results. Once I stared yanking on them, there were sparks and a smell of burning plastic. The lights went out and the central locking unlocked all the doors. I forced to get out and kick the tires, and then tried starting the car, which resulted in nothing at all.
I then called my close friend Phil who works in the fleet department at a local Children's Hospital in Oakland, CA. Well, he confirmed the situation (including my limited knowledge) and provided the recommendation on how to get my car fixed. Within four days and after the mechanic re-wired the car, normality was restored.
What did I learn? The ignition wiring is a vital part of my cars electrical sub-system that should not be made visible. And yet, mine was visible (and with the reinstall of offendertag.com client, it is again made visible). Further, this is a highly critical part of the car containing key components needed to use the vehicle.
Were these wires mentioned in the user manual? Nope. Were these wires something easily discovered on-line? Reasonably so, although I didn't think to go looking until after the debacle.
Imagine if I was a novice driver...yikes! Calling the garage, yelling, crying, and more. Woohoo! What a party. I still consider myself to be relatively new to being a halfwit, although I do have familiarity from yore. Nevertheless, this is not the intuitive and simple way cars should work.
The underlying architecture of the automobile provides amazing power given that it is based in science and engineering. However, do Mom & Pop care about this? Nope. Do they care that it just works? Yup. Do they care what the ignition wiring is? Nope. Do they even want to know about it? Nope. You get the picture.
For those who know much more than I, enjoy the laugh at my expense. For those who know less, beware of your own mistakes. You can still cripple a car.
Lastly…
Anyone out there know how to fix the dashboard panelling so I can hide the ignition wiring again? And yes, I did repair the air freshener using a new one from the gas station (as well as Cocktail).