Before and after …. Tangled with gatepost few weeks ago …. Great job done by MWBodyworks Bridlington
What Have You Done To Your Van Today?
- Thread starter Daneeyre
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- mod modification mods retrofit
As reported above, back in April, Autoglass fitted a new OEM heated windscreen in the van. TBH, after he had finished the job, everything looked OK and the only thing that it occurred to me to check was that it would heat as required (which it did!). The van was hardly used until I wind forward a few months when we stated off on our last road trip in France a last month. During that trip I only had a couple of incoming calls (wireless Android Auto on a Kenwood DMX8020DABS) and on both occasions the other party couldn’t hear anything from our side but we could hear them clearly enough. TBH, I put it down to them being a couple of coincidences as that sort of thing happens sometimes and promptly forgot about it. However earlier this week, I used the van for the first time since getting home when I went to VW Swindon for a service and whilst on the road, I had a couple of incoming calls and couldn’t be heard on either which is when I realised that there might be a problem. When I got home Mrs AJ reminded me about the calls in France and also that they were almost certainly the first since the new windscreen was fitted and we both came to the conclusion that the Autoglass fitter had probably done something to cause the problem. Just in case, I pulled the stereo out and checked that I hadn’t inadvertently disconnected the mic when I sorted out a buzzing in the dash a couple of weeks ago but found everything looking OK. Absolut5 fitted the stereo about three years ago so I called them and spoke with Noel to ask about a replacement mic. He said they could order one in for me or they were easily available elsewhere and assured me that doing the job was easy enough as long as you took care. On that basis, I ordered a new mic on Wednesday, it arrived yesterday morning and I fitted it last night. For the unitiatied, the job involved taking the centre vent panel out of the dash, unscrewing the stereo, pulling it out, removing the glove box, removing the passenger side grab handle and A pillar followed by taking the old mic out, replacing it with the new one and threading the new cable through the roof lining, down the A Pillar, through the space left by the glove box and through to the back of the stereo. TBH, I was a bit worried about doing the job but took my time and everything came out and went back as it should which was quite remarkable given that I was doing the job. The whole thing took me about an hour compared to the 20 minutes that Noel reckoned (but he’s an expert!).
Anyway, that’s a lot of words to get to the punch line which is that when I got the A Pillar off, the first thing that I saw was the mic cable with a length of bright orange plastic tape wrapped around it and as I started to take it out, it fell apart to show what’s in the picture at the end of the post. It’s pretty obvious that the Autoglass fitter managed to cut the cable when he was doing the job and instead of coming clean decided to just keep quiet and stick the cable out of sight in the hope that there wouldn’t be any comeback – I even suspect that the orange tape was part packaging from the new windscreen. As it’s now over 4 months since he did the work, I reckon he’s right about no comebacks as at this distance Autoglass aren’t likely to accept any blame and the bottom line is now that it’s sorted (at a total cost of under £20), I could do without the aggro of complaining.
The moral is don’t take it for granted that the so called experts at Autoglass will do an expert job when it comes to replacing your windscreen. If anybody from that firm reads this, and wants further information, feel free to PM me.
That break in the wire looks like it was originally wired into a shunt or a wago or even earthed to the subframe behind the A pillar perhaps with it being cut, trimmed and twisted? Unless the AG guy tried to fix it? If he fishwired your old screen out he likely wrenched it off whatever it was on. Where abouts in the A pillar was it roughly? In the top corner? I might be takin the trim off on mine in the coming days. I could have a look see how mines set up.
Glad you sorted it out Ayj #heropoints
It's a microphone and the only thing that you can do with it (at least when it's whole) is plug one end into the appropriate socket on the head unit and talk into the other. It was working before the new window went in and wasn't after. I can't begin to guess how it was done as I don't know what they do to fit the new screen but I suppose I also got lucky in that it was bound together in a loom with a whole load of other cables but that was the only on that got cut - thinking about it now, it was towards the top of the A Pillar and the break may well have been before it got bound to the rest of the cables (ie. just after it came out of the headlining to begin it's downward journey. It's just another one of those things that I will never know..
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I also forgot to say that the first thing that I did in the repair operation was take the head unit out and plug the new mic in to see if it worked - it did so immediately and I then knew that I had to start dismantling to do the job properly. If I had gone through all that only to find that the new mic didn't work either and there was something else causing the problem, I think I might haver topped myself!
Fitted my 305w Victron solar panel to my new roof rack.
Made up 8x aluminium brackets out of 3mm angle. Drilled the brackets, the solar frame and rubber mounts between the bracket and the roof rack. All secured using M8 stainless bolts and nyloc nuts. I've got a 2x size (4x bolts) bracket for the front but couldn't reach to drill the solar frame.
It's offset so I've got storage room on the passenger side (accessible by standing on the passenger sliding door step!) and there's acres of room at the back too! Oh and I've still got access to the channels at the front of the rack too in case I want to mount anything there.
Cables are temporarily ziptied whilst I decide where to route them!
Made up 8x aluminium brackets out of 3mm angle. Drilled the brackets, the solar frame and rubber mounts between the bracket and the roof rack. All secured using M8 stainless bolts and nyloc nuts. I've got a 2x size (4x bolts) bracket for the front but couldn't reach to drill the solar frame.
It's offset so I've got storage room on the passenger side (accessible by standing on the passenger sliding door step!) and there's acres of room at the back too! Oh and I've still got access to the channels at the front of the rack too in case I want to mount anything there.
Cables are temporarily ziptied whilst I decide where to route them!
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I know what you mean. It's still a bit noisy in the back but I did reduce it somewhat. When I glued the floor down I made the mistake of not putting any sikaflex on the tops of the floor ridges, so my floor is resting directly on the metal (which I thought was the idea). It might mean there's now noise being transferred to the floor.
Looking good Chris. It's moved on a bit since I last saw it.
mightythings
Kiwi member
Fitted smoked wind deflectors and a set of Amarok wheels I bought for a bargain (tyres included) and had painted gloss black. Looking mint! Going to remove the racks, cos it’s looking a bit busy now.
Cash?Sold it to WBAV this morning. Really enjoyed being part of the forum.
WBAV don’t deal in cash - bank transfer
Were you happy with the price? I thought you meant @bavHad bought it from you sorry. Glad you got it sold
Finally fitted drivers swivel
Removed the front bumper so I could replace a broken bumper bracket and also removed the fog light that was full of water and dried it then sealed the glass up with a good smear of silicon sealant.
Replaced the front splitter which was removed to have the bumper painted a couple of weeks ago.
Took the opportunity to buff the headlights with PlastRX.
Then I removed the wipers and scuttle and wiper motor and did the sound deadening with dodo hex and dodo noise insulation.
Replaced the front splitter which was removed to have the bumper painted a couple of weeks ago.
Took the opportunity to buff the headlights with PlastRX.
Then I removed the wipers and scuttle and wiper motor and did the sound deadening with dodo hex and dodo noise insulation.
