ulemon
Junior Member
Part 1/2 (This is a long read, and is also a rant but I seriously need some help/opinions about this)
So I bought the car in October 2019 - Its a 2013 RAM 1500 Tradesman with 150k miles as of right now (I bought with 139k)
It came with the 5 inch small stereo and after 2 months (December 2019) I thought I would treat myself to a nice stereo. I thought it was best to take it to a shop since I didn't know much about installing stereos. A shop will probably do a much better job than me. I went to best buy and talked to some teenager about installing some things and to be honest he had NO idea what he was talking about - I really was not confident in him and therefore I chose to call a place that specialized in stereo installs and tints. The shop sounded like they knew what they were doing over the phone so I went ahead and purchased a rear camera, stereo and remote start for about double what best buy would have charged me - I figured it was worth the extra since this shop specialized in radio installs, had 4.3/5.0 stars on google with 100+ ratings (DMH-C2500NEX, they charged me $600 + installation…. Best buy has it for $300). Well turns out they were complete ******* ****** and I had so many basic issues right from the start. The reverse camera disconnected twice - had to take it back but they fixed it. Then I asked them if they could have the center console USB work since they initially routed the USB apple car play to the glove box. They initially said no, I asked if there was an adapter that could make it work on 3 separate occasions and they said it might exist but they didn't know, so I said whatever just route a cable to the center console. They ******* drilled a hole in the CD player tray to route the cable to the center console and said it was good to go. I never approved them to drill a hole down there but whatever... Then I explained that when I said I wanted the USB to be routed to the center console I meant for it to be where the factory USB connection was. They did that by smashing out the factory system, drilling a few holes and had a cable loose hanging out of what they smashed out and drilled (it was so embarrassing to look at...). I explained that it should at least probably be secured in some way, possibly using glue or something. They said they could hot glue it, to which I explained I'm not sure if that would hold up during summer heat in the Boise, Idaho desert. Hot glue... we went with a better 2 part epoxy glue, but whatever the glue isn't the issue (but it still looked embarassing). Oh and by the way, turns out there is an adapter, which I found out a year and half after having the shop do the install. The reason I took my car to a shop was so I could have someone who would know these kind of things, now I am wondering why after asking several times I did not get a straight answer from them.
Now I had everything somewhat correct - USB (and aux) routed to the center console, remote start worked (VIPER 5902 system I think) and all is well. Actually not so much, a month after the install I decided to use the radio. Worked great for about 40 seconds then cut out, then worked great for 40 second then cut out. I thought there must be an issue with the antenna. I took it back to them and explain the issue. They looked at it and couldn't figure it out. They said 'it's supposed to be like that', 'sometimes it just does that, after market stereos aren't as good as factory'. 'My car does that too'. I rejected that something as simple as the radio wouldn't work and that they should look at the antenna. They replaced the adapter twice and the issue persisted. I explained that we were going to fix this one way or the other and I would not accept that the radio doesn't work. The shop owner asks 'Well what do you want me to do!? I don't know what's wrong with it' so I explained that I can buy some of the antenna parts and figure out which part of the system is not working. One thing they offered to do was to put a new radio in the car to see if that fixes the issue, I said okay we can try. Two employees looked in the storage room for about 5 minutes then I heard ‘no no not that one, lets just give him this one…’ They came out with a cheaper version of my stereo. And I had to firmly but politely explain they will not be putting that one in because it’s a cheaper version. They seemed upset that I would not let them put a cheaper version of my stereo in. At this point its becoming insulting. Any way I worked with the employee and we pulled out the radio and attached the antenna directly. It worked! So I picked up the parts to replace the factory antenna, at this point the owner sent me to some other shop to install the new OEM antenna equipment. At this different place, which accepts some work from the original shop the guy starts replacing the antenna from the outside and works his way in, getting finally to the back of the stereo and finds that for some reason, the Radio's antenna input is connected to the satellite radio antenna. He says: 'Oh... I'm sorry man. If I had known this is what they did I would have started here...' - I explained it wasn't his fault that the other shop did this and I'm just glad to have it fixed. He explained that the yellow connector is for Satellite radio and the gray one was for the AM/FM antenna. He connected the correct antenna and it stopped cutting in and out.
So I bought the car in October 2019 - Its a 2013 RAM 1500 Tradesman with 150k miles as of right now (I bought with 139k)
It came with the 5 inch small stereo and after 2 months (December 2019) I thought I would treat myself to a nice stereo. I thought it was best to take it to a shop since I didn't know much about installing stereos. A shop will probably do a much better job than me. I went to best buy and talked to some teenager about installing some things and to be honest he had NO idea what he was talking about - I really was not confident in him and therefore I chose to call a place that specialized in stereo installs and tints. The shop sounded like they knew what they were doing over the phone so I went ahead and purchased a rear camera, stereo and remote start for about double what best buy would have charged me - I figured it was worth the extra since this shop specialized in radio installs, had 4.3/5.0 stars on google with 100+ ratings (DMH-C2500NEX, they charged me $600 + installation…. Best buy has it for $300). Well turns out they were complete ******* ****** and I had so many basic issues right from the start. The reverse camera disconnected twice - had to take it back but they fixed it. Then I asked them if they could have the center console USB work since they initially routed the USB apple car play to the glove box. They initially said no, I asked if there was an adapter that could make it work on 3 separate occasions and they said it might exist but they didn't know, so I said whatever just route a cable to the center console. They ******* drilled a hole in the CD player tray to route the cable to the center console and said it was good to go. I never approved them to drill a hole down there but whatever... Then I explained that when I said I wanted the USB to be routed to the center console I meant for it to be where the factory USB connection was. They did that by smashing out the factory system, drilling a few holes and had a cable loose hanging out of what they smashed out and drilled (it was so embarrassing to look at...). I explained that it should at least probably be secured in some way, possibly using glue or something. They said they could hot glue it, to which I explained I'm not sure if that would hold up during summer heat in the Boise, Idaho desert. Hot glue... we went with a better 2 part epoxy glue, but whatever the glue isn't the issue (but it still looked embarassing). Oh and by the way, turns out there is an adapter, which I found out a year and half after having the shop do the install. The reason I took my car to a shop was so I could have someone who would know these kind of things, now I am wondering why after asking several times I did not get a straight answer from them.
Now I had everything somewhat correct - USB (and aux) routed to the center console, remote start worked (VIPER 5902 system I think) and all is well. Actually not so much, a month after the install I decided to use the radio. Worked great for about 40 seconds then cut out, then worked great for 40 second then cut out. I thought there must be an issue with the antenna. I took it back to them and explain the issue. They looked at it and couldn't figure it out. They said 'it's supposed to be like that', 'sometimes it just does that, after market stereos aren't as good as factory'. 'My car does that too'. I rejected that something as simple as the radio wouldn't work and that they should look at the antenna. They replaced the adapter twice and the issue persisted. I explained that we were going to fix this one way or the other and I would not accept that the radio doesn't work. The shop owner asks 'Well what do you want me to do!? I don't know what's wrong with it' so I explained that I can buy some of the antenna parts and figure out which part of the system is not working. One thing they offered to do was to put a new radio in the car to see if that fixes the issue, I said okay we can try. Two employees looked in the storage room for about 5 minutes then I heard ‘no no not that one, lets just give him this one…’ They came out with a cheaper version of my stereo. And I had to firmly but politely explain they will not be putting that one in because it’s a cheaper version. They seemed upset that I would not let them put a cheaper version of my stereo in. At this point its becoming insulting. Any way I worked with the employee and we pulled out the radio and attached the antenna directly. It worked! So I picked up the parts to replace the factory antenna, at this point the owner sent me to some other shop to install the new OEM antenna equipment. At this different place, which accepts some work from the original shop the guy starts replacing the antenna from the outside and works his way in, getting finally to the back of the stereo and finds that for some reason, the Radio's antenna input is connected to the satellite radio antenna. He says: 'Oh... I'm sorry man. If I had known this is what they did I would have started here...' - I explained it wasn't his fault that the other shop did this and I'm just glad to have it fixed. He explained that the yellow connector is for Satellite radio and the gray one was for the AM/FM antenna. He connected the correct antenna and it stopped cutting in and out.
Last edited: