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^ Yep, just check around at your local retail-chain automotive parts stores.
In certain areas, certain chains will have them - and in others, they won't. :roll: Don't know why, but that's just been my experience.
Hit all the usual suspects - Adavance Auto, Murray's Discount Auto, Pep Boys, NAPA, AutoZone, etc. You'll find it. :)
It's so easy, a caveman can do it. :lol:
All I needed was an add a fuse, screwdriver, wire splicer, and guts to take the interior trim apart.
You might find this useful
http://blog.fiascofarm.com/2007/04/0...ice-hard-wire/
Theirs alot of newcomers on this thread :lol:
I wouldn't dare let best buy touch my car. They broke my Air condition vent front panel back in the day and wouldn't take responsibility for it. Of course the guy that broke it didn't want to get fired so he said it was already like that. It ended up costing me $75.00 out of my own pocket to replace it . I do everything myself now days cause most people don't respect what they don't own themselves.Quote:
Originally Posted by atruelunatic
Ask me some Questions..... I'd rather help you then for you to take your car there. All of us would be glad to walk you through it step by step (free). It's very easy.... Trust me....
Plus on your next car you'll feel more confident and just do it yourself without any issues.
x2. best buy techs are douche bags for the most part. there's always the exception, but the last time they touched my car they cracked a dash piece.Quote:
Originally Posted by Orbital75
just do it yourself.
This reminds me I was having a problem hardwiring it (9500i) to the fuse box on my 2000 Buick Century before I took it into the shop (ABS problem, not electrical related).
I went to Advance Auto Parts, bought the Add-A-Fuse (part is identical to the picture shown a few replies back). The problem is that it comes with the annoying crimper ending and the SmartCord comes with a male spade ending.
To fix this problem I just cut both wire endings, tinned them, and soldered them together and insulated it with red electrical tape. So now the SmartCord and Add-A-Fuse are fused together as one wire.
Following that, I plugged it into my CIG LIGHTER fuse slot (rated 20A) and and grounded it to a screw in the fusebox (the only screw in there). It didn't work, so I tried another screw that was under the glove compartment, no dice.
At that point I had figured the fuse slot was maybe dead for whatever reason. Using a basic test light, I grounded it to the screws I had tried before. Still nothing. Fortunately, I tried grounding the test light to the metal casing of the fuse box itself and the 20A fuse in the CIG LIGHTER slot lit up the test light -- the fuse was fine and the spot was getting at least 6-12V. Unfortunately, I didn't have my voltmeter so I was unable to check what voltage was coming across actually although the light was glowing quite brightly (and steady).
Now, I tried to hook up the direct wire the same way, grounding it (with electrical tape for pure testing purposes) to the metal casing of the fuse box and plugging the Add-A-Fuse/SmartCord into the fuse slot.
It didn't seem to power on the 9500i at all. I'm not exactly sure what's wrong with it. Could it really be the wire? My soldering job was pretty solid, I don't think that's it. I just don't understand why this has to be so troublesome! I followed just as most people have said here! :(
I just clipped the spade and crimped it in the add a fuse. Maybe soldering caused the problem.
Oh I had forgotten about this post. My woes were cleared up about maybe a day or two after my previous post. It turns out I was assuming two things that ultimately led to me believing it was something else wrong.
Everything works fine now, I just had the fuses in the wrong way and I assumed the power light for the direct wire would be on even if it wasn't plugged into the 9500i.
As for the OP, if you still need help PM me. I was pretty much in your same situation (not knowing where to start) before doing some research and trial and error and finally got it all working and neatly tucked away. :)