Dash fire!!! UPDATE, not happy!!

[Bigbear]

Just got to within 100 yards of my drive after a weekend away in the van only for the dash to start pluming out choking white smoke !! Mrs jumped out and grabbed tiddler from her seat whilst I disconnected the battery, the wire from the headlight switch has melted through about 6-7 other wires, made a right nasty mess. Looks like il be needing the whole dash rewired. Anyone had this done and know roughly what it'll cost? Got a wedding to do in a few weeks, then silverstone for the f1 and a 2 week trip away after that! Talk about bad timing!!

 

[CornishSilver]

iain at aircooled auto elec would be my advise, he's mobile too. He has not long done a full rewire on mine. He's on Facebook, just search the company name and it will pop up

 

[vinvan]

Had my bus electrics sorted by this guy
Iain from "Aircooled Auto Elec NW" fantastic job good price too, he will travel anywhere to fix your bus
Also makes and fits his own wiring looms, 240 hookup, duel charge systems, in fact anything to do with the electrics
contact him on his facebook page or give him a call on 07426 885507
You wont be disappointed, He is a genius

Vinvan

 

[Bigbear]

Cheers guys, just sent him a message, can I ask what he charged to do the work?

 

[Bigbear]

So I've just spoke to Iain and he's quoted £500 to rewire the front half of the bus and £700 to rewire the whole bus, plus his travelling costs from Manchester to Kent on top of that. That sound about right? Does anybody know of anyone a bit closer to me in Kent that might be able to help? I'm going to speak to Dave Patrick tomorrow who apparently is the man to go to for auto electrics, I'd rather use someone with a bit of knowledge about VWs though to be honest.

 

[CornishSilver]

just replied to the other pm lol, yep sounds about right to me as I had the travel costs waived, lucky me!!

 

[Robcod]

I'd also second Ian as he did my electric hook up, leisure battery, general tidy up, split charge etc. I will ask to do a full re-wire in years to come. Pay once and have it done right you won't regret it.

 

[Bigbear]

So due to time constraints I ended up having to order a loom from rapidfitlooms and have someone local to me who has had Vw's in the past fit it, he ended up taking 3 weeks to do it and basically cocked it right up!! He said the loom had issues which I'm not sure is true or not, but basically I've just home from silverstone with the following issues:
No fuel gauge
No wipers
No hazards
No interior lights
No fans
No ignition lights
No horn
No door lights
No permanent live on the radio
No rear running lights
Rear lights wired wrong
Rev counter with a mind of its own!

I've supposed to be doing a wedding on the 11th august and going away for 2 weeks to Newquay to following day! Does anybody know anyone that can help me out in Kent or the south east?


To top it all off I ran out of fuel on the m25!!!

 

[purpledog07]

That's ****. It sounds like the issue was his lack of skills and even basic common sense!
Is the loom that is fitted now melted or damaged? If not then you could download a wiring diagram and work your way round one item at a time. All the cable colours are specific to their purpose and terminals are usually numbered which makes it fairly easy. Photos can be found of the back of the dash and other items too.
If you take a look and aren't confident then find a local long established auto electrics place with someone old enough to have worked on all sorts of motors. Give them the wiring diagram and probably a d of days to sort it all out.
I'm making my own loom soon as my dash loom is a state All the cables, connectors, etc comes to about £70 and all the wiring diagrams are free on samba.

Sent from my SM-A320FL using Tapatalk

 

[purpledog07]

Or if you got the money you could just pay the travelling sparky that was recommended by the earlier replies.

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[Bigbear]

It's not the money that was the issue, it was the time frame in which they could do it. I'm now in a worse position than before I started. The new loom isn't damaged at all, just the fact that the ***** was probably colour blind and wired everything wrong.

 

[CornishSilver]

Give Iain from Aircooled auto elec, he will have it sorted in a day more than likely

 

[CornishSilver]

Sorry just seen the time constraints bit!! Was replying on the go

 

[Webbaldo]

Sounds a load of bull mate

My loom was from rapid fit and couldn't have been easier to fit. Only had to make a slight adjustment for wiper loom but that was more my van not the loom.

Sounds like a monkey blaming his equipment

Rapid looms use modern wiring so colours aren't VW spec. But mine came with a very simple set of plans including VW equivalent colours

 

[paul_q]

Could try here

http://www.veedubperformance.co.uk/

 

[Wannabay]

Could try here

http://www.veedubperformance.co.uk/

Unlikely as James is usually booked up months in advance and I think he's off on holiday for a couple of weeks now, sorry

 

[Bigbear]

Sounds a load of bull mate

My loom was from rapid fit and couldn't have been easier to fit. Only had to make a slight adjustment for wiper loom but that was more my van not the loom.

Sounds like a monkey blaming his equipment

Rapid looms use modern wiring so colours aren't VW spec. But mine came with a very simple set of plans including VW equivalent colours

That's my thoughts exactly, when I received the loom my initial thoughts were that it looked really easy, all labelled and colour coded, in fact I'd have liked to have had a go myself, but with holidays and work it would have taken forever, I've spoken to rapidfitlooms today and Richard has offered to come down to me on Saturday to look at what the other ***** has done and hopefully put it right.

 

[Bigbear]

Give Iain from Aircooled auto elec, he will have it sorted in a day more than likely

I had planned to use Iain and pay his costs for travelling to me and staying over for the night, but he couldn't give me a definite date, and I really needed it done in time for Silverstone this weekend, gutted I didn't go with Him now.

 

[Bigbear]

Well, Richard from rapidfitlooms drove down to me (Kent) from Leicester on Sunday, I was hoping he would get me up and running within an hour or two, when he had a look at what had been done I thought he was gonna throw up! He was shocked at how much of a mess the **** how tried fitting it had made, he's offered to make me another new loom free of charge and send it back to me to refit myself over the next few weekends. The guy has bent over backwards for me even though nothing was his fault, just goes to show there are some proper decent people out there still. I've now got the challenge of fitting a complete new loom and getting van running in time for a wedding on the 11th of august! I'm useless at electrics but I'm 100% certain I can do a better job than the nobhead who previously tried, I mean, the ***** used drywall screws for my earths!!!

 

[matty74]

I hope the ex VW numpty who trashed your first loom didn't get paid ... can't abide people who claim to be able to do something then blame the equipment when they f@ck up. The problem with the loom was obviously the ******** that was attempting to install it. Hats off to Rapid looms for their generous offer.
I rewired my van last year with a Wolfsburg west Main loom, then renewed all the dash loom separately, it was a little bit time consuming but not rocket science. My dash was already out, which did make it easier to dress in the cables etc. Engine Bay was a doddle, Horn was a pain, but then again I was moving it from dash back to wheel. Not seen a rapid loom before, so not sure how similar it is to original, but as their name suggests I'm sure they've developed something well documented and relatively straight forward.
Take plenty of pictures, and if you're stuck share it on here where there's plenty of good advice [emoji106]


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