Right on, thank you Sir.

 

That's not that bad. Look at all this crap I cut out of my car:

 

Oh, that would irritate the **** out of me.

 

Right?! Our new friend @travs_997 here has both intestinal fortitude AND some impressive DIY skill(s)!

 

Much more so than I.

 

That's my hooptee. Thankfully they cut the connectors off for me as well; *sarcasm*.

 

Mine looks pretty much the same in there and you have my sympathy. On mine, there are even wires that have been clipped going from goodness knows where, not connected and just have some sticky tape on the ends. I'm going to somehow find the right harness ends and solder it all back to stock, so I can just use the Crutchfield plug and play method.

The RCA cables they used have turned sticky, which is just lovely. Grrrrr...

RANT FOLLOWS:

Previous owners: "I'm going to buy a 911 Turbo and then tear the factory Bose system out and replace it with garbage, cheapo components and hack up the wiring harness in the process! I'm also going to stuff cheap wiring everywhere that in time will turn to sticky goo, no zipties, no loom, just spaghetti wiring!" "Lastly, I'm going to pull the door foam seal out and let water get into the doors, frying both speakers and probably the crappy amplifier I'm wedging into a confined place with no air circulation, close to the radiators!"

 

Your stereo reminds me of what I found in my car when I bought it. The previous owner had a pretty high end system installed in it around 2007, but the shop that did the work butchered the car and wiring while installing it. Took me hours to undo their handywork.

 

I don't get it. Hadn't any of these "professional" installers heard of Metra kits? Metra makes plug and play audio system adapters for everything. They make an install so easy.

 

I was also baffled at electrical tape covered connections. I guess I am glad I installed a backup camera and found the exposed connections and possibly avoided a hazard such as a fire. The power wire shorted out on a head unit frame and popped a fuse as I was fumbling around in there.

The amount of modules for XM, Nav and bluetooth that were all replaced by a more modern head unit and a phone is crazy. The new HU was several inches shorter as well. Much lighter. No idea why they didn't use an adapter...

 

Just wow; I wouldn't even know where to start.

 

Ahhh, memories. LOL



I ended up just pulling the interior from my car to properly repair everything.

 

OCD acting up now...

 

Looks like I'm not alone in this frustration! I guess it is just a right of passage at this point on these cars to have to deal with questionable audio installations!

So I cleaned up the wiring, replaced the headunit with a Pioneer CarPlay unit and managed to get the Kenwood Mono amp working with the aftermarket sub they installed. To be more positive, I will at least say that whoever did the install last, routed the wires well and properly fused everything, so nothing electrical was fried. I still have to fix the door speaker situation (they are not working) which I think will be just buying the factory door enclosures and swapping speakers. The Kicker component speakers in there now are destroyed.

 

Glad you are making progress. It sucks having to work on an expensive used vehicle but it will help you find problems quicker later on if they arise.