Best place to get my car stereo fixed?

[ATV]

Hi, I'm looking for somewhere I could take my car to have a look at my head unit. Unfortunately me and my friends are useless at anything technical. The guy who fitted it for me is away until after Easter so I'm looking for a reliable place I can take it to and get the unit removed and checked out. Even if they can't fix it, I'd have to remove the unit anyway to fit the next one (and I don't have a clue how to take it out)

Any ideas where I can take it, (in the West Yorkshire area but prepared to travel for somewhere that's reliable)

Thanks all

Edited by ATV on Friday 14th March 17:57

[5yearstobuyatvr]

Try mobile Music in Harrogate,give them a ring first.

Edited by 5yearstobuyatvr on Sunday 16th March 22:56

[BlueMR2]

What car do you have?, shouldnt be too hard to swap one over.

[burriana]

bobda said:

some stuff from the heart

and today's award for blatant disregard to certain forum rules goes to ....

[bobbins]

Mobile Music were great when the stereo on my Grale went a bit loopy, although that was about 10 years ago.

[wildoliver]

Theres a place on the outskirts of osset/wakey. Forget their name but they are just off the m62 roaundabout and next to a sarni shop! They are very good.

[samuelellis]

by the sounds of it most car audio shops may not be able to help tbh - the best thing i could say (not used them myself though) is something like www.fixmyradio.co.uk

or if you are completely stuck nip to phatt beats in Barnsley - fella that runs it is cool and will probably shwo you the subwoofer he has plugged directly into the mains

[heckler]

Try RAM audio here: http://www.rammobile.com/ 
Fitted an imobiliser to our MX5 and would use them again for stereo kit.
I think they have a repair service.

[ATV]

heckler said:

Try RAM audio here: http://www.rammobile.com/ 
Fitted an imobiliser to our MX5 and would use them again for stereo kit.
I think they have a repair service.

Yeah but they're quoting some ridiculous prices. £35 just to have a look. Then the extra cost of the repair (if it needs parts). I asked how much to install a newer unit if they have one in stock and they said £45! When I went to Halfords and bought the original unit the install was free (it literally took the chap 5 minutes to take out the factory fitted unit, connect the leads and slot in). What's the £45 for? Stupid-mug-with-no-sense tax? Especially if I'm buying the unit from them

5yearstobuyatvr said:

Try mobile Music in Harrogate,give them a ring first.

Not very mobile, said they won't come out for repairs. They wanted £15 for an estimate and £25 for a new unit install. Again, not sure on their pricing. If it came to it, I'd rather just go to Halfords and get them to fit me a new one and throw the other one away, it was only £200 as I recall a few years ago.

If I'm buying stock off these people, I don't understand why they'd want to rip me off on the install as well.

BlueMR2 said:

What car do you have?, shouldnt be too hard to swap one over.

Yeah "shouldn't be too hard"! Famous last words, I've got 10 thumbs and am b*llock-stupid on anything technical so are my friends. Actually I'm thinking of buying an allen key and maybe trying to do a fit myself, surely it can't be that hard, the Halfords guy made it look easy.

I don't understand where you pistonheads guys get all your DIY knowledge from. I get a bit jealous when I hear about other people doing their own decorating, changing car batteries, changing tyres, changing oil etc. Where do you learn all this from?

The only thing I learnt at school was that if I created a hole in my trouser pocket, then I could put my hand through and have a crafty wank at the back of the class during Mrs. Illingworth's Geography lesson (she had big knockers).

Wish I'd been taught DIY, would have held me in better stead than how to do my two times tables.

[ATV]

wildoliver said:

Theres a place on the outskirts of osset/wakey. Forget their name but they are just off the m62 roaundabout and next to a sarni shop! They are very good.

If you can give me a bit more info on how to find them I'll look them up. Wakefield isn't on the M62. Do you mean the M1 roundabout near Flockton?

samuelellis said:

by the sounds of it most car audio shops may not be able to help tbh - the best thing i could say (not used them myself though) is something like www.fixmyradio.co.uk

or if you are completely stuck nip to phatt beats in Barnsley - fella that runs it is cool and will probably shwo you the subwoofer he has plugged directly into the mains

Ok thanks. Just out of curiosity, if I wanted to replace my factory fitted speakers (which are really horrible, absolutely no bass) with a pair of decent ones with a little bit more oomph how long a job would that be to do?

And is there any particular brand which are considered the creme de menthe of the car audio world (I'd be hoping for something with a nice sweet sound, kind of like my mate's B&W speakers for his hi-fi which are phenomenally good, doesn't even need a separate bass unit)

[wildoliver]

It's the road I'd come off if I was going in to wakey/osset from hull. I follow the m62 then it all gets messy around leeds. Theres a nice looking hotel on the right as you come off roundabout, then the audio repairers/sarni shop are 50 yards further on the left.

[BlueMR2]

You still havent mentioned what car you have. Speaker sizes etc are car dependent unless you fabricate the panels and mounts etc.

Goto www.talkaudio.co.uk for the uk's biggest car audio forum.

Then when you have the will to do the work yourself you can go to www.caraudiodirect.co.uk to buy the bits you need, generally for a large discount over retail ie halfords price.

Beware that prolonged exposure to forum pages on www.Talkaudio.co.uk can be traumatic for your wallet.

[wildoliver]

I will point out I am not a stereo expert, and if I spend a couple of hundred on a head unit and speakers I'm cursing slightly, for me as long as my guns and roses sounds good when i whack it up a bit I'm happy, but absolute perfection isn't something I chase, just good base, good treble, and no distortion.

I always found sony speakers good for the top end sound, so I usually use a pair of sony door speakers then a pair of either 6x9s (think last time i used a pair was about 7 years ago no cars these days have the room to hide them) or a pair of component mids in the rear quarters behind the card (I hate seeing speakers etc dotted around, for me it has to look factory). I tend to use the standard car amp, and a nice cd head unit.

I'm using a bit of a bargain at the moment, kenwood, cd/mp3 player, with usb slot, I just stick a 1gig memory stick in and listen to all my favourite albums no cd's littering the car, PLUS bluetooth car kit add on. All came in about £179. Very impressed, and I have liked kenwood stuff for a while as I have run a couple of units and had no issues at all, blaupunct I had fail on me a couple of times, and jvc is a bit cheap and nasty. Sony a bit delicate.

Seriously don't take me too seriously though I don't go mad on stereo's. I'm ashamed to admit mine is frequently on radio 4!

[AndyMil]

Depends what motor you have but most are relatively easy to change head units, think I've prob changed every one I've had apart from the one I have now which has a multidisc built in, what make is the unit you have now and what are you looking to fit, I float around yorkshire on a regular basis so may be able to drop by and sort it for you, based in Sheff but it's not my offical job

[bobda]

burriana said:

bobda said:

some stuff from the heart

and today's award for blatant disregard to certain forum rules goes to ....

I deleted my comments and now have a great rapport with Leeds Car Audio.

My problems stemmed from a mix-up in an order and were all resolved and at his personal expense by the owner, Ian.

Andy.

Edited by bobda on Thursday 27th March 14:16