Dashboard Out! Whats this? & Whats Next?

[Fd_daderp]

Hey guys, heres the break down....I have a 89 targa mkIII that had a 1jz swap which was very clean from exterior to interior. 6 months later i got into an accident and the whole front end is damaged. But the 1j survived!!!!! sooo i got a 91 sunroof, and got the 1jz back and running (this time upgraded from stock twins, to big single). The 91 isnt too clean and im swapping alot of exterior and interior parts from the crashed 89. Now Im swapping the dash boards and i found this in the 89....



just wondering what it is??

And since the dash is out of the running car, what should i inspect or replace?? heater core?

here are some pics of my 89 targa before accident, and my new toy the 91 sunroof with extras









Thanks!

 

[Poodles]

looks like a lojack unit

 

[Grandavi]

umm... i just paid 1200 to get my heater core redone.. lol.. I would definitely look at it. Either replace it or at least replace the o-rings.. (those fail more than the core itself I believe).
Its a 9'ish hour job if all goes well to do later on...

 

[Enraged]

9 hour job? pulling the dash doesn't take more than an hour...

as for your pictures, what does the writing on the black box say? is it a brand?

 

[Grandavi]

Doing the heater core books out at 9 hours. Can take more or less time depending. A lot of mechanics won't touch it. It may sound like all you have to do is remove the dash, but its the last item when removing everything...


The words on my sig pic?
1988 Toyota supra

 

[Fd_daderp]

On the black box it says NUMEREX and on the back has a serial number... It was heavily wrapped in electrical tape... Weird...

 

[planemos]

Yea a theft recovery device seems correct to me. Probably obsolete though.

 

[Grandavi]

Numerex Corp made lojack devices around 2002 I believe... so thats probably when it was put in. Odd though.. I thought that they only dealt in corporate devices..

 

[Fd_daderp]

Oh ok kool, thanks guys!

 

[plaaya69]

That part you have looks like it was part of a car phone that may have been installed at one time.

 

[Dylan JZ]

I'm with the theft recovery opinion: http://press.numerex.com/index.php?s=6096&item=14549

 

[Fd_daderp]

Yea I'm thinking theft device also..

 

[te72]

OP, as for your question of what else to do while you're in there, it never hurts to check everything out while you're in there, to note for any odd fluid leakages, mold, whatever. Just clean things up while you're in there, and if I might make a recommendation, either replace the heater core (plenty of threads on that around here), or at least make sure the seals/o-rings are fresh, like Grandavi suggested.

Might not hurt to replace the foam seal around the heater/air conditioning ducting... Basically, do now what you don't want to have to pull the dash out again for.

 

[shaeff]

umm... i just paid 1200 to get my heater core redone.. lol.. I would definitely look at it. Either replace it or at least replace the o-rings.. (those fail more than the core itself I believe).
Its a 9'ish hour job if all goes well to do later on...

Yikes! The last heater core job I did on a Supra was done for beer and pizza. And it didn't take anywhere near 9hrs. (I have done probably 6 or more at this point)

I need to up my rates!

 

[hvyman]

Idk beer and pizza is pretty tasty!

 

[Fd_daderp]

Lol ...Took me almost 2hrs to get the dash out, and I was taking my time and cautious.

 

[Grandavi]

2 hours to replace a heater core? Highly doubt it..

 

[hvyman]

Dash comes out in less than a hour if you know what bolts need to come out.

Depending on ac or not takes about another half hour to get the get heater core actually out. Prolly 2.5-3hours total easy if your good.

 

[Grandavi]

Idk, you would have to be really familiar with how everything lays in there... It's a pretty tightly packed jigsaw puzzle. I have talked to a couple if people prior to getting it done and even had a step by step list for it. I had to replace my core and hoses (just because it was being done, I wanted everything fresh. Left my fan alone because that's fairly simple to do if I need to.
I got quotes ranging from 9 to 11 hours to replace it and 3 shops wouldn't even touch it.

Probably takes less for someone very familiar with it, but the dealer books it as a 9 hour job.

 

[Fd_daderp]

Naw, just removing the dash board took me a little under 2 hours. And it was my first time removing it... I'm thinking that's the hardest part, since now everything's exposed under there.