Sometimes You Gotta Do It Yourself...

So it all started with this:

Yep, a distribution block installed by Worx in the trunk next to the battery (right above the fuel pump area) which Nismo Omori hadn't removed.  Remember their job was to get the visible interior back to OEM, including the stereo wiring.  Further, the alarm shop's job was to remove the alarm and make sure the immobilizer functions didn't kick in and prevent the car from starting. I get it.

And yet every time I opened the trunk, this cancer served as a reminder that my car still had Worx items located in it.  So it got to the point where I wondered, how difficult would it be to remove it along with all the wires attached to it?

Bad question because 24 hours later...

It didn't take me 24 hours to get to this... rather as I'm working from home whenever I have a few minutes I'd pop into the garage to do some work

So first order of business was to get access to the distribution block from the other side - I'm too lazy to remove the trunk bulkhead as well as the strut tower bars.  So I decided to remove the seats, it's easy.

Just a couple of bolts and the seat cushion pops out

Of course first thing I noticed was that the new insulation sheet material installed by Worx behind and under the seat was crinkled up, not flat. So I go to straighten it up and:

Pink paint marker. As you will later see, this allowed me to know what he touched, bolt-wise

WTF!! Yep, looks like Nakamura lost his marker pen there! Sloppy!!!

Curious about what other presents he might have left me, I looked around some more and found:

And this:

Still not sure about this cushion material. I suppose I can keep it, as OEM was a thin rubber sheet with the fuzzy cloth stuff that had degraded over time.

I removed it and accessed the plate covering the battery area.

Green arrow points to where something added was grounded

A few bolts later, and I was surprised at how heavy this piece of metal is!

And yes, you can see that I took apart the center console too because I was curious to see what else I could remove in addition to the wires I found coming from the distribution block. More on that later.

So first task was to inspect the distribution block and see what wires came out of it.

Green arrows point to the bolts that Worx marked pink (in other words, he installed or used the bolt)

I could see a power lead coming from the battery (right most arrow) and this went back to the distribution block to 4 fuses - one for a lead connecting to a CTEK battery tender cable (extension plug which allows charging); another for the trunk release that was hooked up to the alarm I had removed; one for the back up camera that used to be hooked up to the CyberNavi; and finally one for the alarm's ignition immobilizer.

Basically, it was easy enough to trace where the leads went, but more often than not, in an attempt to hide them the wires were combined together with the factory loom with black electrical tape.

I could easily tell the difference between factory electrical tape and what Worx applied. So off came that aftermarket tape.

The immobilizer seemed to, in addition to the power leads, have a lot of other cables. I discovered this by following the power lead to a small space above the Fuel Pump Control Module, located near the right rear strut.

Squeezed atop the silver Fuel Pump Control Module is the alarm's immobilzer brain.

And for some reason, the FPCM was unbolted and loose.  Or should I say, it was probably held in place by the immobilizer brain so once I removed that:

Going to have to secure this.

 The immobilizer brain was interesting. There is a small LED light and since it wasn't on I figured it was dead, and just left there by the alarm installer when he removed the rest of the alarm.

This lead to a bunch of cut leads

 You can also see how Worx tried to be clever here by using the OEM loom protectors to hide his wiring. Although the black electrical tape he used to force it shut (some of these were cracked) gives it away.

Another example:

Clearly the shiny black tape and the cloth Tesa tape are not OEM

And this one on the floor next to the driver's seat.

And all the above was on the right side of the car.  On the left side, the wiring crossed in front of the battery.  Looks like he had previously used that hole to bolt something but changed his mind.

These wires led either into the trunk (trunk release, back up camera, and CTEK plug) or towards the front of the car (back up camera).

This wiring for the back up camera led to the front and ended up behind the stereo

After the first day, my intermittent work resulted in this mess.

The next day, I found the rest of the wires from the immobilizer already cut - I guess this is what the alarm shop did?

Leaving just these two red wires still connected to something under the dash.

You can see how removal of the back up camera wiring helped to clean up the area behind the stereo even more!

So because I figured out what the wiring going into the trunk were for, I simply cut off that portion that was visible in the cabin.

See! Back to OEM!!! (except of course the sound insulation and the Alcantara, he he.)

 And now the battery area was also cleaned up:

And yes I had to resort to zip-ties to secure the FPCM as for some reason if I bolted it down it bumped up against the adjuster for the rear right Ohlins DFV coilover.

But at least it's secure now and the wiring is clean and OEM

Removing all that wiring meant that this was the mess in the car (and just from the immobilizer side):

And it wasn't just about removing wires. I also took the opportunity to fix problems along the way.  For example, in order to create the shelf for the distribution block, Worx decided to add in screw taps (not sure if the holes were drilled in that area to begin with).  But as you can see this area was rubbing against an OEM loom and causing the loom cover to get worn down.

I ended up adding some TESA tape on top of the worn area where it rubbed against the metal

 In the trunk, you can see how I clipped away the zip ties holding these wires to the OEM loom in the top half of the photo.

Since I don't need a back up camera right now, I removed the camera itself as well as the wiring. I kept the loom for the CTEK charger, not sure if I can use it but I will admit that the set up (having the plug hidden behind the license plate) is clever and so I will try to figure something out.

I didn't take any photos of the last two red wires I mentioned above, but suffice to say I had to get on my back and unwrap a lot of electrical tape under the dash.

In the end, here is the mess of wires and electrical components I was able to remove.

Strange feeling of liberation!

There is more coming, but before I post that, a couple of interesting posts. Stay tuned!