If you have picked up one of these through an auction, private sale, or dealer after they were used for government use, here are common issues upon receiving:

You’re getting a PROJECT car and you’ll have to make these fixes if the dealer didn’t fix it (common) or take it to a place and spend $100s if not $1 ,000s to fix it. Or find a pal to fix these things. The best method though is to research online or join facebook groups of same owners and learn how to fix these things yourself which is what i’m doing. It’s a fun project car, especially with electronics and wiring.

No Bluetooth/Aux on Radio
Get the ones with SYNC, I’m telling you. Glad I did. Otherwise, you have to pull out the stereo, and use a program called ForSCAN with a laptop to enable an AUX or wire in an AUX that will not be as good as the factory stereo with bluetooth. Another option is about a $700 or $1800 stereo upgrade. It’s not the end of the world if you don’t have a SYNC one, but I’m glad I do.

No Cig Lighters? Mine didn’t even have them. I had to wire in (badly) my own. It just had ONE usb that wasn’t very sturdy in the console. I think most of them include them but mine was chopped out for some reason. Months later I finally found it jammed up inside the Jotto middle console.

No Car Alarm
That was a shocker for me. I’m like how do I stop people (IN LA) from stealing this or robbing the contents when this is a daily issue around here. After my car was vandalized 2x, I put on a $900 alarm. There’s also a Temco hidden switch to disable it.

People sell them on facebook for $75-100.

If you still had the lights or siren they sell this awesome plugin (jottodesk) for your console that then triggers your siren/lights if someone tried to rob it. I’d hate to have a siren go off for that, but I’d like the lights to flash, that’s a great idea at night. I’d probably never know though to go turn it off haha.

Waterpump Needs Immediate Replacement (if over 100k or near)

No Key Fobs/Remote Keyless Entry
They have a factory option for this but in my case, the f-ers at the dealer gave me a non working fob, probably went to another one they were selling. I had to buy an extra on ebay for $50 then payp $190 to program two fobs (ripoff). The only other solution I heard was to install the remote starter with it’s own remote. I don’t think that really fixes the door/trunk options though.

You typically can’t buy them with working sirens/lights, because only authorized sellers with a particular license to sell them that way. If that still works it typically jacks up the price too. Great places to pick up these versions are Chicago Motors.

Wreck of Wiring – For everyone else, they decommission them by removing the blue/red lights, sirens, siren/light control, gun mounts, and who knows. That leaves your newly purchased FPIU a typical wreck depending on how well they did decommissioning. I’ve even read comments where the people getting them ready for auction take joy in fucking them up for the next person.

An example of that in my case was I was looking for the power distribution block which was listed as behind the 2nd row of seats for 2016+. I could not find it but could find the plate that went to it. After posting in a Facebook group I discovered to my horror there was a live wire in the back that’s been there for weeks. They had put some electric tape around it a little but it was NOT covered at all. I happened to touch metal against it and sparks went flying up. Very dangerous especially with kids riding in the car. So I had to then purchase a cover (power distribution box) on Amazon to cover up this live wire. That’s the shoddy work whoever did before getting it ready for auction.

There are also 3-5 wires just dangling in the back where whever was plugged into them.

Lose wiring is a common issue. Under my cop console is all the wiring for the lights and siren but it was properly covered.

Someone just chopped out my dome light above and left the wires dangling above. No idea why they did that but it was a super dick move because the replacement is $50-150. And I have to drive around without a light. They also didn’t leave the wires long enough to attach a new one AND cut off the standard connector for it.

No Console or Console To Fix Up
I got one with a working cop console which I was very happy because they typically cost $300 min for used one or $1000+ for new ones. Otherwise what people do is dump in a civilian console which to me is lame but whatever interests you. If I wanted a civilian car I’d just stick with what I had. So anyway, my console is super awesome and seems to be a JottoDesk customized for the Texas DPS. However, Jotto claimed it’s not theirs. Who knows. Another person with one said it’s Jottos and maybe the support at Jotto doesn’t recognize it. I went to purchase some HAVIS parts for it, and it sorta works but doesn’t line up very well. So maybe I should have gone with Jotto parts instead.

If you’re looking for a replacement, try Facebook groups as a good choice or there’s a few makers of special replacement consoles for FPIUs. Otherwise, the 3+ makers are JottoDesk, Havis, and one other. They’re metal and expensive to ship.

Light Fixture Holes or Emergency Lighting Holes
I have (4) light holes in the back that you then replace with whatever lights went there OR just leave them empty. You’d purchase lights that are allowed like amber/white or look up your local laws. You might also have holes in the body where they removed lights. Luckily that’s not the case for me. One person said they went to a body shop and paid $75 to fix some holes.

Missing or Damaged Back Seats
Good luck with that one. Costly replacement. Buy one with a back seat is the best recommendation. Otherwise, some regular sellers of police vehicles seem to collect the seats to swap them in. Maybe contact or find them. One FPIU I was looking at buying had 2 missing seat belts in the bakc. I’m glad I didn’t get that one.

Weird Stuff To Remove or Keep

• Prisoner Partitions
• Plastic Prisoner back seats
• Window Bars
• Gun Racks
• Storage Systems

You should really look over what you’re buying and know how you’re going to deal with it prior to purchase. No one wants to sit on annoying plastic prisoner seats and the joke wears out quickly after the initial purchase, hah. I planned it out over a month and picked a unit with the right features and nothing on it I didn’t want to deal with. I’m personally glad I don’t have a partition between the driver and back seat.

Horn Disabled
Mine had no horn. The reason is they hook up the horn to the siren/lights controller and use that instead. The horn button (steering wheel) is used to activate sirens, etc. The fix is to go to 2 green disconnected wires below the steering wheel (pop open the plastic trim piece that runs completely under the steering wheel). Then connect those wires to restore the horn. That worked perfectly for me but while I was trying to reconnect them, the horn kept randomly beeping as it touched metal. A person pulled over to ask to be “let go” thinking I was trying to pull them over by it randomly honking. haha. This is common with nearly all of them due to the horn being used to change the sirens.

Requires Repainting
Do not get a black-and-white version unless you’re ready to paint. In California, you can’t have them but the temp fix is to just put some line of trim down the white doors to divide them enough that they are not solid white. You can leave the roof white but they’re particular about the white/black doors. For me the dealer repainted the white Texas DPS hood prior to me receiving it. That’s the difference between an auction buy vs. a dealer buy. The dealer charges like $5-7k more but fixes a lot of the problems (but not all problems).

No Auto Open Trunk (common nowadays on other vehicles)
Does not exist.

Holes in Roof
For any missing antenna. Fill them out yourself or pay to have them fixed. Mine had no holes luckily.

Missing Interceptor Badge on Front or Police Interceptor Badge in Back
Replacements (eBay/Amazon) can be purchased for about $20. There’s also a factory DEBADGE option which might explain why they are
missing but in my case, it was because they painted it that both were missing.