Found poor wiring job in brand new 4Runner

[angrytaxman]

I was wiring up a new switch for my bumper mounted LED light bar and found this aftermarket alarm poorly wired up behind my dash. I had denied having an aftermarket alarm installed when I bought the car 5 months ago, but this dealership must prewire them for all cars they sell.

Would you be upset if you found this in your new 4Runner? They used butt splices and T-taps to tap into my factory wiring harness. What would you ask the dealership to do to fix it? Replace all affected harnesses, remove their wiring and just patch it with electrical tape, or something else? Thanks!

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[wcjeep]

I despise T Taps. Can you call Toyota corporate for their opinion? Maybe force an out of compliance dealer to make it right?


Have a friend do some tire kicking on other 4runners on the lot? Take pictures of other new but modified vehicles with Vin for Toyota to investigate.

 

[angrytaxman]

I despise T Taps. Can you call Toyota corporate for their opinion? Maybe force an out of compliance dealer to make it right?





Have a friend do some tire kicking on other 4runners on the lot? Take pictures of other new but modified vehicles with Vin for Toyota to investigate.

That's a really good idea. Thanks for the suggestion!


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[atchcraft]

Personally, I'd be pissed and I'd make them fix it.

 

[angrytaxman]

Personally, I'd be pissed and I'd make them fix it.

What's an acceptable fix to you?


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[atchcraft]

What's an acceptable fix to you?


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Good question, I thought the same thing. I hate t-caps too and theres no way to go back now. I'd make them remove all trace and make it right somehow. Once they've compromised the wiring, it is what it is. Pretty sure they weren't counting on you finding that.

 

[atchcraft]

What's an acceptable fix to you?


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Good question, I thought the same thing. I hate t-caps too and theres no way to go back now. I'd make them remove all trace and make it right somehow. Once they've compromised the wiring, it is what it is. Pretty sure they weren't counting on you finding that.

 

[angrytaxman]

Good question, I thought the same thing. I hate t-caps too and theres no way to go back now. I'd make them remove all trace and make it right somehow. Once they've compromised the wiring, it is what it is. Pretty sure they weren't counting on you finding that.

It looks like they spliced into 5 separate wiring harnesses. How much would it cost for them to fully replace 5 harnesses? I'm sure it's not cheap.


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[JSparky]

So, I'd be livid. I'd send photos to corporate, explain the whole situation and be honest with everything. If you asked for a factory fresh vehicle and it was delivered modified, but sold to you otherwise, I think you're entitled to compensation.

That said, this can be remedied via several hours of careful splicing, stripping, soldering, and heat shrinking. It own't be a factory connection but damn near close. Toyota should compensate you for this.. be it an extended warranty or what not. Again, don't go to the dealer, go higher up-stream.

 

[Jhalko]

So, I'd be livid. I'd send photos to corporate, explain the whole situation and be honest with everything. If you asked for a factory fresh vehicle and it was delivered modified, but sold to you otherwise, I think you're entitled to compensation.

That said, this can be remedied via several hours of careful splicing, stripping, soldering, and heat shrinking. It own't be a factory connection but damn near close. Toyota should compensate you for this.. be it an extended warranty or what not. Again, don't go to the dealer, go higher up-stream.

This seems like sound advice and how would deal with it if this happened to me.

 

[Engineer]

So, I'd be livid. I'd send photos to corporate, explain the whole situation and be honest with everything. If you asked for a factory fresh vehicle and it was delivered modified, but sold to you otherwise, I think you're entitled to compensation.

That said, this can be remedied via several hours of careful splicing, stripping, soldering, and heat shrinking. It own't be a factory connection but damn near close. Toyota should compensate you for this.. be it an extended warranty or what not. Again, don't go to the dealer, go higher up-stream.

I agree but if the dealer did this it is on them, not Toyota to compensate him for it. Should Toyota be on his side and put pressure on the dealer, certainly but this was no fault of Toyotas.

 

[1engineer]

Toyota dealer is NOT Toyota corporate, they are independent businesses with contract to Toyota. They have to do a lot of things Toyota asks but car alarm wiring is not one of them im sure. Remember they have paid for the 4runner through a distributor they then re sold to you. This gives them a lot of leeway on the mods they make.

Yes, it sucks they pre wired for an add on alarm, but after looking at their work do you really want them to do any MORE work for you? I wouldn't. Especially replacing the entire harness. What a nightmare. Nothing would ever be right. I think you have two choices:

1. Fix the taps yourself to your satisifaction and never darken the door of that dealer or

2. Ask for some monatary compensation to get it fixed to your satisifaction somewhere else. Now, unless it was written down somewhere that you didnt want it you probably can't get this to happen.

Good luck.

 

[philsey]

The remedy is to get the dealer to admit in writing specifically what they've done, and to provide you with a long term real TOYOTA extended warranty (NOT something at dealer-level).

I would not really want more of the same monkeys trying to repair that.

Agree with going direct to Toyota... unless this dealer is exceptional, I can't see them cooperating, other than removing their stuff. Hell, they may even blame you.

New harnesses is a pipe-dream.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

I have to admit, I've never seen anything quite like this on a brand new vehicle.

Those stupid T-Taps ought to be illegal IMO. They make wiring prone to corrosion, inevitably cut wire strands when they are clamped and are for lazy people who don't know the right way to do wiring.

I can't tell for sure, but it looks like they butchered up your harness shielding pretty good too. Pathetic.

I too would be super pissed. Unfortunately and in agreement with [MENTION=51186]philsey[/MENTION] I think anything short of splicing, soldering and shrink wrapping the spliced wires anything you do is just going to make things worse. I sure the hell wouldn't let the idiot that did that back in there to "fix" it.

 

[Hamburgerpimp]

I had this same thing on my truck. I didn't notice it until after I got home. I would have had them take it back, but at the time there were no other Trail 4Runners within 300 miles of San Diego.

I fixed it myself, solder, heat shrink, etc, should be fine, just sucks that they do this to a brand new vehicle to make extra money.

As a former 15 year Toyota Technician, I agree with 1Engineer that you don't want them to replace all the harnesses to correct this, will cause way more issues than repairing the current harness. Toyota builds and assembles a great car, most dealerships do not.

 

[BlackWorksInc]

You should check your contract/window sticker. I imagine that it was listed as options/accessories installed. These are typically either Dealer Installed or Port Installed not factory.

Realistically it's probably listed in your paperwork and so they'd tell you "well you agreed to buy it like that, so we can take it out and patch the wiring or you can keep it."

On a side note, I'm still on the fence about T-Taps. From my experience using the correct size and installing them properly they work fine as "easily reversible" wiring modifications (since if they are installed correctly all you'd have to do is just apply insulation to the exposed section of wiring). The problem is that they are rarely installed correctly or the right tap is used, so that causes issues.

Butt connectors are how everyone is pretty much fixing wiring these days, I guess they don't trust technicians to solder wires anymore (then again having seen some people's soldering jobs I don't blame them.)

I'd have the alarm removed, the most common issues regarding no-starts at my old dealership had to do with failing aftermarket alarms (some we installed years ago when we still did it).

 

[jrandom]

WTF this is seriously on the lame side.

Maybe there should be a sticky thread with a list of all dealers that pull this crap and a little proof to back it up. So at the very least someone looking to buy a new ride might have a little foresight to check a few things like this before they drop $45k (after tax/license/fees/ect.)

 

[FrenchToasty]

Besides the stuff I've done, I don't think any aftermarket or "audio express" junk has been installed (I think dealer or port alarm install was all) and I've seen the same monkey business in mine aswell. No fires yet.......
"We don't need no water, let the............burn"

 

[flyrv9]

So, where do all the wires go that were added with the taps? Are they stowed somewhere or? Also, how many taps or splices are there?

If you are not currently experiencing problems, I would first find out what Toyota and or the dealer plans to do about this. Besides having questionable taps added to your wiring, it looks like they butchered the harness covering to access those wires. I suggest you inspect the areas in which this happened to see if any other damage to wiring was done when they cut up things to get access. Look for nicks, cuts and slices in all the nearby wiring and insulation.

If you end up fixing this yourself, I suggest, instead of soldering, that you remove the tap and repair the wire by cutting it and installing a good quality crimp splice with a heat shrink sleeve. Raychem makes these in 22, 20 & 16 gauge. I'm sure there are others available too. The point here is to use a quality splice and the correct crimper. Do one wire at a time! Soldering and heat shrink is fine as long as you really know what you are doing and can make a quality solder joint in tight places.

 

[unevolved]

If you end up fixing this yourself, I suggest, instead of soldering, that you remove the tap and repair the wire by cutting it and installing a good quality crimp splice with a heat shrink sleeve. Raychem makes these in 22, 20 & 16 gauge. I'm sure there are others available too. The point here is to use a quality splice and the correct crimper. Do one wire at a time! Soldering and heat shrink is fine as long as you really know what you are doing and can make a quality solder joint in tight places.

I heartily agree. Solder makes the wire brittle. I would recommend these:

D-436-36 - TE CONNECTIVITY / RAYCHEM - TERMINAL, BUTT SPLICE, CRIMP, RED |PROWIREUSA

Cut the affected area out, and crimp both sides back together. The heat-shrink sleeve has glue inside to increase strength and make it water-tight.