Dealer temporary inventory alarm is T-tapped into my truck's wiring harness? WTF?

goblues38 said:

seriously...you are way over thinking this.

It is fine. It wont "fail".

Remove the clips, you will never know it was ever there.

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You are probably right due to it being inside the cab. Then again, maybe it won't start at a massively inconvenient time 6 years from now. It just depends on the environment, usage and amount of damage from the crap taps.

There was nothing wrong with any of the dollars he paid for the new truck, right? I think he's got the right to expect a truck that doesn't have damaged wiring. That's part of the advantage of buying new.

They could easily de-pin those two wires and run new wires that are not compromised.

Droid said:

So my dealer adds a temporary alarm to all vehicles it sells. I was informed that it just plugs in and there are no cut wires whatsoever and it can be completely removed without any adverse effect. I asked very specifically about this.

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BTW, what year is the truck, how mnay miles and did you buy it new?

Truck is brand new 2019. 220 miles right now. 17 miles at purchase.

Salesman (who I like) is so far doing good job, says he'll make it right and he's talking to GSM. But my current thought is it needs a new harness and a day-or-whatever of labor to install, which is not cheap.

My thought is that without a new harness, the warranty and the Ford extended warranty is void on all things electronic. Any gremlins that show up will be rightfully blamed on this first. And given that all the mechanical systems on this truck are electronically controlled, electronic failures create mechanical failures. Having it serviced at original dealer when it fails will be a problem as I'm likely moving to a different state within a year.

My concern on warranty is somewhat based on what happened on my bought-new 2011 with the removed alarm that I never knew was there. When it failed, the service dealer (different from purchase dealer) was asking for a customer-pay during 3/36 warranty. It turned into a big deal and I was in process of trying to get purchase-dealer on phone with service-dealer... but service writer decided purely out of kindness to N/C it, and they were getting warranty $ from a headliner replacement at same time.

they arent going to replace the harness or run a new wire point to point, keep dreaming.

As mentioned at worst Id have that little section replaced with a proper solder and heat shrink. Personally Id remove the T-tap, de pin those two wires, slide over some marine heat shrink, melt it down and put it back

dsg2003mach1 said:

they arent going to replace the harness or run a new wire point to point, keep dreaming.

As mentioned at worst Id have that little section replaced with a proper solder and heat shrink. Personally Id remove the T-tap, de pin those two wires, slide over some marine heat shrink, melt it down and put it back

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This is a brand new truck. It needs to be in a condition where any Ford dealer will cover all issues under warranty (and extended warranty) exactly in the exact same way they would if the harness had never been touched. If the main interior wiring harness has been cut into and repaired, I don't believe they will do that.

Droid said:

If the main interior wiring harness has been cut into and repaired, I don't believe they will do that.

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You are just wrong.

People have been putting aftermarket alarms and remote starters on cars for 40 years. None of this "voids" a warranty. T connectors would not be how i would do it, but if the dealer is trying to be temporary, they are fine. Replacing a harness like that will do way more harm then the T connectors ever did.

goblues38 said:

You are just wrong.

People have been putting aftermarket alarms and remote starters on cars for 40 years. None of this "voids" a warranty. T connectors would not be how i would do it, but if the dealer is trying to be temporary, they are fine. Replacing a harness like that will do way more harm then the T connectors ever did.

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Dealer was not going to honor warranty no-start issue on my previous Raptor specifically because of alarm that at the time I wasn't even aware of. They patched it back together no-charge alongside other work (headliner) that could be warrantied. They did not warranty the electrical issue.

T-connectors are not temporary, they permanently damage the wires.

goblues38 said:

You are just wrong.

People have been putting aftermarket alarms and remote starters on cars for 40 years. None of this "voids" a warranty. T connectors would not be how i would do it, but if the dealer is trying to be temporary, they are fine. Replacing a harness like that will do way more harm then the T connectors ever did.

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That's not what I'd call a T-connector. It's a scotch lock. Worlds apart.

A T-connector, to me, usually means you unplug an OEM connector, then put a T-connector in between that tees off any wires you might need. There's no cutting of wires or insulation, and it's 100% reversible. Remote starts often use these instead of cutting wires/insulation.

Like this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B014MEMMWS/?tag=fordraptorforum-20
Or this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07F422Y98/?tag=fordraptorforum-20

A scotch lock OTOH is a total POS style of tapping into a wire that should never be used.

If the dealer used a proper T-connector, they could do their installs quicker and more reliably than using scotch locks. Those are for rank amateurs, nobody with any automotive skills whatsoever would ever consider using those. Especially on the starting circuit on a brand new $75,000 truck.

If you are going to half-ass a wire tap, at least use a Posi-Tap. It only puts a tiny hole in the insulation and will not work it's way loose. You can easily remove it and re-use it too. The people at that dealership are simply dumb as hell.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H242NNY/?tag=fordraptorforum-20

There is a reason Ford uses insulated wires and proper terminations and connectors everywhere in the vehicle. Arguing a scotch lock "is fine" because some guys who get paid to hack up wiring harnesses for a living improperly use them is simply ********.

goblues38 said:

You are just wrong.

People have been putting aftermarket alarms and remote starters on cars for 40 years. None of this "voids" a warranty. T connectors would not be how i would do it, but if the dealer is trying to be temporary, they are fine. Replacing a harness like that will do way more harm then the T connectors ever did.

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I disagree, and I’m betting any non-selling stealership will too.

You’re out in B.F.E. enjoying some trails, get back to hotel, next day you can’t remote start, get in, got juice but all kinds of wrench icons, again won’t start. Tow to dealer, who run a network diagnostic and pick up unusually high resistance port to port, trace the wiring and find these taps.

Who pays for the repair?

the question is rhetorical; you do, because it’s clearly been tampered with and bypassing the tap shows the correct resistance.

You’re correct that people have been putting on remote starters and alarms for decades... and some have done it wrong. This is a good example.

Most urban dealerships put inventory alarms or GPS tracking into all of their new and used vehicles, then try to sell it as an “alarm” in finance. Their theft insurance usually mandates the devices. Most of the hacks installing 30+ of these per day are doing it in the same way as shown in the pictures here. I would guess the only way to avoid this would be to order a truck and negotiate that the dealer doesn’t install anything during the PDI process.

One of my dealership customers recently had a Raptor stolen off the lot, the GPS tracked to a chop shop where it was recovered within hours.