It's a bizarre case they said... Updated: here we go again.

So warranty covered all the work?
Get your paperwork yet, what does it say?

 

I'd be really curious to know what relay or fuse was on the opposite side of the burn mark. It's not this hard to find a short. Glad it's worked out, but I'd be very leery of the repair without an actual explanation.

 

I ferried the truck straight from the dealership to the stereo shop...didn't want to tease myself by driving it too long and then parting with it for the stereo re-install, it should be out later today, tomorrow at the latest. The back seat had a ton of the stereo wiring laying on it, and a box full of wiring also.
I took a sec to ask if a 10" sub would fit where the 8" sub currently is, the answer was yes, so a 10" is going in.
I have 500 watts going to the sub, the 8" was surprisingly good, but going to a 10" gives me a bit more than 50% addition surface area, a small positive to come from all of this.
Since stereo-guys were having the mighty finger of the dealership pointing at them, I left the dealership paperwork in the truck for them to read over.
Once I get the truck back home, I'll snap a picture or two of the paperwork and post it, so you can see what transpired in dealership-speak.
They basically blame chafed wiring harness wires, but the root cause was never identified, so they couldn't say how the wires came to be chafed. The chafed and exposed wires were underneath factory tape on the harness at a location behind where the speedometer is, and were found when the tech cut that tape off in search of the elusive short. There was no apparent damage to the tape.
Almost a month on the money without the truck, I was nearly having withdrawal issues, can't wait to get it back.

 

A system working for "X" amount of time does not, necessarily mean the fault was not there from day 1. Many moons ago I was a mechanic in the Army. I also had the privilege of being the company wrecker driver (yes, it was a privilege and I loved most every minute of it (midnight calls to go pull someone out of a ditch is not a privilege...). At one point, we were issued a new wrecker truck and it was great, for about 6 months and the air brakes suddenly locked-up one day. Typically happens due to loss of air pressure but the compressor and tanks were fine and no, visible or audible air leak was found. Had depot level people come, manufacturer rep come and no one could figure it out. One day I asked the motor pool sergeant if I could just start at the front and take the entire air system apart, piece by piece....."go for it"? About half way through, I found a 90 degree, brass elbow that had not been completely drilled in manufacturing, so zero air could pass through. After replacing the elbow, the system worked as designed. I have no clue how the brakes worked for 6 months....and no one else did either.

 

I've never been so satisfied to have an actual official written account for the end of this. Legendary.

 

Brian secretly walks around with a PPK tucked in his jacket.

 

It wouldn't have been fair to expect stereo-guys to let me cut to the front of the line, and they were booked out almost 3 weeks when I showed up. They did what they could, a little each day after that day's work on the other customers was done...I just got it back.

 

Hey @New Guy. Thanks for all the updates. So glad that your issue has been resolved! I'm actually happy that I was wrong and it wasn't radio installer's fault! (some weird internal satisfaction....)

 

Ugh you beat me to it haha

 

Remember the good old days when we actually got to see Bond and Marvel movies? I'm going back to my old standby of waiting for them to drop on streaming. It's gonna be a painful wait.

 

not gonna happen any faster if he's now a Toyota tech

 

Spot on.

Dammit, COVID!

 

Not pleased to be resurrecting this thread...
Electrical shenanigan's rear their ugly head, and the dealership is already looking to point the finger....again.
My headlights wouldn't go off, switching the fog/driving lights to off shut them off...I'll look at it in the morning.

If I have the selector for the fog lights off and turn on the lights, I get nothing, no headlights/dash lights/marker lights...nada.
I turn the selector for the fog lights on and I get high beams but no fog lights...even if the main headlight switch is in the off position, and it won't toggle down to low beams.

I bring it in and they finally think they have it, the column switch is failed. The dealership gets a new switch and puts it in....headlights work, dash lights back, but wait...no fog lights, and selecting the fog lights puts the high beams back on as before....hmmmm.
They dig into it a bit and I get an email with a couple of pictures attached.



The first pic shows where all this fun is taking place, the second shows a burnt wire on the wiring harness. They can't yet figure out why it burnt, but they sure are looking to try and hang the stereo installers on this, just like a year and a half ago when the other wiring harness ended up being the culprit. The service manager already asking if it'll be going on my insurance, or maybe the car stereo guy's insurance. They haven't even found the root cause and they are looking to walk away from any warranty considerations...just like the first time around.
This will be interesting to deal with I think.
Truck is a 21, a tad under 20,000 on it, so still in the warranty timeframe. The first time, they finally came around and I didn't pay a penny, thank God the stereo installers were cool and went to the dealership to force them to acknowledge it wasn't the stereo install that caused it....might need an assist from them again.

 

Hate to say it but you’re aftermarket stuff is the culprit.

OP I know you’re so hung up on the stereo guys being cool, but those parts that are burning out or having issues rarely are defective and not on the same vehicle like that. When you modify your truck in any way, you risk issues. Just saying. Good luck though.

 

I second this OP. The stereo is more than likely the culprit. I’ve never seen this issue posted before and you’ve had it twice now. Long time ago I got a stereo installed in a Jeep. The thing worked fine for awhile. Then started having electrical issues, then while I was driving the stereo and wiring started to melt. 15k in damage later I got my vehicle back.

I no longer alter electrical components in my vehicles (stereo, alarm etc) because of this.


Good luck with your situation.

 

Is an aftermarket stereo really worth all this hassle?