Advice on quote from car audio shop

1100.00 to have someone else scratch your interior trim. I'd pass. The experience you gain will be more rewarding if you tackle it yourself. Plenty of videos out there on audio installs.

 

I had the key amp and door speakers put in when the truck was brand new. When I picked it up from the audio shop the guy told me that the passenger window switch was not working which I had never tried. It was working from the driver side so it was not really a priority bc it would be under warranty so I figured I would just get it checked out when I brought it in for the 5k checkup. I took the head unit off because I was installing an amp and sub woofer myself.

 

Yup. Definitely

 

Are butt connectors The blue things on the purple wires? Wouldn’t that mean that the factory wiring was cut and not soldered on like he told me?

 

The wiring was definitely cut. That’s the only way to add a 4 channel amp without building a T-harness.
Even being cut, the factory harness can be re-soldered together to go back to normal, but it’s still cut none the less.

What really bothers me is that half the wires are crimped (blue butt connectors) and the other half are wrapped in electrical tape (and hopefully soldered underneath and not just twisted together)
And it also bothers me that the installer thinks electrical tape is sufficient to wrap bare wires inside a dash. It gets extremely hot in there and electrical tape turns to a sticky gunky mess and falls right off.

 

I just did mine like that with the intention of replacing all electrical taped, soldered connections with soldered and heat shrinked wiring in the spring when it's not 20 degrees outside.
I'm not a professional working in a heated garage. That shouldn't have happened in a "professional shop getting paid for the install.

 

+1 on the electrical tape. That's sloppy amateur stuff and inexcusable for anyone calling themselves professionals. Those solder/shrink splices are legit, but looks like they ran out lol. Have to be careful where you use those though 'cause you either have to use a heat gun or torch to get them to work. The radio pocket is not a good place for either.

 

He says that the butts were used because the wire on the connector was aluminum which could not be soldered because it wouldn’t hold good.

as far as the electrical tape, he says that is how they do it. When I get it back I’m just going to redo it because I live in South Carolina where it gets 95° in the summer and yeah, it’s probably going to fall off. Should I just use shrink wrap when redoing it?

 

YUP. You'll need to disconnect the solder joints to slip the heat shrink onto one wire, resolder and slide the heat shrink over the joint.

 

Just picked it up. They’re saying that the electrical tape is OK to use because it’s 3M super something or other high temperature electrical tape. They actually said it’s industry standard. I told the guy that I would just go back and redo it . Whatever. It is what it is. Thanks for the help all.

 

Haha oh man these guys sound lazy. I've never seen any electrical stay in the same position as I placed it. Electrical tape is exactly that, its only "ok".