RLXXI

How can you possibly solder/heat shrink insulate wires quicker than just plugging in a wire harness?
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HushCarAudio

Well, when you factor in that a lot of the harnesses were labeled incorrectly (which I've experienced) I wouldn't have to install the plug and play kit, put back the radio, then uninstall, investigate why the sound system isn't working correctly, identify the issue, correct it by swapping the incorrect wires, and then reinstall everything. Doing it my way would save me time.

RLXXI

I can understand that point of view but if the unit came with the harness, would you not plug it in just to see?
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HushCarAudio

After the issues I've seen I'd still verify each wire before reinstalling the head unit back in.

RLXXI

I guess being in your line of work you probably see a lot more of it than most, I've found that to be the case with a lot of Ford issues as an ex dealer line tech. Just as an FYI if you ever have a customer want the stereo I just installed in my truck a little while ago, their harness works perfectly. Alpine X009-FD2 system. Took all of 30 mins start to finish.

Before



After


Matter of fact, that is one system I don't think anyone would want to try and slice/splice wires, the harness is fairly complex with the Maestro iDatalink incorporated. Completely plug-n-play with exception of flashing the maestro via pc for vehicle functions like steering wheel control, sync etc....
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