A TikTok user has posted a viral clip on the platform explaining how his father-in-law was quoted $1,200 for a repair to his backup camera on his Chevy vehicle, only to become incredibly suspicious as to why he was being quoted so much for the repair.
TikTok user Paul Inman (@jeepcherokee1999) recounted the tale in a video on his account. In the video, he claimed that a dealership had told the car’s owner that a wiring harness had been chewed or ripped to bits and it would cost $1,200 to get the nearly brand-new truck back on the road.
Having to pay that much for what seemed like a small fix didn’t sit right with Inman. However, he and his father-in-law then took a look underneath the Chevrolet. It was there that they claimed they found the real source of the problem, and it offered a solution that didn’t cost them a cent.
In fact, the TikTok user said that he and his father-in-law were able to fix it pretty much instantly in the parking lot. It made the TikTok user mad, and the video has started to gain a lot of traction, with over 206,000 views at the time of writing.
What Happened at the Dealership?
@jeepcherokee1999 #newtruck ♬ original sound – Paul inman
The Chevrolet cost around $90,000, but Inman said that his father-in-law, who actually owns the vehicle, doesn’t drive it a lot. With the passenger-side taillight and backup camera both failing at the same time, he decided to take it in for repair. It was still under warranty, and therefore any repair should have been covered.
It was a few days later that the dealership rang to say they had found the wiring harness feeding the camera and taillight had been “chewed or ripped in half.” They said the problem was now deemed outside damage, and not a defect, and thus it wasn’t covered under the warranty. A total cost of $1,200 was quoted, but with the replacement harnesses found online for $69, Inman’s father-in-law bought them instead.
The two soon went back to pick up the Chevy, where they noticed wiring and connectors hanging underneath the vehicle. His father-in-law went to complain, and Inman had a look under the vehicle, with the mechanics telling his father-in-law that it was like that when they arrived. Amazingly, Inman’s father-in-law then pushed a plug back in underneath the Chevy, and suddenly, the passenger-side blinker and brake lights worked. When the vehicle was put into reverse, the backup camera started to work as well.
What Was Actually Wrong With the Chevy?
Inman suggested in his video that the wiring harness wasn’t damaged at all. “There were no chewed wires, no broken wires, no mice, no nothing,” he said. “Just a disconnected harness,” he added. That, of course, led to speculation that the dealership may have caused some of the damage and was thus trying to cover it up. Perhaps they had been too rough with the wiring while they were looking for the problem.
While the video doesn’t give us a definitive answer, it sounds like a connector had simply worked its way loose amongst all the wiring under the Chevrolet. Perhaps some rodents had come and had a nibble at the connector too, but even so, it looked like it had been fixed at no cost to Inman or his father-in-law. AAA actually recommends that car owners check for potential exposed wiring to avoid a situation like this happening or to prevent rodents from chewing through it.