How bad is it...REALLY?
02-21-2015, 11:04 PM
#16
Three Wheelin'
Thread Starter
Tom, appreciate your thoughts on the situation. The DME looks good from a visual standpoint and I hope it is isolated to just harness and associated fuses.
02-22-2015, 11:45 AM
#17
Rennlist Member
My condolences on your loss 
On a more serious note, I have 'repaired' a car with the same failure from a screwdriver (fortunately this was not my own car!). I would strongly recommend replacement of the harness rather than a 'repair' like I performed. Opening the harness and trying to just replace the burnt wires was a nightmare and resulted in months of troubleshooting. The charring and melting affects adjacent wires and much of it cannot be seen underneath apparently healthy insulation. I hindsight, I would have saved more time just replacing the harness. I'm not sure how extensive the damage to your harness is but the one I dealt with looks similar to your photos.
Problem is finding a good harness especially under the dash. It takes time to carefully remove the harness and most resellers won't take the time and effort to carefully pull an intact harness. I found that the fusebox casing was melted where the wires insert which required changing the fusebox. Trying to get a reseller to spend hours pulling the under dash harness in one piece with the fusebox attached is unlikely. Your best option is to find someone parting a 951 and to carefully pull the harness yourself.
Good luck and keep us posted on how it progresses. I can smell lart circling like a vulture...
On a more serious note, I have 'repaired' a car with the same failure from a screwdriver (fortunately this was not my own car!). I would strongly recommend replacement of the harness rather than a 'repair' like I performed. Opening the harness and trying to just replace the burnt wires was a nightmare and resulted in months of troubleshooting. The charring and melting affects adjacent wires and much of it cannot be seen underneath apparently healthy insulation. I hindsight, I would have saved more time just replacing the harness. I'm not sure how extensive the damage to your harness is but the one I dealt with looks similar to your photos.
Problem is finding a good harness especially under the dash. It takes time to carefully remove the harness and most resellers won't take the time and effort to carefully pull an intact harness. I found that the fusebox casing was melted where the wires insert which required changing the fusebox. Trying to get a reseller to spend hours pulling the under dash harness in one piece with the fusebox attached is unlikely. Your best option is to find someone parting a 951 and to carefully pull the harness yourself.
Good luck and keep us posted on how it progresses. I can smell lart circling like a vulture...
02-22-2015, 04:04 PM
#18
Three Wheelin'
Thread Starter
Kev, I'm kinda feeling that way... I no longer have a place (garage) to work on the car. My neighbors/condo association wouldn't appreciate my hands on approach. I'm going to talk to a couple of P-shops locally and see what their thoughts are and what they'd charge. If it's not prudent...??? (is anything really prudent with an addiction) then I may have no choice but to part the car out. There are a lot of new and/or slightly used parts on this car with many additional parts on shelves, including three sets of wheels.
02-22-2015, 06:50 PM
#20
Rennlist Member
Kev, I'm kinda feeling that way... I no longer have a place (garage) to work on the car. My neighbors/condo association wouldn't appreciate my hands on approach. I'm going to talk to a couple of P-shops locally and see what their thoughts are and what they'd charge. If it's not prudent...??? (is anything really prudent with an addiction) then I may have no choice but to part the car out. There are a lot of new and/or slightly used parts on this car with many additional parts on shelves, including three sets of wheels.
Well, with that being said, I predict that lart already has a PM incoming to you especially since you're in cali. There are probably a few other PM's from others wanting to buy your M-tune. Post some more pics. You will probably have everything sold by this afternoon........
Back to a more serious note, if you just want it running, avoid a P-car shop and take it to an auto-electrician. They will hack out and splice your harness much more affordably than a P-car shop. It won't be the prettiest and it won't look factory but they should be able to get it to run. It may become a more difficult to troubleshoot in the future though since non factory wire colors and connectors will probably be involved.
02-22-2015, 08:23 PM
#21
Three Wheelin'
Thread Starter
Well, with that being said, I predict that lart already has a PM incoming to you especially since you're in cali. There are probably a few other PM's from others wanting to buy your M-tune. Post some more pics. You will probably have everything sold by this afternoon........
Back to a more serious note, if you just want it running, avoid a P-car shop and take it to an auto-electrician. They will hack out and splice your harness much more affordably than a P-car shop. It won't be the prettiest and it won't look factory but they should be able to get it to run. It may become a more difficult to troubleshoot in the future though since non factory wire colors and connectors will probably be involved.
Back to a more serious note, if you just want it running, avoid a P-car shop and take it to an auto-electrician. They will hack out and splice your harness much more affordably than a P-car shop. It won't be the prettiest and it won't look factory but they should be able to get it to run. It may become a more difficult to troubleshoot in the future though since non factory wire colors and connectors will probably be involved.
