Poohbear

Hate to say this, but the wiring harness problem may not be limted to '95's. I'm in the process of buying a '97 cab in otherwise beautiful shape, and the PPI found some warning light gremlins which led to the wiring harness requiring replacement. Thankfully I requested a PPI at a P-Car shop.

Anir

I had repair of a failed door check strap done by my local dealer under goodwill, despite the fact that I am not the original owner and the car is out of warranty.

The door check strap was poorly designed, and it appears that Porsche recognizes this and typically covers the repair under a "hidden" warranty. I wonder how many folks have received a similar courtesy on failed wiring harnesses to date.

I agree that Porsche should stand behind their expensive, and highly profitable, products.

993RS

If you have an early 993 - don't chance it. Replace the electrical harness! I did and was really glad to have done so, because when I had it cut up I saw a lot of very brittle isolation on the wires, and it would have been just a question of time... IMHO, it is a time bomb ticking away... (Unless maybe if you have a garage queen...)


Why the heck does this thread show wrong dates on posting <img src="graemlins/cussing.gif" border="0" alt="[grrrrrrr]" /> <img src="confused.gif" border="0">

Gibo993

Well, My car has 60,000 miles and I live in England, Ok she has a few miles under her belt, but its not HOT. Car was in Germany for 2 years.Not Hot.

One factor is I think the car did a lot of motorway miles with the last owner, he bought in 98 with 12,000 miles its now done 60,000 the only way to do tha in UK is Motorway, Long journeys high temp in engine bay, hey presto knackered loom.

Is there anybody who has contacted Porsche UK over this problem, what results ?
I have an independant looking at the car, but would rather Porsche pick up the tab.

Where is that number for Watchdog !!!!

As stated before this is a very dangerous problem,
Iam talking loads and loads of fuel vapour through a very hot exhaust.

Grant


<img src="graemlins/crying.gif" border="0" alt="[crying]" /> <img src="graemlins/cussing.gif" border="0" alt="[grrrrrrr]" />

993RS

The problem lies in the isolation material which was not good enough. This problem was subsequently corrected (which proves that Porsche AG did know it was a problem). Over here in Zurich (it is NOT hot), quite a few Porsches had this problem. I do not think the outside temperature is going to make much of a difference. I can only repeat: get a new electrical harness!

Jim Carmichael

I am also Faxing this page to Customer Comittment for PCNA, for your info Fax # is 770-290-3700.
Let's bury them in complaints !
PS - I have also contacted the President of my section of PCA, I will wait see what he says...

Doc Vorce

I've discussed the problems associated with the 993 wiring harness with two Porsche technicians. Neither denied that the problems exist, and neither offered an equivocal explanation for the problems. However (and my intent is to report the technicians' claims), both asserted that the problems are not restricted to non-varioram 993s.

993RS

I discussed it with German mechanics over here, and they said they only had cases with the early 993's, but since the percentage of cases was still relatively low, Porsche AG will probably go on doing nothing about it.
Regardless, the risk is there. I would not feel safe unless I changed the harness, which I did...

Gibo993

Well, After six weeks without my car, RSR engineering have picked it up and diag'd the Engine harness as being dodgey, The part will arrive next week and he will fit it on Wednesday,

I just hope this fixes it as it will take the bill to £1000 including ECU work.

I have been driving a R33 Skyline for the last 6 weeks and although fun, it eats tyres and petrol faster than anything I have driven before.

I want my car back !!!

I will post the findings of the old loom and take pictures etc and Send them to EJ

fingers crossed

G

Tom F

What amazes me about this problem is that Volvo had a similar problem in the '80s, and they had a fix in place by the early 90s. Usually, you expect Porsche to be ahead of the curve. Not this time, I guess.

Also, isn't it ironic that the harnesses in the 356s and early 911s seem to last forever, longer than any other make of car I can think of, except Mercedes?

PeanutinCA

Hi people,
I moved from Australia to the US 9 months ago (I'll ask if the same is occurring over there?) and just 3 weeks back, picked myself up a new (used) '95 993. Now this is a fully serviced '95 with documented 23K miles. I drove it home on a Wednesday, by Saturday while looking for a CD stacker cartridge at Circuit City, I started the car and it had dropped to 5 cyclinders. I limped it to the mechanics to see why? He played with the harness on the drivers side engine bank and it fired up all 6. Next minute, white electrical smoke started to come from the engine bay. We quickly shut it off and discounected the battery. Long story short, even a low mile harness had deteriorated to the point that wires had delaminated (so to speak) and were shorting against each other. Other wires were broken in half. It was only a small section of the harness, isolated to that drivers side of the engine bay.

Side note 1.
The mechanic then remembered another client of his whos instruments would begin to bounce everytime he washed his car (I had washed mine just that morning). He drove it in one day and I think he was suggesting, when they cut it open, the car went up in flames (left me concerned for the health of mine , especially when he told me about another clients Ferrari going up in flames when he was putting gas in it <img src="graemlins/crying.gif" border="0" alt="[crying]" /> ). Turned out to be the same problem.

Side note 2.
Not sure if I can mention names but I drove my repaired (original harness repeaired by mechanic 1) 993 to a Porsche Dealer in Torrance to discuss. Service manager knew nothing (but confessed to being a 996 specialist, he apparently tried convincing my friend to buy and NSX, go figure
). The first mechanic we asked, new of the problem straight up, he called over another mechanic who gave me the US$1,000 estimate having just recently done one also.

Side note 3.
When I returned my car for repair to the dealer I bought from, there mechanic new exactly the problem because he had just done one himself. And they were a dinky Mercedes dealer in Laguna. (I shared the bill with them because I did get the car cheap, guess I was lucky in that sense? Imagine explaining to the Insurance company that my 3 day old car sizzled to the ground!! <img src="graemlins/roflmao.gif" border="0" alt="[hiha]" /> )

A definate problem, like a little kid with a box of matches. It's bound to happen, just a matter of time? Mine was after 23K miles.

Sorry this was so long but some interesting points to who knows what? Two Porsche mechanics and two generic mechanics here in California I spoke to out of maybe half a dozen people knew of it.

Regards,
Dylan.

DC from Cape Cod

What is the cut-off between high risk cars and those that are considered safe?