Raph72

Hi everyone,

this is my first post and I would like to thank you all in advance for all the valuable help you'll bring me.

I am owning a '03 996 C2 Convertible which was perfectly fine until a stupid short-circuit burnt the dashboard a few weeks ago.

The car could still be driven, and I left it at the official Hong Kong importer, Jebsen, who after 3 weeks told me that my only option was:

1- Change the dashboard - which I agree on. Damage : about USD3,000 including labour
2- Replace the whole wire harness. Damage: about USD 11,000 (!!!) including labour

As I was finding this a bit steep... I've asked to look at the parts and actually the only part that is necessary to change is the "blue socket" which is jammed into the slot... Porsche HK tells me that they can't order just this part and need to order a full harness (and therefore the 60-80 hours of labour to replace it...) which I find hard to believe.

Would anyone know if it is possible just to order the blue socket, or just a smaller portion of the harness to limit the cost of this operation?

Fuses have all been replaced and all electric parts tested and seem to work fine...

Thank you so much for your advice and input.

Raph

Dharn55

I believe that the connector you are showing is pretty much generic to all the 996's, although there may be a difference between the pre-MOST bus cars and yours. Here is an alternative. Buy a used harness like this

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2002-Porsche...5577f0&vxp=mtr

Then remove that connector from the used harness and install it on the harness in you car. Now you are spending $500 or so on a harness and the labor to replace the socket instead of thousands on a new harness and an extensive install.

There are lots of other wiring harness for sale on eBay just search Porsche 996 wiring, or go to a wrecker and get one, they might just cut off the connector and sell it to you, particularly if they have one from a car with a damaged harness.

You need to find the source/cause of the short so this does not happen again.

I had a similar experience with my car recently. I was working on something under the convertible top boot liner when I saw a burnt label on the main wiring harness. I opened up the harness at that point to find a brown/ground wire had melted and melted the insulation on wire around it. I spent a couple of days taking out the roll bar apparatus, rear seats, carpet, front seats, etc. etc. etc. to expose the harness, open it up to expose the wire that was melted and the surrounding wires, replace the melted wire, repair any damaged, melted wires around it, then put everything back together. It turned out to be the ground wire for the rear brake pad sensors, a .5 wire connected to 2.5 on each end. Now I know why my brake pad sensor light was on for two +years even though I had checked the sensor and replaced the pads and sensors. Honestly I am not sure what caused the short, but everything is working now.

If it had been a dealer or most Indy mechanics and they had found a bad ground or seen the melted wire, charring on the harness I bet they would have said to replace the harness instead of tracing and replacing the wire and repairing the collateral damage.

Good kick.

Raph72

Thanks a lot Doug, I'll check on Ebay accordingly

R.

Capt. Obvious

Save yourself a lot of effort and buy one of these tools for pulling the pins from the harness plugs.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/VW-Corrado-P...99bc97&vxp=mtr