E. Malcolm Crosby

Well I've been following, like I assume many of you have been, the issue of the wiring harnesses in our '95 993's.

I have a '95 993 C2 Coupe. I bought the car in May of 2000 in San Diego when it had 41,000 miles. The car now has 86,000 miles.

Well I took my car in because my steering rack was leaking. Since I had the car in the shop I thought I would have them check the condition of my harness. However, I changed my mind and had them order the part that E.J. suggested and just swap it out instead.

Well today I picked up my car and although I'm $2500 lighter I'm glad I had my harness changed. ($457 for harness + $495 labor)

At the point where the harness plugs into the alternator the shielding was brittle and crumbling apart. My mechanic told me that I was very lucky that I didn't loose the car. Also, although he had heard people discussing this issue he had never seen a failing 993 harness. So my harness was the first example he had seen in such a condition.

Here's the information from my OLD harness.

Part No: 993.607.016.05-0/0
Fertigungsdatum: 14.09.94
Auftragsnr: 0014
Montage: 08
Zeichnungsdatum: 11.04.94
Prufung: 1119

Here's the information from my new harness.
(information from the box label)

Part No: 993.607.016.05
We-Datum: 19.11.2001
Made in Slovakia

Some other interesting information that my mechanic mentioned was that he's seen this kind of problem on early to mid-90's Mercedes. Apparently the shielding material was changed so that it would degrade over time. The problem was that when the cables were made they screwed up and they degraded way to fast thus causing a very early failure. I wonder if this could be the same problem we're having.

I didn't post the pictures of my harness, but I do have them if anyone wants me to post them.

later..

Tito

please post the pictures.
Tito

chroni

You mention the sheilding was changed so that it WOULD degrade over time? Is that right? If so I'm not sure I understand the logic to that.

KASH '95 993

chroni, hit....look at it from a business point of view

chroni

Huh. Well, guess I expected that lowly concept was relagated to Detroit specials.

condo bob

enjoyed the story at breakfast with you& then to read about it on rennlist. like your plates with name backwards. <img src="graemlins/wave.gif" border="0" alt="[byebye]" />

E. Malcolm Crosby

From what I was told there was a law/regulation passed I'm guessing in Germany regarding the shielding material. They wanted the cable to degrade once it was removed from the car and thrown into the trash or land fill or whatever. When the formulated the plastic shielding they screwed up and did it wrong/badly and the cable failed prematurely. This sounded familar to me.

I'm not sure if this is true or not, just what I was told. I thought there may have been a connection when he mentioned that the early/mid 90's Mercedes had the same problem possibly even worse.

I'll have the pictures uploaded soon...I hope.

E. Malcolm Crosby

Here are two photos of my harness.

amfp

Malcolm,

Is your 993 a early, or late 95 model ?

Thanks.

E. Malcolm Crosby

My car is an early '95 manufactured in '94. I'll double check that after I get these pictures uploaded.

Let's try those picture one more time.

E. Malcolm Crosby

[quote]Malcolm,
Is your 993 a early, or late 95 model ?

Thanks.
<hr></blockquote>

I'm the second owner, the car was first purchased on Nov. 1, 1994.

Tito

wow
thanks

Matt Vaughan

Can you make those pictures any bigger?

GB 95 CAB

You got a good deal on the labor. I got mine done by a dealer and he charged me $1000. But there's a good story here with a lesson attached.

He threw in the part free so I'm even, right? Until, he charged me $205 for an oil change. I was going to the track that weekend so I didn't have a choice. It gets worse. At the track I found a relay for the heater blower in my center console. They'd forgotten to reinstall it so I thought I'd pop it back in. Un-unh! Seems that in the process of installing the new harness they overtightened and stripped the screws holding the cover on the left rear relay box (the main junction for the harness). No way to get it off except to cut it open. Unfortunately my car went on a moving truck the day after the event for a 2500 relocation to California, so I had to have the R&R done by a different dealer. The original dealer shipped a new box to the store out here and I payed the $80 labor bill.

Going to a retailer is like going to a Casino. No matter how lucky you think you are, the house always wins in the end.

Did I mention the original dealer scratched my wheels too? Oh yea, I also asked them to fix an oil leak from the left valve cover gasket while they had the engine out. The leak was back by the time I took it to the CA dealer for the relay box repair (300 miles or so). At least the CA dealer fixed that under parts warranty. He mentioned that he always does both if one is leaking and he was suprised the original dealer only did the one. At this point I wasn't.

I've been carrying this story around for a year, but it feels good to finally get it off my chest. Oh yea, the lesson? Avoid factory authorized service except for warranty repairs.

tom_993

Malcolm,
Looks like it was a good thing to proactively change your harness. Yours looks just like mine, and the problem was in the same area. Thanks for posting your part numbers. My new harness has the same part number as the old, while others have reported an updated part number. This is something I’ve been curious and concerned about. Mine, like yours, has a recent build date, which is somewhat comforting. I don’t think we know the full store regarding the part numbers.
Make sure they did not use the clamp that holds the harness to the intake manifold when they installed your new harness. There has been some concern regarding heat transfer from the engine to the harness through this clamp. Mine was installed with the clamp, but this was before this piece of information was known. The clamp is easy to remove, just remove the heater fan and you’ll be able to see where the harness clamps to the manifold. I’ve removed mine.
Our cars are brothers, mine was first sold in October of ’94. You might want to include your VIN; I think E.J. is keeping track of them in his database.

Tom