You would know then that a lot of changes take place from just one year to the next so to go seven years is really pushing it. You still didn't say which harness you're looking at. I've only replaced a complete tail light harness on a relatively new Viper for intermittently blowing the tail light fuse, but other than a warranty issue or a fire, I would never expect to replace an entire harness. In fact, in my Automotive Electrical class, I spent a lot of time showing students how to replace terminals in connectors and make other repairs to the harnesses. I could justify an exception for a harness that fell down onto hot exhaust parts AND if you had a similar parts car handy, but otherwise replacing a half dozen wires takes less time than running to a salvage yard to search for a replacement.
Many years ago I put an '89 engine in my '88 minivan. Everything was the same except for the wiring harness and one sensor. You might consider looking on the harnesses for a part number tag. If they're the same, they will interchange. Having the same plugs doesn't mean much, but if the wire colors are the same and in the same locations, that would suggest there's a better chance they are the same.
Every once in a while you'll run into a do-it-yourselfer who thinks the way to find a short is by cutting a bunch of wires. When you run into one of those, you might be better off just replacing the harness. That can be less costly and faster than trying to find the ends of all of the wires and splicing them, especially if it's on a GM car where all of the daytime running light wires are the same color.
Which harness do you want to replace and what happened to it?
Thursday, June 23rd, 2011 AT 8:36 PM
