Burnt Engine Harness

[TheBonfiggy]

Hey everyone, one of the fasteners on my 1LE engine harness came loose and it dropped down on the headers. Car still runs fine but it randomly goes into engine power reduced mode and then wont start again for another 10 min or so. I currently have it secured and I electrical taped it pretty good, but I wanted to get others opinion about what I should do. Do you think I should replace the harness altogether or is it fixable? I am not too familiar with wiring and would really appreciate any input, thanks! Also, if I do end up replacing it, do I need a specific harness since its a 2013 because of the electric power steering, or are they interchangeable?

[blake-b]

I would bet some of the actual metal wires were burnt and their conductivity was impaired. You could just replace those sections but cutting and splicing in new sections of wire. If that doesn't fix it, the part number you need is 22897085 and is around $270.

[TheBonfiggy]

Hey so I just finished up replacing my engine harness with the above part number. The car will not turn over at all and I am getting a bunch of popup messages like service stabilitrak, engine power reduced, etc. I double checked over all connections and could not find an issue. Everything is in the right spot and all grounds are secure. Any ideas what could be causing this? Car ran fine with no issues on the old wiring harness.

[Mr. Stacy]

Originally Posted by TheBonfiggy

Hey so I just finished up replacing my engine harness with the above part number. The car will not turn over at all and I am getting a bunch of popup messages like service stabilitrak, engine power reduced, etc. I double checked over all connections and could not find an issue. Everything is in the right spot and all grounds are secure. Any ideas what could be causing this? Car ran fine with no issues on the old wiring harness.

Hope you re-booted it by removing neg. battery cable for 10-20 minutes?

If you already tried that, your earlier mishap may have fried the ECU.

[TheBonfiggy]

I disconnected the battery in the trunk before I even unhooked a single wire and didn't reconnect it until the new harness was completely on. What could I have done that would have fried my ecu, like what would cause something like that to happen?

Originally Posted by Mr. Stacy

Hope you re-booted it by removing neg. battery cable for 10-20 minutes?

If you already tried that, your earlier mishap may have fried the ECU.

[Welker2]

Originally Posted by TheBonfiggy

I disconnected the battery in the trunk before I even unhooked a single wire and didn't reconnect it until the new harness was completely on. What could I have done that would have fried my ecu, like what would cause something like that to happen?

Any short in the original harness resulting from burnt wires or from possibly not installing the new properly (not saying you didn't) could fry the ECU.

[Mr. Stacy]

Originally Posted by TheBonfiggy

I disconnected the battery in the trunk before I even unhooked a single wire and didn't reconnect it until the new harness was completely on. What could I have done that would have fried my ecu, like what would cause something like that to happen?

As you said, the harness got cooked. Easily could have shorted several pairs of wires that could send hot signals, or even juice, where they are not supposed to go.

An ECU is just like any other computer chip. Very sensitive to hot signals or shorts.

If you are sure everything is connected properly, I would try the re-boot once more.

Then document everything that happens when you turn on the ignition.

Try just turning on the ignition without starting at first and see what happens. What are all the messages etc.

[TheBonfiggy]

Yes, the harness got burnt, but if the ecu was bad wouldn't it not have ran with the burnt harness? I was able to start the car before even with the burnt harness. I started it yesterday to move it into the garage to remove burnt harness and replace it. I will reboot one more time now and will update the thread with what happens.

Originally Posted by Mr. Stacy

As you said, the harness got cooked. Easily could have shorted several pairs of wires that could send hot signals, or even juice, where they are not supposed to go.

An ECU is just like any other computer chip. Very sensitive to hot signals or shorts.

If you are sure everything is connected properly, I would try the re-boot once more.

Then document everything that happens when you turn on the ignition.

Try just turning on the ignition without starting at first and see what happens. What are all the messages etc.

[christianchevell]

The old school way would be to take the original wiring harness cut off any surrounding wire covering and you could re-tape by separating the wires from each other individually the melted section where wires melted together. You bought a harness and hopefully its connecting up a little off and you may want to try this repair with your old harness and see if it makes the car come back to life..... The real danger would be from shorting from one wire to another as others stated. Good Luck.

[TheBonfiggy]

Wiring was burnt in the thickest section on the old harness and I just didnt want to worry about having an issue later down the road so I decided to just replace it with a brand new one. What do you mean by shorting from wire to another?

Originally Posted by christianchevell

The old school way would be to take the original wiring harness cut off any surrounding wire covering and you could re-tape by separating the wires from each other individually the melted section where wires melted together. You bought a harness and hopefully its connecting up a little off and you may want to try this repair with your old harness and see if it makes the car come back to life..... The real danger would be from shorting from one wire to another as others stated. Good Luck.

[TheBonfiggy]

Ok so I reset the car by disconnecting the battery for 20 min. When I just turn the key i get messages on the dash saying service power steering, service stabilitrak, service parking assist, and fuel level low (even though I have half a tank of gas).. Also shows a CAL message. When I turn the key to try and start the car, the speedo and display goes black and the car does not make any noise whatsoever, it doesn't even try to turn over. Anyone ever experience something like this or have any ideas?

[Mr. Stacy]

Originally Posted by TheBonfiggy

Ok so I reset the car by disconnecting the battery for 20 min. When I just turn the key i get messages on the dash saying service power steering, service stabilitrak, service parking assist, and fuel level low (even though I have half a tank of gas).. Also shows a CAL message. When I turn the key to try and start the car, the speedo and display goes black and the car does not make any noise whatsoever, it doesn't even try to turn over. Anyone ever experience something like this or have any ideas?

Sounds like a dead battery, or a bad connection. Assuming your battery is good, it must be a bad connection somewhere.

Looks like you are going to have to re-check each connection, and possibly re-install the old one. Sure you got the right harness?

[TheBonfiggy]

Battery is fully charged and I just went over the connections for a third time and cannot find any that are not connected properly.

Originally Posted by Mr. Stacy

Sounds like a dead battery, or a bad connection. Assuming your battery is good, it must be a bad connection somewhere.

Looks like you are going to have to re-check each connection, and possibly re-install the old one. Sure you got the right harness?

[Welker2]

Originally Posted by TheBonfiggy

Battery is fully charged and I just went over the connections for a third time and cannot find any that are not connected properly.

Even though the battery fully charged, it may still be bad. If you haven't already done so, take it to your local auto parts store & have it checked. If it checks out & you're sure you've got everything connected up right (which it sounds like you have), unfortunately, the next step may be to have it towed to a shop & checked out. Good luck.