Is it possible to find electrical harnesses used in salvage yards?

Question

I think my wiring on my Toyota 93 V6 3.0 engine is corroded from battery acid and needs to be replaced.

I have heard this job is quite expensive, but was wondering if it was more to do with labor or parts.

If i could find one in a salvage yard maybe it wont be too bad.

what can you say?

Answer 1

If it is just near the battery, you can just replace the corroded parts with new wire ,soldered and sealed. To replace a wire harness, nasty job and you better know what your doing or you will do damage to your PCM or other modules in your car.
Baking soda and water is the best to use to clean the battery and terminals with.

Answer 2

With luck, you'll find a wiring harness at a salvage yard.

I understand they're pretty labor intensive to replace.

If only a few wires are at fault, try taking it to an electrical shop and get an estimate on replacing just the wires that are bad. It might just be a lot cheaper, easier and less of a headache.

Answer 3

Unless you had a battery break or really leak and got lots of acid all over the place, you may be making a mountain out of the ol' mole hole. Just make up a solution of water and baking soda, disconnect the battery, and wash off the areas where you see the acid has gotten on the cables. Finding a harness in a junk yard may be ok, but you will most likely have to take it off your self as they don't normally bother with them. Then you have the removal and reinstall problem on your car. The man hours is going to be horrendous!!.

Answer 4

the wiring harness its self is quite a bit of money with parts and labor. try cleaning it up before you do anything. you can find wiring harnesses in a salvage yard but there are no garuantees that it will be in 1 peice or in working condition. and from experience a majority of the salvage yards arent to friendly on returns. I would take it to a shop and have it diagnosed. they may have some ideas that arent outragously expensive. goodluck

Answer 5

I agree with lab... but disagree with motor eyes's method... Let me elaborate...

Battery acid is precisely that... acid. Don't pour boiling water over it, if there is any exposed wire, the heat will expand the sheathing over the wire, and let the water and acid work it's way deeper into the core of the wire, causing more damage.

Start with a good quantity of bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) and mix it with cool tap water. Pour that over the wires near the battery, and the soda water will neutralize the acid. While it is working, the soda water will foam up. Give it a minute to work, then rinse it with cool distilled water. Repeat the process untill the soda water doesn't foam anymore. Then after you have rinsed the last time, dry the wires with a cotton rag.

As far as soldering and putting a new sheath around the damaged parts... If you don't know already, here's how to do that, what you'll need, and what to avoid. Read this whole thing before you start...

Of course, you need a soldering iron with a small tip, and a wire cutter/stripper. Also, a razor blade, or scissors. And a hypodermic needle (insulin syringe), or a needle of any sort (sewing needle, thumbtack, safety pin, whatever). And an air compressor, hose, and blowgun (or can of compressed air that you usually use to blow the dust out of a keyboard).

You can get, at any auto parts store, something called "heat shrinkable tubing". I prefer the clear kind. Get plenty of that, they will be the new "sheaths" for the damaged wires. DO NOT use electrical tape.

Also, consider that some of the wires relay sensor info. The wrong solder will act like a "resistor", limiting the current being sent along the wire. Lead based flux core solder is for plumbing, not for electrical soldering. Get "silver bearing solder", and lead free flux (sulfuric acid in a little tube. It is often, but not always, packaged with the silver solder).

Identify the damaged wires, and get new, matching wire. By matching, I mean the same gauge, same color scheme sheathing. In fact, if you can find a used harness that is cheap, yet not totally destroyed in a scrap yard, you will be able to use good segments of it to match and patch the bad segments of the one you have.

The length of the wire is also important. The repaired wire needs to be just as long, or as short, as it was originally. So, instead of cutting out a damaged section and bringing the ends back together, if you have cut out two inches of corroded wire, replace it with two inches of good wire.

Now we get to the fun stuff...

If your soldering iron doesn't have a "trigger", plug it in and preheat it.

Cut out the damaged segment of a wire. Note that the damage may go further along the length of the wire in its core than just where it is exposed. Keep stripping the wire until you find good wire, and leave about a quarter inch of good wire extending from good sheathing at each exposed end. Also strip a quarter inch of sheathing from each end of the patch wire you have cut to length.

Before you connect the wires, cut a length of new sheathing (the heat shrinkable stuff). It comes in different diameters, and will only shrink so much. It should be barely big enough that you can slide it over the wire easily. If your patch wire is less than an inch or two long, you might as well cut the new sheathing to cover the patchwire's length, plus an inch, so it will overrun the good sheathing by a half inch at each end. If your patchwire is longer than two inches, cut two pieces of new sheathing 1 1/4" long. Thread the original good wire through the new sheathing, and slide the new sheathing as far up the original good wire as you can. If it is too close to the soldering point, the heat from the solder will shrink the tubing prematurely, and it will stick where it's at. You'll have to start over.

With the new sheath where it needs to be, connect the wires. DO NOT twist them together and fold them over, just slide the ends together so they interweave without spreading so much that the new sheath will not be able to slide back over it.

Here's where the needles come into play... The lead free flux in the tube is not a paste, it is a thin liquid. DO NOT just take lid off and cut the end, it will come out MUCH to fast. And again, it is sulfuric acid, it will burn your skin. Preferably, remove the lid, poke a syringe through the seal, and fill the syringe with the flux so that you can dispense it from the syringe. Or, just poke as small of a hole as you can through the seal with a needle, so that you can gently squeeze it out of the tube a drop or two at a time. I prefer the syringe method, it makes it MUCH easier to put a drop of the flux exactly where you want it. Just make sure you don't push the plunger too hard and squirt acid everywhere. Rubber gloves are a good idea...

Put a drop or two of the flux on the cold, and exposed wire. Take your hot soldering iron and feed enough silver solder on to the tip to make a small, melted puddle. When you touch the solder puddle on the tip of the iron to the flux saturated wire, the flux will quickly pull the solder into the wire mesh. Pull the soldering iron away from the work as soon as that happens. It will quickly cool enough for the solder to set.

Blow compressed, dry air over the work to cool it. When it has cooled completely, slide the new sheath back over the work so that there is at least a half inch of overlapping sheathing on each side of the work. When the new sheathing is in place, move your hot soldering iron back and forth close to the new sheathing, but DO NOT TOUCH THE SHEATH WITH THE IRON. The heat radiating from the iron will cause the new sheath to shrink, and seal the work. If you touch the hot iron to the sheath, it will melt a hole, and you will need to start over. If you have a shaky hand, a flame from a cigarette lighter a couple of inches under the work will work. A really hot hair dryer works well too...

Repeat this procedure for every piece of damaged wire you find, one at a time, so you don't need to label the wires.

So, now you know why mech's charge as much as they do to do this.

Answer 6

haha you THINK its corroded? :/ whatever sits on a wire oil, water, grease anything and if its whiteish bluey floury (battery acid) is on it, then YES dont think! get it re-wired or easy as pie go to a wreckers and get another one. but dont hink its a easy job done, takes many hours to pull off wiring harness leading from one end to another. and its a v6 aswell so the wiring runs for the injectors so theres a hell of a lot of wiring to pull out. but it all comes out at once. take my advise and if you are going to do it on your own, get a "paint marker" or labels to label "alternator" "injector #1" and things like that. itll be like childs play ;)
good luck!

p.s if the battery acid is only sitting on top of the wire then get hot water HOT BOILING WATER and pour it all over the wiring where its affected. that should treat it battery acid free. and while ure at it cover the battery acid in hot boiling water and put some corrosion free spray on the terminals to prevent it from happening again.

if your electrical system isnt playing up then, yeah just clean the wiring with hot boiling water and use some electrical tape and secure it from happening again.,

Answer 7

you might find one in a salvage yard that isn't in bad condition,labor on it will be for how ever long it takes anyone to install it,most of the ones in the salvage yards though have been cut on,so it might be hard to find a good one,it will be more labor than parts on this job,parts probably 100 bucks maybe more or less,labor 200 maybe better,good luck with it.

Answer 8

An alternative to the main dealer would be to check with an auto-electrician. Don't ask them to replace the harness, but ask them what they can do by way of repairs. If the problem is only in one part of the harness then it may be cost-effective to just have that part repaired professionally (for reliability).

Answer 9

They are certainly available at the scrapyard. And that will definetely lessen the cost. The only trouble is, finding the exact harness. It is best to find the tag or paert number on the harness on your vehicle, and make sure the tag/number on the donor vehicle matches. Or you could end up with more problems than you started with....