My dash wire harness MELTED

My dumbass didn't crimp a wire good enough, and a bad ground melted my wire harness in my dash. Am I better off trying to buy a whole new harness or replacing it wire by wire, and if so, is there a wiring scheme available to know what all the wires are for?

My step dad advises me not to drive my car anymore until this is fixed because apparently it's a fire hazard if I drive like this, not to mention it pisses me off that my fuse didn't work and prevent this from happening.


Also, he says my sound system is probably too much power for the car to handle, which is stupid seeing that I only have two 12" Alpine Type E subs pushing 400 watts RMS into both of them into a two ohm load with an Alpine mono amp ran paralell, and about another 400 watts with my MB Quart RA-4200 for component speakers. there's no way this is too much power for my car?





Already know it's my fault for trying to use channel locks to do a crimping job, and not using the right tool for the job. I just want to fix it now, though.

the mess of wires are unplugged from the actual wire harness now, which has the worst of the melting. is this actually unsafe to drive? should I buy a whole new harness or fabricate my own? where do I buy it and how much? :/

I wouldn't drive it like that. You may do more damage or burn the car to the ground. These cars are so complicated electrically that melted wiring is the last thing you need. You'll be chasing problems forever like that. I would replace all the melted wires one at a time. Solder everything and use heat shrink tubing. Then cross your fingers and hope for the best.

LARRY70GS wrote:

I wouldn't drive it like that. You may do more damage or burn the car to the ground. These cars are so complicated electrically that melted wiring is the last thing you need. You'll be chasing problems forever like that. I would replace all the melted wires one at a time. Solder everything and use heat shrink tubing. Then cross your fingers and hope for the best.

Hmm, so you recommend instead of buying a new whole harness, to attempt to replace it wire by wire? Looks like I'm gonna have to tear my entire dash completely out, lol.

c0reyl wrote:

LARRY70GS wrote:

I wouldn't drive it like that. You may do more damage or burn the car to the ground. These cars are so complicated electrically that melted wiring is the last thing you need. You'll be chasing problems forever like that. I would replace all the melted wires one at a time. Solder everything and use heat shrink tubing. Then cross your fingers and hope for the best.

Hmm, so you recommend instead of buying a new whole harness, to attempt to replace it wire by wire? Looks like I'm gonna have to tear my entire dash completely out, lol.

I'm thinking an entire harness will be very pricey, unless you can get it from Morad. You'll probably have to tear the whole dash up anyway. Try Ed Morad, http://www.moradpartscompany.com/

Thanks for the link. and I guess I might as well try replacing my gauges and getting the dashboard repainted properly while I'm at it, lol.

Scosche sells a replacement connector.
http://www.scosche.com/car-audio/product/265
I would try my luck with that, all of the wiring colors match up with the stock ones. Just be sure to check if the wire is striped or not, and to use heatshrink. I would also personally wrap the heatshrink with electric tape, just to be sure. If worst comes to worst, you can always go to the junkyard and pull one.

Yep! do not drive it that way! and always remember this in the future!!
we all learn from our mistakes!

Haha, it was a bad ground in my trunk ironically. I fixed it by soldering the wires in the terminals with a torch. Didn't have any solder wire at the time :3

Thank you for the link by the way!

Anyone know of a wiring diagram? :/

There is no way this was caused by the ground in the trunk. First off you could run the deck with no ground at all, the deck would pull ground off the antenna connection. In the picture of the wiring harness, the one you wired not the stock harness in the car, there are several connections I can see plainly that have bare wire sticking out of the end of the connector. That is a problem waiting to happen. Also it looks like the wire that melted was the ignition wire. This would have nothing to do with a ground problem......except that wire probably shorted to ground via some uninsulated wire exposed at the connector. Also it sounds like the ground wire you are talking about in the trunk is for your amps. At worst a poor ground on your amps will try to pull ground from the rca shield and/or cause problems for your amps. I just want to caution you that if you think you have fixed the problem by soldering a ground connection in the trunk and you hook everything back up in the dash you will likely have a similar problem happen again. Just my 2 cents though.

Hmm, I went a whole year no problems with the wire harness until the weird ground problem in the trunk which once I disabled the amps in the back, it immediately stopped melting. No idea why that would happen.

And I suppose now I should tear apart the steering column, re wrap the wheel, and check security wires plus ignition wires? :3

Edit:

Some of the bare wire you might see was from multi meter testing and others could be the melted insulation, but either way, I'm not the best at electrical systems so I could be wrong either way :/

Quote :

Hmm, I went a whole year no problems with the wire harness until the weird ground problem in the trunk which once I disabled the amps in the back, it immediately stopped melting. No idea why that would happen.

I agree with sqrivi. It's just coincidence that your problem occurred after the grounding issue. The ignition wire could have stopped melting for a number of reasons.

Everything shown in your pictures should be replaced, or rewired using a correct technique. If you're "not the best at electrical systems", maybe find a friend or local stereo shop that can help you with it. Pay a little now or a lot later. These are the kinds of problems that can be very challenging to fix. Replacing the wiring might be the best solution.

Maybe this will help? https://rivperformance.editboard.com/t7595-engine-wiring-harness-diagrams-series-ii-sc

Wait, that thread makes it seem like my engine harness could've melted too? :o

c0reyl wrote:

Wait, that thread makes it seem like my engine harness could've melted too? :o

FYI:
and the hesitation issue you were having in that other thread, if your MAF had tested fine we would have pointed you in the direction of the signal comming from the MAF sensor. IE wiring harnes and its connection through the firewall.

Karma wrote:

c0reyl wrote:

Wait, that thread makes it seem like my engine harness could've melted too? :o

FYI:
and the hesitation issue you were having in that other thread, if your MAF had tested fine we would have pointed you in the direction of the signal comming from the MAF sensor. IE wiring harnes and its connection through the firewall.

I'm not sure how the stereo wiring harness affects the engine bay and ignition like this though. It's not that I'm bad at electrical, as much as completely inexperienced with overhauling a car electrical system lol.

and dyslexia has a tendency to really mess me up reading schematics :3

but yeah, now I think I may want to really check this electrical problem out in more detail than I thought, and it gives me a chance to finish the interior anyway, so I can't bitch too much lol

Okay so thinking logically for a minute, if my ignition wires melted, it would've changed the impedance and compromised the security system, and the resistors in my key, and the system that used it would not allow the car to start. It starts and runs fine. That makes no sense to me when the reason my car wouldn't start was at first a bent key mixed with a dirty throttle body, or maybe it was a fluke that cleaning my throttle body seemed to fix it entirely?

Also, I don't get how the stereo system melting a couple of wires in the stereo wire harness would affect wiring in the engine bay. The only wire going to the engine bay from the head unit should be the 12 volt power connection?

Either I'm an idiot, or completely wrong either way. But knowing this would help me know what to do to fix it.

I don't think you did any more damage than what you can see inside the dash. All it takes is something to short to ground for a second or so. The fact that you didn't pop any fuses means that it was momentary. Fix what you can see. Make sure everything is insulated properly. Then turn on the ignition for a brief time, and give it a test. The wiring back there is very cramped normally. Everything has to be connected with no bare wire anywhere.

You don't have any stereo wires under the hood. they go to the fuse block then to the back seat ( where the battery is )

gmann3001 wrote:

You don't have any stereo wires under the hood. they go to the fuse block then to the back seat ( where the battery is )

See, that's what I was thinking. and the weird thing is the fuse (forgot the label, but it's nothing radio or stereo sounding), 10 amps, is not blown.

yet, I get no stereo power still, but that's probably the melted harness

I just don't get why people are saying my ignition wires are melted (which would change impedance for SURE, and the car would NOT start because fuel lines would be cut off from security system, much like it was when my key was bent), and possibly engine harness and someone else earlier said that could be why my MAF was acting up affecting my throttle response, which got fixed by cleaning my throttle body and a cold air intake >_>

I might be mechanically inclined, but I'm no master technician, so this all has me feeling pretty dumb right about now.

The ignition wire that is melted is the ignition wire for the deck. It has nothing to do with the ignition harness (where you insert your key to start the car). It simply gets power when the ignition is turned on in order to turn on the deck. I would expect your damage to be confined to the wiring for the deck. There is more than one fuse that could prevent your radio from turning on. Have you used a meter to check the constant 12v, and the 12v ignition wire in the wire harness for the deck?

sqrivi wrote:

The ignition wire that is melted is the ignition wire for the deck. It has nothing to do with the ignition harness (where you insert your key to start the car). It simply gets power when the ignition is turned on in order to turn on the deck. I would expect your damage to be confined to the wiring for the deck. There is more than one fuse that could prevent your radio from turning on. Have you used a meter to check the constant 12v, and the 12v ignition wire in the wire harness for the deck?

I need a wiring diagram to know which wires are what, which I realized pretty quick after I got my multimeter out <_<