I shoulda read this $@#$&^ string backwards and saved a half hour of reading time. It looks like the project died on the 5th of April on Scott's site and petered out here also.

Methinks I should get one of these gizmos now while the gittin is good. I liked Neil's idea but have to wonder if a plan B might be to find a heat-shield kinda shrink-wrap material gersniftafloppen to ober fitten onsa new replacenment harnesen to makeensa uckenfay ingthay last longer.

You do understand German Pig Latin don't you?

T M

Yeah, at ~$300 I was tempted to buy one as preventive maintenance, but at $500 now I think I'll wait until mine starts failing. So far it appears OK, but I haven't examined the whole thing. It's nothing like my disintegrating starter cable harness. BUT, my dash temp gauge has been a little flaky, and the end contact is clean... d'oh... I hope that's not an early sign of harness failure!

Covering the new harness with a fiberglass type heat shield, similar to what racers use for spark plug wires, might provide a exta little protection (and yup, your Latin came through nice & clear!). This would be extra helpful for the starter harness, which gets baked by the exhaust manifold, and is locked under the head, behind the air pump, oil filter housing, and alternator... all major heat-eminating items.

The GB never did go through since I was never able to get enough interest at the time. I didn't realize the prices have jumped so much since then. At this point since I'm still trying to sell my car I'm not going to do anything about it, especially since mine is in ok condition. But if the car doesn't sell I will be buying one in late August.

I'll check with my source to determine what he can get them for, if it's less than what is posted I'll let everyone know.

__________________
Afshin

Current:
02 C32 AMG

Previous:
92 500E
84 190E 2.3 5 Spd

Per the latest price list I know of, May 2004:

The engine harness is:
124-543-95-26 (1992 only) - $384 wholesale
124-440-20-06 (1993-94) - $480 wholesale


Ordering via Speed Autoteile in Germany, they would be about $340 and $425 respectively (in USD), plus shipping across the pond - not a big savings there unless the USD/Euro value swings back in our favor soon...

Update: I checked on the E420 starter harness (M119.975), which is almost identical, and HALF the cost ($75 wholesale). I suspect it could be modified to work. Per the diagram below, the differences are:

The 500E harness routes through two mounting brackets/guides, callout numbers 44 and 47. The 400E apparently does not use those at all. (?) Sadly, the part numbers are no longer valid (000-159-07-81, and 08-81) but I did not call the dealer to see if they have been superceded to something else. I do not know if these guides are included with the 500E harness, which is not available in USA or Germany at the moment.

Next, the 400E harness at the "top" end uses callout numbers 50 and 51, which seems to be a 4-pin housing with three 2.5mm pins and one 4mm pin. The 500E harness uses a different housing with an unspecified number of 4mm pins (I need to check on my car and see what it looks like).

Both engines use the same starter and alternator, and everything else is the same. If the harnesses are the same length, and the only difference is the pin housings at the top end, I strongly suspect a 400E harness would work if we just replace the pins & housing up top! All the "bottom" stuff appears to be identical. The good news is that the 400E harness is available and in stock in the USA!!!


BTW:

124-540-31-30 is the 124.034, M119.975 harness
124-540-27-30 is the 124.036, M119.974 harness (unavailable)

I wonder if I want to be the guinea pig on this one.

Attached Thumbnails

 

The part finally came in, and it would assuredly be difficult to fabricate -all sorts of application-specific parts.

I think I paid about $150 for it - I'll post a P/N ASAP.

__________________
"If God had meant for us to walk, why did he give us feet that fit car pedals?" Sir Sterling Moss

Michael
2014 E63S Estate
2006 SLK55
1995 E500
1986 Porsche 944 turbo

Sweet! Any chance you could post a photo of the part? Also, how long did it take from order to receipt, and where did you buy it from? Last stupid question - does it include the two metal guide brackets as shown in the diagram, or do we need to swap those over from the old one? Maybe I will just wait for the proper harness...

Thanks for the update!!!

Since it's installed in the car (finally). I think it took like 6 weeks from order to delivery, to include a bunch of revised "ship" dates. As I understood, there were a bunch of them on back order, so others are having the same problem out there (and waiting for their parts too). I bought the parts thru a dealer here in CT (email me if you need further info)

Yes, the 2 metal brackets come with the part.

FWIW, my part did not fail, I replaced it since it was accessible (and looked like hell) when the engine was out of the car

__________________
"If God had meant for us to walk, why did he give us feet that fit car pedals?" Sir Sterling Moss

Michael
2014 E63S Estate
2006 SLK55
1995 E500
1986 Porsche 944 turbo

The P/N please

Awwww, crap. I was going to ask for replacement tips but you cheated!

Tom - here's the part numbers [for the STARTER harness - not engine]:

124-540-31-30 is the 124.034, M119.975 harness (400E - in stock in USA)
124-540-27-30 is the 124.036, M119.974 harness (500E - backordered)

I bought my harness from a firm (sorry, can't remember the name) located in the Southeast. maybe the Carolinas, it was the best price and I had it in five days. It was a piece of cake to change and was all the car needed to solve the problem. The Dealers are thieves.

Good luck with yours. They are great cars!

Bimmerman, I think you mean the upper engine harness, to the injectors etc. That does look easy to replace. The starter harness looks awful. What symptoms were you seeing with a bad top/engine harness, btw?

My symptoms were very poor running as the car reached operating temperature. It would lose power and then suddenly surge ahead. The upper harness had turned to "hard spagetti" and insulation was cracked and falling off. I am told we can thank the enviro-whackos in Germany for this (something to do with bio-degradable insulation on the wires and landfills). Don't get me wrong, I am 100% for saving the environment. It is the knee-jerk reactions that I have a problem with.

My 1993 400E now has the same missing and catching up running problems as noted. Before this happened the ambient temp readout was about 20D low at all times and the aux fans would not work correctly. When I unplug the blue eng. temp plug, both fans come on full and the car runs cool...love that but not normal operating procedure. In the 90s here with high humidity, all fans run and the car doesn't get over 85C.
So am also looking for a new harness and since my wife is going over to Germany next month to see relatives I've asked her to bring one home with her! Also some other parts!!

Tobias MB
3 MBs

My wife doesn't leave until 7/19 and don't know of her return flight yet. The car is running so badly now that I don't want to wait for her to return so I called a dealer today to see what the price would be. At $600.00/MSRP, I'll wait but for $393 wsle.
I'll be replacing it early next week as it is on their shelf.
Maybe all these spurious, erratic running problems will be gone
after the harness replacement....if not, I'll be reposting!

Tobias MB
3 MBs