1994 E320 engine wiring Question - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Motorhead · #1 07-04-2006, 01:48 AM

I have read about the E320 wiring insulation going away. I saw it happen on a simular year Volvo. We bought the 1994 E320 wagon 3 months ago. I looked today real carefully at the wiring under the hood and It ALL looks perfect. I looked at where the ECM is behind the battery and saw what looks like a date tag on the wiring loom. It said 1993. So my question is were there some cars that WEREN'T affected with this problem? I pinched alot of the wires insulation with my finger nail and all seemed supple. What do you think or know about this? Thanks, Chris

deanyel · #2 07-04-2006, 10:15 AM

I've not ever heard of a batch of good ones. The best way to tell what you have is to get the part number - a dealer parts person will be able to tell you whether it is original or a replacement. Whatever it is if it looks good and is working fine I'd just leave it alone.

Motorhead · #3 07-04-2006, 12:46 PM

What does the replacement loom cost?

ILUVMILS · #4 07-04-2006, 03:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Motorhead

a date tag on the wiring loom. It said 1993. So my question is were there some cars that WEREN'T affected with this problem?

According to MB, there couldn't possibly be any cars that were NOT affected because there weren't any that WERE!!!

Arthur Dalton · #5 07-04-2006, 03:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ILUVMILS

According to MB, there couldn't possibly be any cars that were NOT affected because there weren't any that WERE!!!

True .

You can be assured that if there were ever any harness problems, Benz would have taken care of them, no questions asked !!!
This is THE car manufacturer of the WORLD, for goodness sake .............

Motorhead · #6 07-04-2006, 04:55 PM

Yea... Maybe if they look away long enough, it will go away!

dtf · #7 07-04-2006, 08:05 PM

how many miles on the car?

Motorhead · #8 07-05-2006, 03:17 AM

archibald2, Thanks for your opinion and findings. I will take the cover off and check the wiring under it. Did just the wire loom costs $1000? Or was that with labor too?

The car has 115,000mi.

archibald2 · #9 07-04-2006, 08:03 PM

Thought I would chime in with my M104 wiring harness experience last summer. When I purchased the car ('95 E320 wagon) in July 2004, the usual places for detecting a defective harness all appeared sound (as in, the insulation was not brittle and quite intact). The car worked well and I thought I dodged the proverbial bullet; it worked well until last summer and we were a few hours in the state of Maine heading for Canada. The car started to miss as we encountered grades or needed to accelerate. Upon arrival at my destination in Nova Scotia, I accessed this very website and searched on the dreaded harness. I discovered that to thoroughly assess the condition of the harness, the cover between camshafts had to be removed. I felt the wires beneath the conduit and it was quite "crunchy". I carefully cut into a section of the conduit with an Exacto knife and discovered the insulation on the wires leading to a coil unit was either missing or quite fragmented. Not having the luxury of time to accurately determine the source of the "miss", I deemed a wiring harness replacement was necessary before further diagnosis could occur. The purchase price of a new, replacement harness from the dealer was on the north side of $1,000 (U.S.). The harness was replaced and the "miss" never occurred again. I failed to take not of the manufacture date on the replacement harness. One can only hope that MB did not continue to re-introduce the problem by supplying the defective harnesses to their parts inventory.