Engine wiring harness
 

Hey all, it's been a while since I've been on here but I do stop in from time to time to see what's going on and am always amazed at how helpful most are on here! Keepin' up the good work. :)

Trying to decide what we want to do with our nearly 18 yr old car that is still a good looker and simply very clean but needing some TLC at this time. It now has 113K mi and I'm suspecting that the harness is starting to rear its ugly head. It stumbles at start up from dead stop periodically and it will often times miss pretty bad when restarted after it has sat for an hour or two once it has been driven. (Needless to say, it has the original harness.)

Is it folly to think I can buy a used harness off ebay at half or more off the new price for a harness and expect it to serve us well for a couple years? Anybody reading this post ever replaced one of these things? I have read the Wiki on here regarding a DIY project and it is an encouraging piece as the author says he did his in something like 2-3 hrs but that most anybody with any mechanical ability could do the job in 4-5. I'm not necessarily intimidated by it, just don't know that I'm physically able to contort my body in ways I might need to do this! Like many of you, I try to keep my costs to a minimum by doing many things myself but I want to know for sure that what I'm about to undertake, I will be able to complete. Comments?

On a side note - I have a chronic transmission leak that has been in for service twice but no definitive diagnosis (until they are allowed to pull it and dig deeper). I'm fearful they will find that the front seal needs replaced and I'm not sure I want to shell out the big bucks to have it done.

The rear suspension is getting 'stiffer' and I suspect the gas-filled spheres are shot and need replacing. I'm sure there are many bushings needing replaced under the car, although it drives nicely as is.
Wifey is fine to put the $$$ into it and just keep it a couple more years but I can only look at the same dash panel so long until I get the itch! We have had this car since AUG 2007 so we're at 5 years and it's been a good car, but...:confused:

Bump...

Surely there's some thoughts here...somewhere!



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Here's my thoughts:

A new harness will set you back $700 from XXXX. Do it. Dont mess around with ebay alternatives or used this or that. Its not a hard job at all, no contorting required. Just take your time, follow path, unplug old, reconnect new. I did it on a 300E and it was pretty straight forward, easy.

Try taking the car to another shop and get a second opinion on your ATF leak. I had my 190E's transmission resealed after it started leaking from multiple points. It was $600 for the reseal.

Usually when the rear end gets bouncy is when you replace the spheres. Stiffer might mean you need to adjust the SLS level rod, it might be adding more fluid than is necessary.

Thanks JamesDean for your input!

May I ask how long did it take you to replace the harness? What car was it? Mine is the E320 wagon, is it easier or more difficult (in your opinion, of course)?

I will take ax look into the rear leveling issue. Thanks...

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I did it on a 93 300E. It had the same engine as your wagon.

I would say that on a scale of easy-to-difficult with easy being an oil change, to difficult being internal engine/transmission work... That it is a 3.

In terms of time, I would say no more than 2 or 3 hours. Just take your time disconnecting things. Lay the new harness on top of the old and go one connector at a time. You'll probably get it done in less than 2!

take pics, go slow, label some stuff if you have to.. i just rebuilt/installed my harness.
the rebuilding took a while though.. but yeah taking the harness out probably the part where the ecu was the hardest cause my clips were stiff

other than that it was fairly easy

Thanks guys for the supportive replies! It does give me more confidence to pursue it. Now, to find the best deal on a harness!

JamesDean - you mentioned .com but when I go there and search for one, it simply comes up empty! If you could be so kind to provide a link to it I would certainly appreciate it. :)

Its best if you just type in the Mercedes part number in the search box on the right side, then hit the drop down box and select OEM catalog.

It'll go to another window and you'll have to select Mercedes and then hit search.

It looks like there are two harness to pick from, you need to look at your car's vin number to see which one yours takes:

http://i.imgur.com/qjpqXl.jpg

Then take that 124xxxxxxx number and punch it .com

Is it worth putting 2k in the car...or is it better to spend that money on another?

I guess that's the question

The problem with that is, you might need to sink 2k into that other car for another reason.. If OP likes his car then I'd say do it.

Thats my view at least when it comes to my cars. I like them, so might as well fix them up. I've got $600 in a front end rebuild on the way for the 420...after that another 600 for the 190E's front end. Well the 420 is my parents so its their 600..

Thank you, I will do that!

I hear what you are saying. If I can do some of the repairs such as this wiring harness, then I am saving the labor costs. As far as my accumulators, not sure if they are actually bad until I do some testing of that system. I was making an assumption that I was going to need to replace them....but perhaps not. We'll see.

Thanks for your input as well :)

Ouch! I know, it's better than $1,100+ @ dealer...

I know the car needs it and I'm putting off the inevitable by delaying it. What concerns me is frying an expensive computer or the car simply letting us down sometime when we are least prepared! So...I will likely go for it and do it, I'll report back when completed ;). Heck, I'll go ahead and give it a new set of plugs while I'm spending $$$ and time.

PS: If anybody has a better lead on a better price, please, don't be shy :D

I just finished rebuilding my engine (M119) wire harness from scratch last weekend. I learned how to solder on youtube. I got the wire from amazon. I got a headache from trying to figure out which wire went to which connector. Thankfully, another member of this forum sent me his old harness to use as a model, and this also provided me with some of the plugs. All in all, it was a really large undertaking for me, and I am used to doing complicated work. It is amazing what a difference the new harness made. Now it is very powerful and very smooth, like a 400E should be. Total cost: $75.00

My hat is off to you my friend!!! THAT is indeed a huge undertaking for any DIY'er - no matter what anybody says :eek:. Good job!

Yeah, I'm sure the car will perform better and will be more reponsive and no infrequent misfiring and such.

I will likely need to do a throttle actuator rebuild/replacement at some point as well. But, one thing at a time..