Pack Rats got my Wiring Harness

[daveintucson]

New to forum, and still learning how to navigate around.

Took my 1015 Legacy to dealer for check engine line with flashing cruise control. -

Diagnosis: Pack rat chewed through wire. paper work says "knock sensor circuit"

Fix: Entire new wire harness

Problem: Harness not available, and no eta on when they may be. +++ Cost of $1,400

So I basically can't get this fixed for an indeterminate period of time, and won't be able to pass smog and get registered with a check engine light on. I took a look , and see a chewed wire coming out of harness, and two wires going into a connector right behind and below the AC compressor.

I need to get this fixed somehow. Can I solder these? If there are two coming out of the connector, any help on where they connect, since I see only one coming out of the harness.



ANY help greatly appreciated - Pics included

 

[Ecmbuster]

Splice new wires together with "Crimp and Shrink" connections. Sometimes the wire ends can be purchased or found to lengthen the connection from the knock sensor to the other end of the harness.
Crimp and Shrink only, the rest are garbage and heat / shrink the new connections with a hot air gun.
Use a wiring schematic to double check the connections.
Been there, done that, have all the "T" shirts.
As for the dealer ..... they need much better training.

 

[daveintucson]

Thanks for the response. I think I'm going with an IWire plug (Plug H I think), with pigtails and their crimp and shrink.

I swore I'd never work on this car myself. I got no problem tearing into my other car, but it's more than 60 years old, and doesn't even have fuses, let alone computers....The Check Engine Light on that one is when you see flames coming out from under the hood.

But since the dealer won't touch this without replacing the entire harness assembly (which they can't get anyway), I've got few options...(and don't get me started on the $1,400 bucks)

I hope I can get some more slack in the green wire, cause otherwise it's gonna be a tough spilce to make (for me at least).

 

[Ecmbuster]

Unbolt / unclip the harness to make room. Clips and ties are inexpensive.
Open the covering of the harness, peel back the correlated tube / tape and find some clean copper to crimp / shrink and lengthen the wire to the connector. Again, crimp / shrink to the component. If the length and fit is correct, tape up and or attach corrugated tube. Simply, you're spicing / adding harness to the connector end. Corrugated tubes are cheap and so is good electrical tape.
Use an OBD device to clear the recorded faults.
There are plenty of Android SSM applications. ie: Tested JDMscan (requires OTG with USB adapter based on FT232 (FTDI)), BtSsm and ActiveOBD.
OBDLink (using OBDLink MX+ is fool proof with Bluetooth) with Torque Pro.
Post your results.

 

[daveintucson]

Got that little stub green wire with just enough slack, and carefully stripped just enough. Crimped on a new knock sensor plug from Iwire, cleared the codes, and no CEL! Took me maybe couple hours. I'm really slow, and that spot is hard to reach for long without some serious complaining from my knees an back (hell getting old), so I take a lot of breaks.

With luck, that CEL is gone for good (or at least a while).

Now I've gotta decide if I'm feeling lucky enough to go for the rear wheel bearings. Can get a slide hammer from autozone tool loan, and buy a torque wrench at home depot that will go to 200 ft lbs. I think I saw the main nut gets torqued to 170??

Thanks for the advice and encouragement. I'm more than $1,300 to the good if my crimps hold

dave