1988 300E wiring harness cut into by somebody. How many hours does it take to replace? This is the wiring that comes into the engine compartment on the driver's side right next to brake master cylinder. Local shop quoted me 16 hours. Does that seem too high? How much for the new harness?

Thanks a Million.

I can't believe it, 48 views and not a single reply!

Where's the love?

:>(

It took me approx. 6 hours to install new wiring harness on my 94'E320. This includes removal of the old harness. New harness costs $565.00 at the Benz dealer.

__________________
94 E320 Silver 210000 miles
94 740il Pewter Green 97000 miles- Retired
05 S430 4Matic
07 Lexus IS250

Someone correct me if I am mistaken, but 88 300E were not the models which were so likely to have cracked insulation in the engine compartment wiring. I thought that was mid 90's 300's and 320's. Doing a search on wiring harness problems will shed light on that question.

What problems are you having? If nothing is wrong it would not be cost effective on that old a MB to do it just for looks. Some hack mechanics might have opened the outer jacket to take readings, but if it has been closed up and taped you should be OK.

I think these may be the reasons no one has jumped in to help you... Tell us what difficulty you are having which might relate to the wire harness?

Good luck to you,
DanielW

Thanks for the replies!!!

The symptoms are that a previous owner had somebody convert the a/c to R134 and in doing so has hacked into the wiring (see photo). The taped up wiring coming out from near the firewall has a bunch of wires spliced into this black relay that is unbelievable badged with the "quality is job none" logo. Yes, Ford. There is one wire coming out from this relay (green) and going down to the a/c compressor. They also put an ugly blue switch (see next post for pic)on the dash that turns the blower on high when I kick it on. The climate control push buttons for fan speed and temp wheel seem to not be functioning at all. Plus when I turn the temp wheel to a higher temp there seems to be a buzzing sound behind the dask. When the temp wheel is set to cold, I hear an occasional clicking sound like a relay going off.

Anyway thanks for any input again!

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The switch when turned on brings the blower on high.

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Get some more estimates from some other shops including, A/C shops.

You have a "cobbed up" air conditioner job which was not done by a real AC person most likely. There is no way to fix this back to stock without spending real money for labor and parts. The thing to do is find a recommended MB air cond. shop in your area. Ask the group and see if someone can recommend an AC shop in your area. Where are you located? The funky blue toggle switch hole which was CUT INTO your console will never be right unless you replace that wood panel... You might "tastefully" plug it with some sort of filler plug that didn't look too bad.

The time to have solved this mess was earlier when you looked at and made this purchase.....or perhaps you got a really great low price which made you not worry about these defects.

Does the Air function and cool the car correctly? If it works ok I'd just enjoy driving the car and not spend any more on this AC.

Later you can look for a cleaner MB and you will be a better prepared buyer.

Luck to you,
DanielW

16 hours seems a bit too much to me. We replaced the engine wiring harness on my M104 engine in about 4 hours, including breaktime!

I think you have bigger problems than just a wiring harness issue....

Looks like somebody that is not too interested in doing a good job installed wiring to bypass the HVAC controls as built by the factory. To figure out how to undo this you need somebody to figure out 1) what they did 2) what they were trying to "correct" and 3) How to remove what was done and effect repairs to address issues identified in item #2.

"replacement" of the wiring harness that was hacked into may or may not be required to fix this mess.

I suspect this is not going to be a cheap fix - hope you did not spend too much for the car.

Tim

Thanks for the input!

I spent $4500 for the car on eBay. Yeah, I'm a dope. Sight unseen and the like. Of course this is just the next stage of issue management. I have already had the engine replaced with a used engine that has a new head, resealed power steering pump, new a/c fan clutch, transmission pan gasket/service, new coil, motor mounts, transmission cooler line, and other misc. parts. So right now I have about 12K in it. It runs great but I want to get this climate control issue resolved. I expect to replace the exhaust system (all rusted out) within the next year. I know of a couple of good independent shops where I live.

Thanks again.

Took the car to a local independent whom I've used for VW's in the past who specializes in MB. He is going to fix this mess and put it back to stock.

My independent guy has replaced the wiring harness that was hacked with the stock unit and has also replaced the climate control unit. He says he's got the heat, fan, defrost, working but for some reason the AC compressor will not turn on. He says there are alot of safety related switches related to the compressor that will turn the compressor off if for example the v-belt starts to slip, or the transmission temperature gets too hot.
I know the compressor works as it was working and the clutch was just replaced.


Anybody have any idea why the compressor still might not turn on?

thanks

asiamood,

If you have had the wiring replaced, and it is back to stock (hopefully) then you might want to look at the control unit in the dash. There have been several posts regarding soldering broken connections. Could be that this is why someone when to great lengths to create a new (additional) switch on the dash: to replace an expensive (new) control unit.

My 2 cents,

Haasman

__________________
'03 E320 Wagon-Sold
'95 E320 Wagon-Went to Ex
'93 190E 2.6-Wrecked
'91 300E-Went to Ex
'65 911 Coupe (#302580)

Sorry, I forgot to mention that the CCU was bad and the indy just replaced it. He thought that the unit was bad because the AC wouldn't kick on so he got another one, but had the same problem. So I think we can rule out the CCU for now. Another note is that this is an R134 conversion system. The belt tensioner has recently been replaced as well. I have seen numerous posts regarding the problem and suggestions point to all kinds of things like:

Klima relay
auxilary water pump
speed sensor behind compressor
compressor itself
evaporator sensor
belt tensioner

Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks!