back to the stealership...

[BlackoutViper]

trucks going in for an electrical problem. Main wire harness had a ground wire burn through it's coating causing a lot of smoke. anyone able to give me a heads up on what i'm looking at before they slap a few thousand dollars onto my bill?

only symptom before hand was rough starts, almost like not enough battery power, getting progressively worse until the big smoke show.

 

[OSO]

trucks going in for an electrical problem. Main wire harness had a ground wire burn through it's coating causing a lot of smoke. anyone able to give me a heads up on what i'm looking at before they slap a few thousand dollars onto my bill?

only symptom before hand was rough starts, almost like not enough battery power, getting progressively worse until the big smoke show.

Not that hard to do it your self and if you want i can see i f i can get you a better price? Just offering. What harness actually burnt? Pics?

 

[Chuck B]

Ive seen two other trucks here have the same issue. In my experience you developed high resistance in the circuit leading to an overheating situation. Generally it can be traced to a bad connection (corrosion).

 

[FerrariTruck]

was it the ground wire over the pcm? do you have any o2 sensor heater faults?

 

[BlackoutViper]

shop report:

Wire can be replaced w/o a new harness - 3hrs labor +charges = $350
Replaced Negative Battery Terminal(cause of the short) - 1 hr labor +parts $150
Oil leak I've known about for a while - $350
Left valve gasket cover leaking - 1 hr labor + parts$150
Lower ball joint boots are torn - labor + parts $525


Something inside me says fix my baby and I'll take the whole bill face value, but that little voice tells me there's a better way. anyone got any ideas on how to get this list knocked down a few hundred $$?

ps. I tried to get pics ups but my sandisk is on the fritz

 

[wesalbert]

shop report:

Wire can be replaced w/o a new harness - 3hrs labor +charges = $350
Replaced Negative Battery Terminal(cause of the short) - 1 hr labor +parts $150
Oil leak I've known about for a while - $350
Left valve gasket cover leaking - 1 hr labor + parts$150
Lower ball joint boots are torn - labor + parts $525


Something inside me says fix my baby and I'll take the whole bill face value, but that little voice tells me there's a better way. anyone got any ideas on how to get this list knocked down a few hundred $$?

$150 to change out a battery terrminal.... are they crazy. Its a 5 minute job with a couple dollar part.
Valve cover leak you could also do pretty quick.
The balljoints seem high, but others would know more than I would. :dontknow:

 

[daytonahemi08]

shop report:

Wire can be replaced w/o a new harness - 3hrs labor +charges = $350
Replaced Negative Battery Terminal(cause of the short) - 1 hr labor +parts $150
Oil leak I've known about for a while - $350
Left valve gasket cover leaking - 1 hr labor + parts$150
Lower ball joint boots are torn - labor + parts $525


Something inside me says fix my baby and I'll take the whole bill face value, but that little voice tells me there's a better way. anyone got any ideas on how to get this list knocked down a few hundred $$?

ps. I tried to get pics ups but my sandisk is on the fritz

if you knew witch wire thats easy to do
- battery terminal thats real easy to do
oil leak just replace the seal
replacing the gasket is real easy
ball joint let them do it

 

[BlackoutViper]

$150 to change out a battery terrminal.... are they crazy. Its a 5 minute job with a couple dollar part.
Valve cover leak you could also do pretty quick.
The balljoints seem high, but others would know more than I would. :dontknow:

that's pretty much what I said. regardless my callback is going to involve some negotiation on reducing those rounded up shop hours.

however me putting in the this battery terminal after the original one corroded away was the cause of all this (apparently) so I'm feeling like letting them do it this time.

 

[wesalbert]

that's pretty much what I said. regardless my callback is going to involve some negotiation on reducing those rounded up shop hours.

however me putting in the this battery terminal after the original one corroded away was the cause of all this (apparently) so I'm feeling like letting them do it this time.

Get them to at least include the battery terminal and valve cover gasket in the same hour.

 

[BlackoutViper]

if you knew witch wire thats easy to do
- battery terminal thats real easy to do
oil leak just replace the seal
replacing the gasket is real easy
ball joint let them do it

how easy for the valve cover gasket and where could I find one myself? I mean is it just pop the cover off remove the old gasket, clean surface, insert new gasket and pop the cover back on? Are there torque specifications for the cover?

 

[bclark05]

how easy for the valve cover gasket and where could I find one myself? I mean is it just pop the sucker off swap gaskets pop back on? Are there torque specifications?

Just like that and 22 foot lbs on the bolts .

 

[yellowfever#154]

that's pretty much what I said. regardless my callback is going to involve some negotiation on reducing those rounded up shop hours.

however me putting in the this battery terminal after the original one corroded away was the cause of all this (apparently) so I'm feeling like letting them do it this time.

Way to much for what they are doing when you can easily do it all yourself. Maybe not the ball joints, but still you can do that yourself if you purchase a few tools (still cheaper than having the shop do it and you can put the tools in your tool box for next time).

There is a shop manual floating around on here somewhere, download it and read it. You can go to your local auto parts store and buy most all the parts you listed for much less money.

As for the corrosion, dont worry about it. Buy yourself a wire brush and clean the areas where the cable is grounded, easy stuff. Use a little dielectric grease on the connections if your really concerned about it but even still thats not necessary.

 

[BlackoutViper]

as it stands I'm going to ok the $350 single wire job unless someone can give me official (like shop technician etc) evidence to claim excessive charges. On the flipside of this, I was expecting this one job to be a $1k+ issue involving an entire new harness so I'm still pretty excited it's "only" $350.

neg terminal wont get done unless they drop the 1hr charge for a 10min job. 30$ for the right part I can handle

valve gasket is do-able by myself I just need to find an oem parts supplier. google results found em for about $45 that sound right?


the oil lines are my last hangup. How easy are these to screw up? or what all would be entailed? I'm new to the DIY life and am still gauging what's manageable to the everyday untrained mechanic.

 

[OSO]

as it stands I'm going to ok the $350 single wire job unless someone can give me official (like shop technician etc) evidence to claim excessive charges. On the flipside of this, I was expecting this one job to be a $1k+ issue involving an entire new harness so I'm still pretty excited it's "only" $350.

neg terminal wont get done unless they drop the 1hr charge for a 10min job. 30$ for the right part I can handle

valve gasket is do-able by myself I just need to find an oem parts supplier. Anyone have a contact on hand?


the oil lines are my last hangup. How easy are these to screw up? or what all would be entailed? I'm new to the DIY life and am still gauging what's manageable to the everyday untrained mechanic.

Where is this 350 dollar wire?
I think i have been undercharging for years to do this kind of work

1 wire = 350

Good god i just up the value of my truck by over 56000 dollars in custom electrical work

 

[BlackoutViper]

Where is this 350 dollar wire?
I think i have been undercharging for years to do this kind of work

1 wire = 350

Good god i just up the value of my truck by over 56000 dollars in custom electrical work

lol the breakdown is 3 hrs labor + 10% parts charge (so it's a $30 single wire) plus tax dude said is like 340something rounded it to $350.

the 3 hrs of labor is what I'm questioning, does it take a technician 3 hrs to cut back a bundle cover and gain access to the whole deal under the glove box, fix and put back in place? to my knowledge the wire is burned from it's spot on the frame rail all the way through the firewall, though I can't confirm how deeply it's cooked I'm assuming they're not going to snip and jimmy rig half an f'd up wire (I really hope).

So I guess getting in there would be quick but how long does it take to return the wire setup to stock-quality?

 

[OSO]

lol the breakdown is 3 hrs labor + 10% parts charge (so it's a $30 single wire) plus tax dude said is like 340something rounded it to $350.

the 3 hrs of labor is what I'm questioning, does it take a technician 3 hrs to cut back a bundle cover and gain access to the whole deal under the glove box, fix and put back in place? to my knowledge the wire is burned from it's spot on the frame rail all the way through the firewall, though I can't confirm how deeply it's cooked I'm assuming they're not going to snip and jimmy rig half an f'd up wire (I really hope).

So I guess getting in there would be quick but how long does it take to return the wire setup to stock-quality?

Have you seen the wire in question?

There are to many grounding points on the dash for one wire to burn from the frame / inner fender through the fire wall over to the passenger side of the truck because of a bad ground at the battery.

If it burned that far that harness needs to come out that would be the only way to inspect it and replace a wire.

 

[BlackoutViper]

Have you seen the wire in question?

There are to many grounding points on the dash for one wire to burn from the frame / inner fender through the fire wall over to the passenger side of the truck because of a bad ground at the battery.

yep it's on the passenger side near the top of the engine bay on the frame, bundle intersects at about 10in. or so I can't remember to what but that goes into another intersection which passes through the firewall. I personally can vouch for the wire being burnt completely through from the frame rail to that first wire "intersection"

what do you think might cause this then?

 

[OSO]

yep it's on the passenger side near the top of the engine bay on the frame, bundle intersects at about 10in. or so I can't remember to what but that goes into another intersection which passes through the firewall. I personally can vouch for the wire being burnt completely through from the frame rail to that first wire "intersection"

what do you think might cause this then?

Ok just to clarify your not saying it burnt from the passenger side engine compartment over to the driver side through the fire wall back to the passenger side on the interior are you????


If intersection referees to a point where all of the grounds come together i doubt it went past that point. The heat build up caused from the bad connection would of caused the wire to get hot and burn and possibly burn into other wires shorting them out, that would cause it to burn from one side to another along with a few other wires until fuses started to go. If it burnt passed any point you can see . the harness should come out to be inspected or replaced.

Photo below is of a connection i found in the harness coming from my fuse box on my O6 there was nothing holding them together other than adhesive lined heat shrink i pulled on it to find it in a harness and it came apart. Just wanted to point out its on a Hemi truck but they were all made by the same folks.

 

[BlackoutViper]

Ok just to clarify your not saying it burnt from the passenger side engine compartment over to the driver side through the fire wall back to the passenger side on the interior are you????

finally got the pics! these were the best two

the wire is exposed from the frame down into the bundle that leads straight into the firewall. not visible anywhere else and I have limited electrical knowledge on the grand design. I have no idea past the first foot how far down the burn through is. but judging by the amount of smoke when it happened I'd say it's a thorough cooking.

I was also worried about the integrity of the remaining wires. am I getting set up for one of those "once we got in there we saw how serious it was" calls?

 

[OSO]

finally got the pics! these were the best two

the wire is exposed from the frame down into the bundle that leads straight into the firewall. not visible anywhere else and I have limited electrical knowledge on the grand design. I have no idea past the first foot how far down the burn through is. but judging by the amount of smoke when it happened I'd say it's a thorough cooking.

I was also worried about the integrity of the remaining wires. am I getting set up for one of those "once we got in there we saw how serious it was" calls?

If it burnt that clean you will have other issues than just one wire.