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Topic: How to rewire the loom, (engine bay) (Read 8729 times) |
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ro284
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How to rewire the loom, (engine bay)
« on: Jan 20th, 2013, 12:33pm » |
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Since my 95 Scorpio did a 750 mile trip, it was stored outside for around 20 months, I didn’t really expect too many problems with it, And no worries about putting it on the road again after my 2-3 estate had to be scrapped, The first thing for m.o.t. was the ABS light, Which would remain on, I traced this to a short between the chassis somewhere on 1 wire of each pair, to the rear sensors, (that should have been a clue!) To prove the point I rewired both pairs from the ABS module, to the trim under driver’s door, by-passing the loom, I made a separate loom for them, this cured the problem, at that time,
I managed to get the new M.O.T. and then thought about making the car tidy, unfortunately, the battery went flat over night, so I changed the battery, which also went flat again, after being used in the day, I thought it might have been the shock to the Alternator of running again, I checked this was charging, on a multi-meter, it was charging at 13.8 volts, I re-checked with the mileage reset button, which gave the same reading, then I had to change the battery again, I realised then that the battery terminal was giving off an alarming spark when I connected it, So I measured the current drain on the battery with nothing switched on! This was just under 2 amps,Thinking about the ABS wires I did the week before, I thought I would check the loom, so while watching my still connected meter, I started feeling along the loom from the ABS module, squeezing it as I went, expecting the needle on the meter to jump about, or find something warm, Well the loom just under the brake servo, was too hot to touch, even with gloves on, Tompion reminded me that fuses 46 and 47 were permanently live to the ABS module, so quickly disconnected battery, I had to let the wiring cool down a bit, Sadly I think the damage was done to the module, But this does still work,
I stripped off the insulation for about 9 inches, what a mess, a fire risk for sure! So i decided to rewire it by a different route. Around the top of the suspension strut, extending and sleeving all 28 wires, All connections were soldered, and heat shrink wrapped! To get the wires up high (I made sure there was enough wire to work with) so where the loom comes into the engine bay between master cylinder and strut, in front of central fuse box. (This previously went downwards, from the grommet,) I re-routed this wiring up, hopefully shown in the pic’s, The reason for this is that the dodgy wires are further away from the heat of the engine, and away from the water running down, I think this really is a fire waiting to happen, the problem is caused by the water drain from the Central fuse box area, allowing water to run round the brake servo, and drip off into the loom, Shorting out the wires through the already cracked insulation,
I cut through the loom in the middle of the section i had opened up, Rewiring It is not really a big job, just a bit fiddly, it is a good idea to isolate and mark each wire separately either side of the grotty wiring, to make sure of identifying the correct wire to reconnect, some wires come from the battery fuse box, fuses 46 &47, these feed wires (abs) are the same colours, so with the ABS diagram it’s just a matter of identifying the correct feed wire from each of those 2 fuses, also there are 2 heavy black earth wires, these are linked together via a bolt to bodywork, just to the right of the throttle pedal behind the trim near drivers door, there is also another wire to the ABS. module from central fuse box, fuse no27 Also if I were to get another 95 12v, I think I would check the loom wiring before doing anything else, by cutting open the insulation and see its condition, it would be easy enough to seal it up again! And may avoid problems in the future, it would be possible for a hidden problem like this loom to show up at any time, on a long trip perhaps! Or just sitting in the drive as mine was! BOB
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Bob Dorset
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ro284
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Re: How to rewire the loom, (engine bay)
« Reply #1 on: Jan 25th, 2013, 10:58am » |
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Just to add that this saved my car, and is well worth doing, The daunting bit i guess is looking at that mess of wires, what may help is to view it, as only one wire, isolate, trace, and label, one wire at a time both ways, as far away from the damaged mess as possible, to identify the colours 100%! when you cut that wire, slide on some heat shrink, not only to cover the soldered join, but to sleeve any cracked insulation, Add a new section in (same size) after measuring, The connections can be spaced out a bit , so that all the connections are not in one lump, (makes it neater) i had some tape which fuses to its self, which is good. Bob
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Bob Dorset
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Simmo
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Re: How to rewire the loom, (engine bay)
« Reply #2 on: Jan 25th, 2013, 11:02am » |
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Bob,thank you for a great article which I am sure will be of enormous interest and hopefully help others in the future. That's what this site is about. Good to speak. Mike. 
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