Fender well wiring harness relocation

[harangatang]

I don't know if anyone has done this before, so I figured I would show what I did with mine.

As everyone knows, the harness in the drivers-side front wheel well is notorious for having rubbing issues when lowering the car at all. I had mine tucked up on top of the seam weld for about 2 years, but my new 18x11et-5 Equips have killed it in a week or so. Rubbed all the way through a piece of brass I had taped in the harness, the loom, and about a dozen wires.

Edit: Because I know someones gonna ask, I did this instead of routing it through the engine bay cause this is a lot cleaner imo than having a chunk of wires running unnecessarily through your bay. kthx

This is where I used to have it, like most of us probably

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k208/harangatang/240/45da1982.jpg

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k208/harangatang/240/7da2da15.jpg

So I did this (pardon the cell phone pics):

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k208/harangatang/240/2011-10-11101025.jpg

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k208/harangatang/240/2011-10-11175116.jpg

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k208/harangatang/240/2011-10-11175013.jpg

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k208/harangatang/240/2011-10-11175033.jpg

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k208/harangatang/2011-10-11175041.jpg


1. Started off by completely unlooming and untaping the harness.
2. You wanna cut the harness pretty close to where it enters the engine bay by the overflow tank so you have plenty of harness to pull through the fender arch.
3. Next, I cut AND labeled the wires ONE BY ONE. This negates soldering the wrong wires back together later.
4. After you get them all labeled (I had 57 on my zenki), you'll need need to use something for a pull string (I used a broken metal coat hanger and a pretty thick wire). Tape the end of the harness up [with the pull string inside] that you'll be pulling through the fender so that the end wont get stuck on anything inside, cause it's a DAMN tight fit.
5. Next, you need to cut the holes to pull the harness through. I used a 1&3/4in hole saw to cut the 2 holes in the fender arch.
6. Pull the harness through the hole in the corner by the firewall out of the hole up by the overflow tank (use my pics as reference of where I made the hole at)
7. Now you'll need to solder all the wires back together. I strongly suggest going one by one again to avoid fucking something up and using heat shrink on every joint. It will come out cleaner and you won't have to fuck with a bazillion feet of electrical tape that's going to eventually come off.

This took me about 6 hours to do. Most of it re-soldering the wires back together.


Enjoy!

[Tantwoforty]

nice write up dude, ill be starting this tonight!

[harrypotter]

Do you have a picture of them reconnected? I want to do this but has two problems. Have fender brace, and don't want the solder connection point to be a huge ball. Think it will happen if I don't stagger the cuts.

Nice job!

[JSimpson]

Daaaaaamn thats alot of soldering. If you had the time to make sure every wire is the exact length and didn't care about soldering for 2 hours this would be awesome! But man all you have to do is beat a small channel where the harness usually goes, then screw or bolt in some aluminum or even steel plates to hold the harness up, and to let the tire rub it slightly when you hit bumps. regardless cool to see someone took the time to do this!

[harangatang]

Do you have a picture of them reconnected? I want to do this but has two problems. Have fender brace, and don't want the solder connection point to be a huge ball. Think it will happen if I don't stagger the cuts.

Nice job!


That I do not. But it was barely bigger after I soldered it and taped it than it was before I cut it. I didn't really stagger it either.
And yea, I can see a brace being a problem, cause I've been looking into getting some.

Hope that helps!

[R33E8]

crimp splices > solder splices...

[harangatang]

Daaaaaamn thats alot of soldering. If you had the time to make sure every wire is the exact length and didn't care about soldering for 2 hours this would be awesome! But man all you have to do is beat a small channel where the harness usually goes, then screw or bolt in some aluminum or even steel plates to hold the harness up, and to let the tire rub it slightly when you hit bumps. regardless cool to see someone took the time to do this!

Yea... I thought that would work. Until I realized I have about a 1'' gap between the top of the tire and the bottom of the fender arch. So I did this. It's clean, and I'll never rub again.
And all the wires weren't EXACTLY the same length as you can see in the pics.

[onessari]

hey man very cool. nice job man can you put what gauge wire you needed to do the complete relocation. And how much you would basically need?

[DJ-of-E]

hey man very cool. nice job man can you put what gauge wire you needed to do the complete relocation. And how much you would basically need?

You should be able to figure it out yourself in length if you just use some basic measurements and math.

As for what gauage wire, you would want to match with oem (not small wires, no need for bigger wires). There are tools @ harbor freight that pretty much is a guage measurement and stripper all in one for this application.

[xoxide]

crimp splices > solder splices...
Are you stupid or just lazy? A solid soldered connection is always better than a crimp connector.

[Boss_S14]

Very nice clean as shyt.. Def doing mine like this.

[thefro526]

hey man very cool. nice job man can you put what gauge wire you needed to do the complete relocation. And how much you would basically need?

Don't quote me on this, but from what I can tell, the bulk of the signal wires are ~18ga wire, with a few smaller wires which I think are 20ga-ish.

Then the main power, like the 12v Constant and 12v ACC are somewhere around 14ga to 12ga, but I don't have a sample in front of me to confirm.

You won't/shouldn't need a lot of wire depending on how you route, couldn't see you using more than 25ft or so for all of the signal stuff and then a few feet for the bigger power wires. Easy thing to do is buy a ~25-30 ft spool of a few different wire sizes and match them up from there, or get the tool.

Are you stupid or just lazy? A solid soldered connection is always better than a crimp connector.

True words, at least for the kind of stuff we're talking about. When doing bigger connections, a crimp is usually the way to go, since you're actually dealing with something large enough to put some real crimping force into (think battery cables and stuff) but for the smaller stuff found in the fender harness, a good solder connection will end up being more worry free. Though with that being said, for some non-automotive applications, I've used crimp connections and then added solder after the fact. It's a neat trick for adding a bit of redundancy.

FWIW, to anyone looking at cutting and then reconnecting your harness, I suggest investing in GOOD heat shrink, especially if you can get the stuff lined with adhesive. More often than not, electrical tape seems to break down overtime, especially if you're in a salty/watery/rustbelt sort of climate.

Also, when I was doing my harness repairs, I found that it was much easier to work in ~5 wire groups. I'd grab a few wires, do what was needed to them, make them into a sub bundle and then move onto the next bunch. Makes it really easy to work with and keep track of.

[R33E8]

Are you stupid or just lazy? A solid soldered connection is always better than a crimp connector.

Stop being ignorant and do some research.. Proper crimps splices are more durable than solder splices in this application. That's kinda why Nissan uses crimp splices instead of solder splices in their harness...



Though with that being said, for some non-automotive applications, I've used crimp connections and then added solder after the fact. It's a neat trick for adding a bit of redundancy.

As much as that seems like a good idea, it's not. By doing that you add the disadvantages from the soldering which can lead to an intermittent connections or failure.

[TheRealSy90]

Or just run it through the bay down the frame rail without any cutting or soldering...

[fliprayzin240sx]

Stop being ignorant and do some research.. Proper crimps splices are more durable than solder splices in this application. That's kinda why Nissan uses crimp splices instead of solder splices in their harness...

As much as that seems like a good idea, it's not. By doing that you add the disadvantages from the soldering which can lead to an intermittent connections or failure.

Intermitent connections from soldering? You suck at soldering if you think crimp connections are better than soldering.

[Jack Bauer S14]

Intermitent connections from soldering? You suck at soldering if you think crimp connections are better than soldering.

+1. In a pure electronics world a solder connection provides better grounding thus inducing less noise to the signal.

Sent from my XT910 using Tapatalk 2

[fliprayzin240sx]

My gripe with crimp connections is that its only as good as the crimper you use. Most folks only have those cheap crimping tool that doesnt clamp the crimp down enough.

[Memberofthe600hpkaclub]

I can show you a few crimp connectors that are better then soldering...water tight and have internal soldering balls that melt when heated to shrink down the shrink wrap material they are made of...

My friend invented them and has the patents on them....

[WreckedS14]

I tackled this project once on an s13. I had a buddy stop by so I could show him what he should do with his harness (pre-cutting of the wires when it was just tucked higher). I took the girlfriend out to dinner and when I returned home, the harness was reconnected and re-loomed. I labeled each wire in 2 places with numbers so it was idiot proof but somehow he managed to screw it up. The d/s high beam worked, no other lights up front worked, the turn signal on the p/s made the headlight on the p/s turn on, the wipers were on constantly (getting constant power once the key was turned on), and there were so many more issues. The big problem was he took off all of my damn numbers in the process or looming it..

The best part was, I told him not to touch the car while I was gone...

[thefro526]

Stop being ignorant and do some research.. Proper crimps splices are more durable than solder splices in this application. That's kinda why Nissan uses crimp splices instead of solder splices in their harness...

As much as that seems like a good idea, it's not. By doing that you add the disadvantages from the soldering which can lead to an intermittent connections or failure.

This is an interesting debate, especially the whole crimps vs. solder portion.

I've worked with people how have sworn up and down by mechanical connections (crimps, wagos, screw terminals, etc) and people who will almost always solder everything. Honestly, for most people, either will suffice if done correctly.

In any case, the crimp and solder method that I was referring to is something that I only do on Ring and or Spade Connections, where the wire could be in tension and mounted to a static part on one end. after crimping the wire, I'll do a bit of soldering at the end of the wire on the closest side to the ring/spade portion of the connector basically making a small ball of solder. This is more or less makes that end of the wire too long to be pulled back through the crimped portion of the connector, which means that the wire is in theory held captive on one side because of the solder, and on the other by the insulation so in the off chance that the wire/crimp start to loosen up, they can never become completely disconnected. Yes, this could, in theory, cause an intermittent connection, but I haven't experienced it yet. It's probably worth noting that this method isn't something I've needed to do on any car I've owned yet, but I have had to do it on other projects where there was no way around having wires on moving components.

All of the stuff above is sort of off topic anyway. Proper strain relief is really whats key on something like this, you want to make sure that the connector and wiring are placed in such a way that they won't be loaded to the point of failure should something weird happen. A good re-routing accomplishes this really well as is.

[Purestock240]

Old thread bump. does anybody have a chart of what all of these wires are for?

[KAT-PWR]

Yeah Nissan does.

[Kayle850]

my god i just relocated my fuse box to the interior and i had 11 wires to extend and solder lol i cant believe you just did 57 for that

[tauntdevil]

Or just by one of ours (or make your own) blockoff plate. Truck it up on the fender and use the plate to block what is left. No cutting other than the plastic holdings