Help me, BG Auto, you're my only hope. (Car woes within)

[ClarkSammich]

Thank you for clicking my thread.

Here begins my sad tale.

Recently (see: last week) I moved from sunny southern California to gloomy, boorish Pittsburgh, PA.
My girlfriend is doing PhD work here and I'm a fucking ass, so here I am.
I drove across the goddamned country.
The car was a champion. It ran and ran, then ran some more.
About 50 miles out of Pittsburgh my check engine light comes on, so the day after getting here I take it into the shop.
They tell me that there's oil down in the spark plug wells.
Spark plugs need to be replaced, spark plug boots need to be replaced, oil gasket needs to be replaced.
$500 to 700, ok, no sweat.
During this maintenance they broke my engine wiring harness.
I don't know how familiar people are with Mercedes-Benz electrical systems from the mid 90s, but they are shit. Germans don't fucking understand wires and plastic, idk why, but they don't.
So the mechanics broke it, and now they're telling me that in addition to the $500 they want for the previous repairs, I need to come up with $2,300 to replace the wiring harness as well as the labor.
I called three lawyers and each of them basically said "Don't pursue this, you might not win, they can appeal, etc."
So what the shit, dude?
Why should I be liable for shit I didn't break?
Should I just pay the $500 for the repairs they did and then salvage it?
I'm mad as hell. I can pay, but I'm living off savings until I can find a job here, so I can't afford no $2,600.
What the shit.

[elison]

I don't understand their explanation. It's like impossible to "break" an engine wiring harness. Did they break specific connectors? Did they somehow cut a chunk of wires in the middle of the harness? I don't see any way other than burning that a complete wiring harness is destroyed while changing a valve cover gasket. Assuming they cut a chunk of wires a solder iron and heat shrink + electrical tape can solve that issue fairly easy. Broken connectors? Local junkyard + solder. This is fishy as shit.

[ClarkSammich]

From what they said, and what they showed me, the insulation broke and the current was jumping between wires. That was before they took a knife and soldering iron to it to try and fix it. It's dead now.
Also I checked junk yards, can't find the fucker anywhere. It's like $300 used on eBay, $1,100 or so new.
Edit: I called a dealership and asked them about it, they said the price for the part + labor that the mechanic shop is asking is way less than it would be at a dealership, unsurprisingly.
Also I should have mentioned, this is a 19 year old car, so it's possible the insulation just got old as shit and cracked.

[elison]

From what they said, and what they showed me, the insulation broke and the current was jumping between wires. That was before they took a knife and soldering iron to it to try and fix it. It's dead now.
Also I checked junk yards, can't find the fucker anywhere. It's like $300 used on eBay, $1,100 or so new.
Edit: I called a dealership and asked them about it, they said the price for the part + labor that the mechanic shop is asking is way less than it would be at a dealership, unsurprisingly.
Also I should have mentioned, this is a 19 year old car, so it's possible the insulation just got old as shit and cracked.

So the wire is bare? Why not heat shrink/electrical tape it? I'd have greater concerns if current was jumping between bare wires like they say but as far as a wiring harness "dying", that isn't really possible unless it's completely destroyed. I mean you got a control module connected to different loads via wires, that's all the harness does. It serves no other purpose. Sounds like a lazy ass shop whose trying to take advantage of you.

[elison]

Nvm

[ClarkSammich]

I have no idea tbh, that could very well be the case. That's exactly the conclusion I tried not to jump to, but considering the harness is now officially destroyed and MUST be replaced my alternatives are very limited I think.

[Brill Weave]

You know who else is in Pittsburgh mother fuckers? THIS GUY!

[ClarkSammich]

No shit? I love it here so far, been a few times prior to this. I'm in Lawrenceville atm, it's pretty nice. Also, is the official Pittsburgh uniform like 300lb, shaved head, goatee, and a steelers jersey? People rock that shit pretty hard.

Also I found this: http://www.slmarket.com/mercedes-ben...nical-q-and-a/

[Brill Weave]

On to your actual problem.

#1 what was the name of the repair shop that you took it to? If it's one of our AAR facilities they shouldn't be pulling that shit.
#2 Here's a list of the more reputable salvage yards in Pittsburgh.

Wagner & Sons Foreign Auto Parts(this is north of Pittsburgh)
735 Perry Hwy, Harmony, PA 16037
(724) 716-1346

Rusty Hook
867 S Canal St, Pittsburgh, PA 15212
(412) 701-4152

Battaglia Auto Recycling(they have an online parts search)
http://www.battagliaautorecycling.com/parts-search/

D&D Salvage
http://www.danddsalvagepittsburgh.com/

[Quixon]

Ok first thing is the mechanic isn't liable for anything they didn't break intentionally or with gross negligence. You are driving a mercedes that's 10+ years old, with little to no mechanical knowledge. I'm assuming the second part, as if you had mechanical knowledge you wouldn't have called a lawyer in the first place. As you mentioned yourself..... germans are idiots when it comes to automotive electric, you are now paying for their idiocy.

The insulation dried and cracked thus leaving the harness useless. This more than likely happened when they were changing out the spark plug wires, it's common. The harness sees regular stress when wires and sensors are changed. If they had to change plugs, wires, seals, etc.... the entire top part of the engine would have been taken apart. That's a lot of movement on a harness that's been sitting and dry rotting for 10 years.

Take a look online at the replacement procedure on an appropriate forum, and figure out if you want to replace it or junk it.

My opinion, stop buying over priced german grocery getters and you won't have this problem. Find a shade tree mechanic on craiglist to fix it/patch it up and sell the thing on craiglist before it dies completely, or sell it as is on craiglist for $2,000 and cut your losses.


Edit: www.car-part.com learn it and love it. If you aren't using that website, you are not looking hard enough. Any used part you need.... use them.

[Brill Weave]

No shit? I love it here so far, been a few times prior to this. I'm in Lawrenceville atm, it's pretty nice. Also, is the official Pittsburgh uniform like 300lb, shaved head, goatee, and a steelers jersey? People rock that shit pretty hard.

Also I found this: http://www.slmarket.com/mercedes-ben...nical-q-and-a/

Yeah pretty much. We're north of Lawrenceville off the rt28 exit for Butler. We're in Allison Park.

[ClarkSammich]

It's at Vince's Auto Service on Liberty near 38th, that area. Across the street from a brewery I think.
Also, they're saying the part is $1,400 and it's 9 hrs labor at $75 an hour.
People on the internet are saying they did the shit themselves in 2, 3 hours.
Also, as per the car parts link, I think it's being sold for like $125 online as listed on that site.

[Quixon]

After reading up on this a little..... you are going to need to buy a NEW harness. If you buy an old one.... the same shitty wire compound is going to be present and you will have the same issue. The only way I would recommend paying out to repair it with a used harness, is if you were immediately selling the car to some other unsuspecting schlub. Advertise as the harness was just replaced, as people are more than likely going to ask you about it. Without a working harness in the car you are going to get next to nothing for it.

And yeah forums might tell you it takes X hours, from experience.... double that if you plan on doing it yourself as a realistic time frame. Call a mercedes dealership and ask them for the estimate on the same repair. Compare that time frame to the time frame the shop you are at is giving you.


Regardless..... I'd get rid of this thing as fast as possible unless you are going to do the repair yourself. You are going to be paying a fortune in parts and labor, like always with german, and you'll end up with a car that is still going to be plagued by more and more electrical problems as you put on the mileage.

[Brill Weave]

I echo Quix's thoughts. It's best to do a temporary fix, sell it for what you can, snag a new ride. And that comes from your friendly AAA rep!

[Abandon]

who is also gay

[elison]

Sorry, coming from an 8 year tech, this entire thing is just straight bullshit to me. I'm still on that taking advantage of the ignorant story. I could take any ignorant person and point at some random shit in an engine bay and sell you a $3000 job easy. The simple fact this man drove it NATIONWIDE with zero hiccups only reinforces that stance.

[ClarkSammich]

1244402933 That's the part number btw. I guess there are two types if wiring, my type just so happens to be the rarer variant.
Pretty sure I'm going to sell it and buy a bike to ride. Just in time for winter.

[Quixon]

Sorry, coming from an 8 year tech, this entire thing is just straight bullshit to me. I'm still on that taking advantage of the ignorant story. I could take any ignorant person and point at some random shit in an engine bay and sell you a $3000 job easy. The simple fact this man drove it NATIONWIDE with zero hiccups only reinforces that stance.

How can you say that definitively when the vehicle in question is plagued by known shitty wiring? Wiring that is known to, quite literally, decompose decades before it was designed to?

If the above statement were not the case, I'd be with you 100%. You should know as well as anyone here how fragile a dry rotted wiring harness is. For fucks sake if you fart in the general direction of it it would disintegrate.


Keep in mind he didn't drive it nationwide with zero hiccups. He drove it nationwide and blew the oil seals and fouled the spark plugs, that is a pretty big hiccup.

[Brill Weave]

who is also gay

[ClarkSammich]

Thanks for the links btw, I found a cheap 2003 version of the part that will work, haggled them down from a ridiculous NINE hours of labor, and learned a lot.
If all else fails I will call the weave with my AAA GOLD MEMBERSHIP CARD 100 MILES OF TOWING MOTHER FUCKERS and get it hauled into a poor neighborhood and abandon it for children to play in and the homeless to use as a bathroom.