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Wondering how much re-wiring a car costs?

someonestolecc
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someonestolecc Grand Master

someonestolecc

Posted
Posted

Gday,

Just wondering if you were say making a show car or somethign and wanted to re-wire it from scratch (or around that level of hardcore) - how many man hours would you be lookin at? What kinda cost?

Wondering cos I've had some wires bust into flames (fun) even having a fuse that I down-rated so I've had some shorts and now I've got some shorts AND stripped wires. *sigh* If it's only a few wires how much would I be lookin at to getting things like that fixed?

At the moment I"m quite annoyed as whenever I try to put in a fuse for the starter motor the starter motor thinks it's on and it starts clicking over and over for some reason so it stil must be shorted/melted/whatever.

Also a warning to people who bought fire extinguishers from auto cheap or whatever they're called TEST THE DAMN THINGS I had 2 and neither of the ****ers worked!

someonestolecc Grand Master

someonestolecc

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  • Author
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Thanks. Been speaking to a mate who's a sparky. He said prolly like 2-3k to re-wire and thats without going overboard, just doing it neatly.

Back to the drawing board.

I did manage to unplug the starter motor solenoid and plug the fuse back in long enough to get my windows and sunroof closed in time for the storm.

It's just a bit weird now the fuse doesn't blow... I'm wondering if the ignition barrel is shorting but we'll have to see.

dojobi Experienced

dojobi

Posted
Posted

I had some wiring in my car burn out too. The electrician had to rewire a fair bit of the car. It ended up costing me around $800. Now it's better than ever, as the original Japanese owner had some dodgy wiring going on (to support his aftermarket gauge addiction). Best money I spent on my car.

dojobi Experienced

dojobi

Posted
Posted

The $800 was not mates rates. I had it done by Cranes Auto Electrics in Newcastle. I have no idea how long it took him or whether he changed ALL the wires (as far as I can see they're all new). It was such a professional job, that it looked like factory wiring. That $800 also included putting my MP3 player connector on btw.

someonestolecc Grand Master

someonestolecc

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Fuarrrrrk man $800 for a full car rewiring is HELL good.

I mean my mates rates are like $1000-1600.

Normal shop for full rewire = $3000 and that's not even gonna be show styles.

Man maybe I should come to newcastle ay.

dojobi Experienced

dojobi

Posted
Posted

Do you want to risk having your wiring catch on fire on the freeway though :)

Maybe the wiring wasn't completely burnt out in my car so some original wiring was kept or there was some other reason why it was cheap, as he actually thought that I'd be upset that the price would be so high. If I could find the receipt I'd see what he actually charged me for.

BHDave Grand Master

BHDave

Posted
Posted

Sounds like the easiest start for you would be to replace the body loom between the fuse box and the starter or atleast pull it out and have a look for areas where the insulation has been rubbed off.

Finding a replacement one for a cef may be a bit hard though one off an r32 gtst may be the same. Which part of the loom is catching on fire?

someonestolecc Grand Master

someonestolecc

Posted
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It's all good now I had a mate I went to school with check it out - he's a sparky.

Luckily the burning was only a couple of wires due to a dodgey loom. Instead of actually plugging the new engine (it's a transplanted sr20 cefiro) loom into the computer whoever did it just chopped the loom from the computer, then chopped the engine loom and wired them up halfway in the engine near the air filter (worst place).

My mates now cut this all up and re-wired it there but said yeah to have it neat you'd wanna re-wire it properly. Which if i get some money I intend to do. (I'd like to do it from scratch).

Still $500-800 for a whole car rewired I'd gladly do (if i had it) but my mate says probably retail price is a couple of grand.

I know a mate with a r100 wagon getting his wiring from scratch for $1600 and that's supposed to be cheap.

So I'd like to know how the hell you guys are getting wiring done for 500-800 not mates rates - like I said I'd be willing to take a day off work, travel in Newcastle for a weekend, stay the night get drunk and then pickup my car next arvo or something to drive back.

It's no longer catching fire BHDave but it was a shitty wire shoved into a spare socket off the loom for a fan for the air condenser (which is great because my car don't have air con so that fan was just useless anyway... next project remove air condenser).

Yeah loom would be for SR20 but if it all becomes too hard there's always the option of a pfc (last resort due to money).

And hopefully my car don't fire up again - I mean.. my mate found the place where it earthed out and fixed it up so it shouldn't happen again - I've replaced the fuse with a different type now as well so if it does short it will blow the fuse which won't melt onto itself.

Cheers for the help guys - hopefully this 'adventure' is over. Now the only after-effects I have to figure out is why my ignition has been ****ed over by this - this is on another thread :D

http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/sh...ead.php?t=55377

drunkenmaster Community Regular

drunkenmaster

Posted
Posted

i dont think anyone would rewire the "whole" car for $800 from scratch including new wire, even reusing the old connector housings.

Maybe debug and repair a section like the EFI harness or Dash harness.

The car would have and engine main, EFI, dash, floor, boot, both doors and roof harnesses. It would be a months work to remove all that, and re do it.

I would have though finding the chopped harness would have been pretty easy if you were looking for reasons behind your harness bursting into flames.

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