Thread: Oil in the wires/ECU

Originally Posted by CraigE

Bob,
Sorry but that is absolute rubbish and similar to a dealer sentiment, not criticising you as there are many that have been told the same. There are plenty of us on here that have had oil in the injector harness, into the main loom and through to the ECU plug and have not had to replace the whole loom. .....................Beware a lot of dealers or ill informed service departments will tell you it needs a new loom and if it is under warranty is not an issue, but if it is out of your pocket it can be a big expense that is not needed.

Craig, glad to hear it. I was obviously conned..... but in in about 2003 or earlier ( and out of warranty) my "new" 2000 model suffered the symptoms and back then I did not find any posts about flushing the loom.
Perhaps I missed them?
I refused to pay the dealer cost and purchased the looms via one of Aulro sponsors for a self-fix. Fairly easy job an not a problem since.
Hence my comment about.... "only" option..ask me how I know.

Is the above "fix" process now easy to find in the Good Oil or similar?..so that others don't get stitched up.

Cheers
Bob

Originally Posted by scott oz

I’ve read all the threads on the oil in the loom problem which I’ve now discovered “I have”. What a S**T

Am I correct in that the oil is penetrating the “wire” and running down the wire core between the core and the plastic inner casing? As opposed to running down the outside the wire case within the wire looms?

While I haven’t taken my rocker cover or engine cover off “yet” is the “plug” on the main harness where it connects to the short injector harness a sealed plug?

I’ve looked at the plug end on the ECU end and it looks like with the correct tools or small screw driver you could takeout the connectors?

My thinking is that perhaps you could “make up” a new separate harness picking up from the injector harness and then attach new connectors at the ECU end and reinsert into the ECU plug? This makes the existing wiring in the loom obsolete.

Then you only need replace/clean the injector harness if needed and if you need to replace to the ECU loom a lot easier to either clean or replace again?

Scott,
It usually runs down the inside of the wires via cappilary action and this is why you end up with oil in the plug. If you look at the connector you can see why. The top connector is male. The oil can either get into the connector cup via internals of the wire capillary action or even from the external and if the o rings are worn can pass into the cup. The bottom connector cup is a female cup and when oil pools in here it enters the core of the wire. When it gets to the ecu connector the problem raises its head as oil is conductive, scattering the electrical pulses from the ecu.
Replacing either loom is not actually difficult, but the main loom can be time consuming and is significantly dearer than the injector harness and with dealer service charges can be a rather large cost. Bypassing the main harness is problematic itself as there is not much room to pass it through grommets where required.
As said search the site and there are detailed instructions on how to clean. Mine has been fine for 4 years now.
The plug connector is not a sealed plug.
http://www.aulro.com/afvb/good-oil/2...l-harness.html
yes.. another oil in harness thread.... some pics here