O2 sensor lead from harness has broken off.

[450knotOffice]

Guys, I'm sure I'm not the first guy who owns a 3.2 Motronic Carrera who's had the plug-in from the wiring harness break off. So I'm wondering how you guys have fixed this issue. The yellowish plug that comes out of the harness over on the left side of the engine bay only has about an inch or two of wiring before it all disappears into the harness so that doesn't leave me a lot of room to try to splice in another one.

What have you guys done to remedy this situation? Right now I'm running without the O2 sensor because of this issue and wasting gas big time I'm sure.

[Scott R]

You're not, get a weather pack connector or a flat four connector from the auto parts store and fix it. If you have a set of terminal tools you can make it look real nice, but it's not necessary.

[slodave]

Mine broke a few years ago and my mechanic spliced in some new wire to work with and somehow got the connector back on. Cheaper than buying a new harness. I'll try and get a pic or two in a bit.

Dave

EDIT:spelling

[450knotOffice]

Thanks Scott and Dave. Working on these cars never ends...nor would I want it to. I love tinkering on them.

Dave, I'll look for your pics.

(Scott, my last name begins with an R too, so I'm Scott R just as you are. )

[slodave]

Here's what I could get. I still have the old pin, but looks like I may be joining you in the repair. Anyway, you'll still have to find a new pin.




Notice the Mercedes symbol?

Hopes this helps a little.

Dave

[Joeaksa]

Originally posted by slodave
Mine broke a few years ago and my mechanic spliced in some new wire to work with and somehow got the connector back on. Cheaper than buying a new harness. I'll try and get a pic or to in a bit.

Dave

Same here. Zims in Dallas had a old car that they "harvested" a connector and a pig-tail of wire off of and I spliced and soldered the old one back on the wiring harness. Its not an easy job but do-able.

[450knotOffice]

Alright, so here's how I fixed it.

I pulled the little bracket off that holds the harness side of the 02 sensor in place which gave me more room to work on stripping the wire down. I pulled about an inch of the blue heat covering off and then stripped the outer layer off the wire, which revealed the copper shielding. I then removed the shielding which, in turn, revealed the inner 16 gauge wire underneath. Next, I stripped about 1/3 of an inch of the insulation off and then crimped on a female bullet-type receptor. On my work bench, I cut about 6 inches of 16 gauge wire and attached a male bullet-type plug on each end. The male bullet for a 16 gauge wire just so happens to plug perfectly into the stock Porsche O2 sensor receptacle, so I plugged one end of the new lead into the new female receptor on the wiring harness side and plugged the other end into the O2 sensor.

Perfect! Now, if I ever need to replace the O2 sensor, all I have to do is simply unplug it. I never need to worry about needing to strip that short wire down even more than it already is.

Here are four pics showing what was done, from initial discovery through the fix:





The stripped wire:


The completed assembly (before tidying everything up and tie-wrapping everything in place)

[slodave]

Right on! Looks nice.