After attempting to replace the HVAC hoses on my car today, I found I have a wiring nightmare under my dash. Some wires are spliced with different color wires, cheap speaker wire connected to the original wires, wires from the convenience center connected via those blue cylindrical coupling fasteners etc. My question is does the dash wiring only consist of different types of harnesses (radio, convenience center, fuse, etc.) that I will have to replace? or am I looking at a PITA job here? What I'm trying to get at is I want to replace all of that spaghetti wiring with good wiring that I won't have hanging all over the place or that is not connected. What would be the best way to achieve this? Thanks in advance.

Phoenix

 

the harnesses on these cars can be vehicle (firebird vs camaro) and year specific. if you're looking to start fresh, you'll need to find a car with the same year and body type. otherwise, grab yourself a helms manual and start tracing things down. there are a bunch of schematics on Austin Thirdgen but they don't cover every harness every year.

 

The majority of the dash wiring is one piece. Options like power windows, mirrors, cruise, AC, etc are separate. Cluster, fuseblock, lighting, fuel pump circuit, radio, speakers etc are all one gigantic bundle

 

Thanks guys. So only specific options have their corresponding harness. I'm going to end up replacing my radio, lighting, speaker and convenience center wiring since its either cut up, not connected to anything or connected the bootleg way lol. I really appreciate the info as well as the helpful link. You guys rock.

Phoenix

 

wiring is a nightmare. Im doing quite a bit of electrical work on my trans am. and its mega frustrating.

 

Most of the components in my car work except for the door lock switches which never worked since I bought the car and a light here and there. I figured replacing all of the wiring will save me the frustration of tracing wires and all that plus I'll know Ill have no cuts or splices in my wiring.

 

well if just the door lock switches dont work, that harness doesnt go through the dash harness.

 

I am in the same boat. Previous owner wanted a digital dash in an 89 gta...so he hacked up the dash harness. I wanted to put it back to analog..but I have no patience for tracing wires...anybody have an dash wiring harness (89 L98) in good shape so I can swap the whole mess out?

 

Didn't know that. In that case its probably just a relay or something or the actuators. I do recall seeing a stray blue wire and a brown wire but it probably doesn't belong to that particular harness. The fact that alot of couplings were used to mend wires together makes me want to replace the whole thing.

Yeah, I have no clue why the PO (or the owner before him) used all those couplings in my car as well as the stray wiring not connected to anything. Definately not going to keep it like that though.