Complete vehicle harness, except engine. Rodent damage on a new 760i. Bags are full of the wiring/connectors that get pulled through firewall/trunk/rear openings to prevent damage.

  • blarghlyEnglish
    5·
    9 hours ago
    1. Copper expensive.
    2. Wiring harnesses rarely fail/need to be replaced, which makes it a niche part.
    3. Even though they probably have warehouses full of spare wiring harnesses, oem manufacturers like to jack the price up because they know people will pay it - in particular, insurance companies don’t want to get sued/blamed/bad reviews for installing inferior third party parts, and so will pay whatever it costs to get OEM. Same with many mechanics.
    4. Aftermarket manufacturers, since they do tend to only manufacture the number of parts the market demands, do not benefit from economies of scale like OEM manufacturers, and will have much higher manufacturing costs per part for every step in the process. And since the OEM part is so expensive, they can still make a tidy profit selling a part that is less expensive but still quite expensive.
    5. It is typically very easy to replace any damaged wiring with generic wiring and connectors which are available for pennies at any auto parts or hardware store. So the people who are willing to pay the premium for OEM or OEM compatible wiring and connectors are typically also the sort of people to get sticker shock, shrug, and say “damn! Well, guess that’s how much it costs.” Or else they are “just so” people who absolutely must have exactly the right part on principle, even if it costs an arm and a leg.
    • Lemmyoutofhere@lemmy.caOPEnglish
      8·
      8 hours ago

      “5) It is typically very easy to replace any damaged wiring with generic wiring and connectors which are available for pennies at any auto parts or hardware store.”

      Not so much anymore. A large percentage of critical wiring is now “low resistance” circuits. They are very sensitive to resistance. That means we are only allowed to make a single splice per wire along its full length. So if a section of wire is missing, the entire wire must be replaced from end to end with new terminals. Those can sometimes be the full length of the car.

      • azertyfun@sh.itjust.works
        2·
        4 hours ago

        I’m not an electrical engineer, but there’s manufacturer recommendations and there’s “good enough for the job”. If I bought that car out of warranty, and had to splice a wire, would it actually matter? And if it did, couldn’t I just… use a thicker conductor and some high quality connectors?

        • atrielienzEnglish
          1·
          2 hours ago

          Upping the size of the conductor adds resistance to the circuit. The wiring in those harnesses are like 20-26 gauge. When you’re sending a signal (rather than just supplying power) that extra resistance causes all kinds of problems.

          If you’re making a repair with low resistance wiring, it’s pretty much standard practice to solder in a repair wire of the same gauge and conductor type. A butt splice will also add resistance to the circuit.

          You can do a lot of things with power feeder wiring that you can’t with low resistance signal wiring.

    • Blue_Morpho
      1·
      8 hours ago

      Copper isn’t that expensive. $6/lb = $480. Equivalent weight in Romex would be ~$700. $900 for shielded Cat 6.