Did an oil & filter change this morning. While waiting for the oil pan to completely drain, I was looking around underneath and noticed that the wiring harness leading to the radiator fan was chaffing in the very tight spot where it feeds up from underneath and into the fan housing. Far too tight a spot to allow me to decently wrap any new electrical tape around the wires there, so I cut several 1-inch long pieces of tape off my roll and did the best I could with them. Then I decided to snip off a 2-inch by 2-inch piece of foam insulation I had laying around on one of my garage shelves (it's about a half-inch thick) and wedge it up between the plastic housing and metal crossbrace to hold the wires in place and prevent them from rubbing against the metal crossbrace that has been doing all the chaffing. That tight fit should hold the foam in place even with the road vibration and therefore stop the chaffing. The best way to find this spot and look to see if your harness is chaffing is to jack up the front end, drop the belly pan, crawl underneath, and look at the area just above the U.S. passenger-side 10mm bolt that holds the front of the belly pan in place. You'll see the black wiring harness running up underneath between the plastic fan housing and the black metal crossbrace. It doesn't take much movement at all for those wires to begin chaffing against that black metal crossbrace and it was very evident to me....

On another note, I had last tightened the two 8mm bolts that hold the ZF shift cable in place during the oil & filter change I did 6,000 miles ago in early August. Took my 8mm box wrench down there with me and checked those bolts again this morning. They both needed about a one-eighth to one-sixth turn to snug them up again. So there's no question that these bolts are prone to loosen up without too much effort. I really cranked them down this time, so we'll see if that makes a difference when I check them again in another 6,000 miles (if not sooner)....

The best news was that my oil pan gasket, ZF sleeve, and DCCV were all bone dry and easily passed the clean white napkin test. The car currently has 54,500 miles on it. I'm knocking on wood right this second. Sure hope it stays that way for the foreseeable future....

 

Thanks for posting that!

 

Good point on using liquid electrical tape.

 

Jon,

I really need to check my trans cable bolts eh?

As far as the insulation sleeve. You could use one of the ones designed to insulate hot water pipes and a couple zip ties. I need to check this on my car as well.

Thanks,

George.

 

Maybe a good cleaning with brakeclean and some light duty Loctite would be a good idea?

 

Some Locktite might be a good idea if you back the bolt out a few threads, but from my understanding it's a ROYAL pain to get those bolts out with the trans in the trans tunnel. There's barely room for an open ended wrench to get up in there...

George

 

Jon, had to pretty darn cold out in that driveway this morning. Thanks for the heads up, will be checking into that maybe this weekend(?).

 

I will give a good spray of brake cleaner to the bolts insert and remove a couple times to get the threads clean and use blue thread lock like I did, they have not unsnugged (is that a word lol ) in 5k miles

 

Lying on my back in the driveway underneath the car with only a couple of inches of working clearance between me and the underside of the car, there's no way I'm going to risk removing those ZF cable bolts to place Locktite or lock washers or anything else on them. I can barely get my 8mm wrench in there. There's no way I could get my huge hands in that tiny space to replace bolts there. Standing comfortably underneath a hydraulic lift with my car way up in the air, I would try it. On my back in the driveway with the car just a few inches above me and hardly being able to turn my head in order to see, no way would I back those bolts out. It's much easier (and safer for me) to just check and tighten them every time I do an oil & filter change....

Rick, it was about 30 degrees outside yesterday morning. That's a balmy day to me. I did the oil & filter job in a flimsy worn-out T-shirt, my trusty old gym shorts, and my yard shoes. But remember, I'm a polar bear. I'd be happy if the temperature never rose above freezing all year long....

 

OK, I'm heading out back to change the oil in the '03, and I'll have to find these bolts. Say they are on left side, abeam the transmission? It has 84,000 mi. and unless Motorcarman checked 'em when he changed the fluid in the ZF a couple weeks ago, they've probably never been touched....at least not since we acquired the car at 67k. Thanks Jon, I'll give the wires a look, too!

 

Glad to assist. Yes, you'll see the two silver 8mm bolts on the U.S. drivers side of the ZF unit, horizontally installed and tucked up into the very narrow transmission tunnel. The higher you can raise your car, the easier time you'll have of it. An 8mm box wrench is the perfect tool - trying to get even a junior-sized socket wrench in there would be laughable....

 

If you have a camera or a phone handy Take a pic of the bolts. If you need help posting it PM me. You know what they say. A picture is worth a thousand words.

George

 

Mine were nice n snug.
Took pics but insufficiently Droid-savvy to post from here. Wait til I have to go back down to the house. I'll try to get some of Jon's wires too.

 

Thank you

George

 

Mine were in a corrugated plastic loom, wrapped in tape. More chaffing evident in the smaller tree from the air deflector, but it is also in a corrugated loom and only the label endangered thus far. Keep in mind it's an 03, the girls took the '05 to FTW today so I can't do a quick-compare. Oil change due on it soon, though, and I'll see if maybe they cost-cut some of the protection...or maybe shortened the harness by $0.00357 or something making it snugger against the crossmember in the "refresh."

 

sorry, but it is the best pic I have of where the wiring touches the cross-member, and you can see there is little abrasion in my case. Also, I thought I included a pic of the smaller wiring tree that is rubbing the lower air-deflector; but noticed it is not there. So here:

Awight-then! I guess the task of removing the oil filter won't get any less ornerous the longer I sit here propped up playing on the web.........back to work, and happy motoring,

Zane

 

Your 2003-model wiring has far more conduit protection than my 2005-model wiring does. I expect you'll find that out for yourself when you take a good look underneath your 2005 car....

 

They're baaack! but I'm no polar bear like you! 42F and rain....and I'm blessed with a dry shop but too much of a wuss to go out in the cold rain to do all the vehicle switching req'd to get it in-place and on-ramps....considering I've probably only got two weeks til the oil chg. And anyway, my regulator on the propane patio heater leaks so I'd only have the kerosene...it may take awhile to get comfy enough on the concrete!!

Sounds like a cost-reduction team was commissioned in '03/04 timeframe. You'd think they woulda/coulda focused on the cooling sys. materials, or perhaps O-ring materials...or....

 

About now they'd know what should have been done better.
But they're no longer made

Thinking of the vast number of parts, many we never mention at all.
And then there's the ZF 6HP26 autobox........