Gen 3 wire harness melting and heat damage fixes

Started by Speedtactics, April 09, 2013, 03:33:37 PM

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Speedtactics

During my recent sound proofing of my Viper (2006 SRT10) I uncovered some serious issues that you may want to check and address on your on Viper if you have a Gen 3.

    First of which was the wire harness that runs under your passenger side floor carpet all the way to the front right of the passenger foot well. This harness was melted pretty badly to the point it was stuck to the floor and side of the sill (under the carpet). This is a potential problem in 2003-2006 Viper models, in 2008 they addressed the problem and put a heat blanket over the wires. The harness comes off the main harness of the car and feeds your all your radio parts, Amp head unit and speakers. If this melted though it could cause a short to say the least and possibly cause a fire and effect more then the stereo. See the photos and you will understand the damage my harness had. In fact the heat also melted my Lowjack antenna wire completely off! The good news is you can inspect this very easily and without any tools. Just pull your passenger side carpet all the way back to the seat. You may need to pull it from under the plastic piece that is holding it on the left side under the glove box. You can see my first photo how my wire harness was melted.



Close up of melted harness.



   The second thing I uncovered was the seam that runs along the right side floor pan was rusty. The factory epoxy/sealant that they use to glue the floor on had been completely burned off.



This stuff is right along the side sill where the exhaust pipes lies. Surprisingly it was so cooked it actually just cracked right off and there was a slight gap allowing water to get in from outside and created some rust! Ah, I hate rust!

To fix the first problem first I carefully pealed the wire harness off the fire wall it was melted to. Then I added a layer of accumatt (sound and heat proofing) under the harness then I wrapped the harness with cloth heat wrap that is used for exhaust pipes. It's not going to melt now.
For the second problem, I wire brushed this area and painted it with rust inhibitor primer on it. Then used 500 degree heat proof silicone to fill the gaps. Then covered the floor with a layer of sound/heat proofing. I also repeated the high temp silicone and rust inhibitor primer on the outside of the car under the rocker panel where the seam was hidden out of sight. (This is where water was getting in the car)

Here is photo of the wire harness repair.


This is a photo of the repairs to the floor.
Close up of the seam filled with silicone.


Floor covered with sound / heat proofing.

The black and the silver are both heat and sound proofing. I ran this on the transmission tunnel and side sill.


Scott Hirko
2016 Viper GT with TA 2.0 package and APR carbon aero package.
2014 GTS track pack with TA 1.0 carbon aero package.
www.speedtactics.com www.facebook.com/speedtactics

PCH VIPER

I can only hope this problem in your car was an aberration and not the norm. 

This would not be a good thing to have going on in all the cars.
www.kouchicentral.com  for more viper pictures

Speedtactics

Lance,
As I have checked a few cars now it looks like its a common problem in 2003-2006 in 2008 they put a bandaid  the problem with a heat wrap on the harness.
Scott Hirko
2016 Viper GT with TA 2.0 package and APR carbon aero package.
2014 GTS track pack with TA 1.0 carbon aero package.
www.speedtactics.com www.facebook.com/speedtactics