Keep Your Electrics Working With Car Wiring Harnesses
A car wiring harness connects all the electrical components in your vehicle to the battery. Essentially, it’s like the electrical wiring in your home that connects all the lights and power points to the switchboard in the meter box.
How does a wiring harness work?
In a wiring harness, various wires are bundled together to keep them organised. This creates a fairly neat bundle of wires that are encased in electrical tape and then individually clamped to a set of terminals or connector housings.
How many wiring harnesses does a typical car have?
A variety of modern cars can have up to 40 different wiring harnesses. This could include over 3000 wires and around 700 connectors. That’s why grouping individual wires into harnesses is so important. These help to keep the wiring in any vehicle as neat as possible and makes it much easier to replace certain wires or connectors that may have stopped working.
Different wiring harnesses for different functions in your car
Because there are so many different wiring harnesses in your vehicle, it’s important to select the right one that you need to replace. Here’s just a few varieties to consider:
- An engine wiring looms.
- Several different wiring looms for your front and rear doors.
- A wiring harness for your gearbox
- Wiring harnesses for your steering wheel and airbags.
- Individual wiring harnesses for your front and rear lights.
Individual parts that make up a complete wiring harnesses
Apart from being able to purchase complete wiring harnesses for different areas of your vehicle, you can also get the individual parts that make up a complete harness. These include:
- Rolls of automotive cable in 5 amp and 8 amp
- 18 gauge braided automotive cable
- Connector plugs
- Individual socket plugs for your audio equipment
- Wiring kits for your fog lamps
When replacing one or more wiring harnesses, you might also need to replace some of your electrical terminals and get a test light to ensure that everything is working once you’ve installed the new wiring harness.