Frayed wiring harness next to battery
 

When replacing my battery today, I noticed that the wire harness coming out of the bottom of the fuse box was fraying the outer housing and one of the smaller wires was frayed through its insulation. Nothing was being pinched by the battery, so I was really surprised to see this.

I am thinking of just wrapping that individual wire with electrical tape and then wrapping the whole bundle with electrical tape. For those that have messed with harnesses in the past, do you think this is a good solution, or is there better methods? I know electrical tape gets kinda goopy when it gets hot, so i'm not sure what's best to use in the engine bay.

If anything, just a heads up for anyone else with an older civic to check out!


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Re: Frayed wiring harness next to battery
 

Should be fine if done well.

Re: Frayed wiring harness next to battery
 

Ended up using silicone self adhering tape after poking around the auto store. Never knew such a thing existed, pretty sweet stuff.

Re: Frayed wiring harness next to battery
 

that is the mouse nook. that cavity has been full of leaves, batting, etc over the years in my cars. i put a small plastic container of moth balls in there, keeps rodents away.

Re: Frayed wiring harness next to battery
 

Being in the engine bay it's best to use sealed heat shrink tube or liquid electrical tape before you do a final wrap around the harness.

Your biggest issue with exposed wiring in the engine bay is corrosion of the wire which can run for several inches or even feet inside the insulation causing resistance and failures in the electrical system. If the color was not brown (tarnished) or green (corroded) then you found it soon enough and should be fine as long as the repair was water tight.

Re: Frayed wiring harness next to battery
 

Yea it wasn't corroded. I wrapped the exposed wire individually with the silicone tape and then the whole bundle, so I think it should be watertight and the car is garage kept and only driven about 1000mi per year, but hmf, yea, I know how condensation works.... maybe I should open it back up and apply this liquid tape stuff....didn't know that existed either. Since this is the main line to the interior wire harness and in an akward place, it would be hell to have to replace the harness or any one wire in it.

Re: Frayed wiring harness next to battery
 

A proper repair could be done one of two ways. First and most complicated would be to cut the wire to place a piece of heat shrink tubing on the wire then re-splicing and soldering. The heat shrink tubing would need to be the glue sealed type, heating the tubing activates a glue which encapsulates the splice.

The much easier way is to use liquid electrical tape and re-wrap the harness. IMO, it's the better of the two ways not only for ease of completion but you keep the integrity of the wire and prevent any unneeded resistance in the line which could cause issues with sensitive electronics.

Re: Frayed wiring harness next to battery
 

Well, it was just wrapped in e-tape to begin with from the factory. So, re-wrapping with some *quality* e-tape again is a reasonable repair, since there were no exposed wires.