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P0201, P0301, P0203 and damaged engine harness

2K views 4 replies 2 participants last post by  TravisHeim 
#1 ·
Less than two weeks ago I purchased a 2017 two door automatic rubicon that was "certified pre owned" for what that matters. The first couple of days right after start up the engine seemed like it wasn't smooth for a few seconds but ran normal after 2-3 seconds at most. I only ever noticed it when I tried out the remote start standing next to it, and because it's new to me I didn't think anything of it. Last night while driving home the check engine light began flashing and it felt like it was misfiring with lack of power, when I got home I used Torque pro with a bluetooth obd2 adapter to pull the codes and it showed P0201 Injector Circuit - Cylinder 1 and P0301 Cylinder 1 Misfire Detected as pending faults and P0203 Injector Circuit - Cylinder 3.

I removed the plastic engine cover and found some rodent damage to what I assume is cylinder 1 fuel injector harness (front of engine passenger side), and after closer inspection and removing some stuff found rat/mouse droppings inside the air filter box, around the battery tray and around where the engine block heater plug is on the drivers side. I didn't disconnect anything to look at the cylinder 3 plug/harness as there was a giant connector in the way and didn't want to mess with it. It is still under full bumper to bumper warranty until November, but I know that rodent damage is never covered by pretty much any warranty from any industry. I believe they sold it to me in this condition as the rat droppings seem really old and dried up but can't really prove it with 100% certainty. The Jeep sat on their lot since September of last year, and the certified pre owned inspection sheet they gave me was dated 7-27-20 with 24,943 miles but I picked up the vehicle on 7-28-20 with 26,838 miles so I think their service department did the inspection when they first got it not the day before I picked it up.

That dealer was closed last night by the time I found out what was going on and aren't open on Sunday. I'm going to bring it back to them to see what they are going to do but have any of you had any experience with this kind of thing? The dealer is 60 miles away, there are several much closer in town but I have a feeling that any other Jeep dealer will just tell me to pound sand and it's not covered. If there is enough wire left is it safe to secure the harness back together with electrical tape to drive it back to them? If this was my old TJ I would have already cut back stripped and soldered the harness back together but don't want to do any additional damage that may give them more ground to not cover this.

Lastly if they will not take care of this it seems like I would be looking at either splicing/soldering the existing harness or replacing the entire engine harness with PN 68274516ag which I found here https://www.moparparts.co/oem-parts/mopar-engine-wiring-68274516ag but have not verified with service department if it is correct for vin#. I have never attempted to replace an engine harness but have plenty of experience doing full harness replacements on appliances and have touched pretty much every system and part on my old TJ at this point. Is harness replacement something that can be done in the driveway or does the dealer need to do some programming magic?

I'll try attaching the pictures of what I found. I feel like part of this is my fault for not removing trim and looking closer in the engine bay but I felt like I was able to trust it was fully looked over because it was certified pre owned.
 

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#2 ·
After looking at the diagrams on a screen bigger than my phone I think the injector harness might be separate, but it's hard to tell from the diagrams I can find. https://www.moparparts.co/oem-parts/mopar-injector-wiring-68087837ak is that actually the correct harness which has that injector plug?

Edit- Or maybe not, that damaged section goes into a large loom that goes forward to the alternator and back and down towards the transmission as far as I can tell.
 

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#4 ·
I ended up pulling the loom back as much as I could and soldering (poorly I might add) the wires back together so it could be driven. I drove it back up to the dealer yesterday first thing in the morning and went and spoke with a service advisor who initially had me sit and wait while he went to speak with sales. The fault codes had disappeared during the 60 mile drive, and torque reported only 1 misfire on cylinder 1 along with 1 or 2 misfires on a couple of other cylinders but the engine seemed to run fine and had full power. I've never monitored engine data so don't know if one or two random misfires on cylinders is normal or not.

When speaking with the service advisor and showing him the pictures of what happened and what I did initially he was wording his responses as if I had done the damage to the harness but then I was pressing him about the old rat droppings all over the engine compartment and inside the air box and he seemed to let it go. They scheduled an appointment next Monday morning, he told me there is a splice kit that is authorized by FCA to properly repair the harness and they would be inspecting everything else for anymore damage. After I left I realized he didn't explicitly say to me that they would be covering everything but I told him that I brought it back to their dealership specifically because I know that rat damage is not covered by normal warranty and he didn't say anything so hopefully it will be the end of it but won't know until Monday for sure.

The salesman that worked with me came in at 10am after I had been there for a while and seemed to help the situation out. He was even able to get the parts department to order me the factory rock sliders the previous owner had removed to install come crappy tube steps at about $100 less than what I could order the Mopar kit online for.
 

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