Hey everyone Im kinda new to this forums and audi's period. I just bought my first audi the other day from a friend of mine with a small problem, and electrical short. He disribed the problem to me with starting with the fan motor locking up and shorting the wire. I traced almost all of the underhood wires and finally found what i belive to be the short. I was cutting open the protective covering on the harness and the part of the harness that goes underneath the mounting bracket for the brake system, i sliced open the harness and inside where the wiring for the fan motor runs into the main harness the wiring in there looks dark and burnt and was wet just inside that one part and nowhere else. The only thing is when i tried to clean it up alittle it doesnt really look like the wires are melted, but then again in that small space its almost impossible to tell. Basicly my question to wrap it would be that in a sealed harness like that there is no way besides a short would the wires look really burnt and blackish and second im terrible at repairing wires with sodder, how difficult would it be just to replace the underhood harness. I have already traced all the parts of the underhood harness when it goes into the car, it splits into 4 or 5 small looms and goes to lark bulkhead plugs underneath the dash that i can get at. Anyways ill end this but thanks for the help!

I think you're correct that there's no way you'd get burnt-looking wires inside a harness without there having been a short.

All that underdash wiring is installed when there is no dash cover, no instruments/accessories, no seats, no insulation,no hood, no fenders or doors, etc. in the way. Leaving all those obstacles makes it quite difficult to replace harnesses. However, if you can identify with an ohm meter which wire goes to which spot in the fusebox, you can run parallel good wires and just disconnect the damaged stuff.

well the only problem is that i cant tell which ones that are bad, ive already used an ohm meter and i have determined that its the fan power supply and the caution lights first off but i have no clue if any of the other wires in that spot are any good, because it was really burnt looking in there. I think im going to trying to pull that harness out and repair it that way either that or replace it, any other recommendations?

Sounds like it's bad enough to be worth pulling that part of the harness. Maybe splice in replacements to either side of the bad spot??? A good ratcheting crimper tool with appropriate quality connectors should make adequate splices for the replacement wire.

with this harness its just crazy the amount of wires, what i began to do to atleats try to get to it better was unhook the harness from the inside of the car, was pretty easy actually just trying to pull it throw the firewall is proving to be a annoying. I found a sutable one in a none quattro 5000 in the junk yard so maybe ill be lucky enouph to be able to swap them, i havent started to unhook it from the connecter unders the hood yet but hopfully it wont be too bad.

hyundai!!!!! hahah