wiring loom for 8v gti

[Rain]

for anyone that doesnt know my 8v almost went up in smoke sunday afternoon thanks to a small short in the lights wiring the complete loom to the fuse box and some of the surrounding wires are fried all just one big black mess of metal and plastic strangly thought all the switchs radio and other electrics wernt damaged but no fuses blew as in a panic when i saw smoke from my dash i removed them only thing that saved teh car quickly removing the battery terminals but the dash is fried on the drivers side the fuse board is warped and the relays are welded in and some have bubbles on them but apart from that doesnt seem to have caused any other damage and the main feed from the battery which is a big thick red wire seems ok and not in the slightest bit damaged suppose it didnt get hot enough.

well anyways i want to know if anyone has replaced a loom complete one as it seems to have affected nearly 90% of the wires  nearly all are either bare with some just welded to another or the dash etc... so far just seems simple ish as they all have plugs and none are the same as each other only hard ship is removing the dash and that needs to be replaced. anyone replaced one can give me a few pointers??

[rubjonny]

It should be straight forward but very fiddly!  You'll have to have the dash out unless you're sure all the wires in it are OK.  Hardest part will be finding a donor vehicle and removing it all, what year is yours?  If its an early spec (hazard switch on dash)  you might want to consider converting to the late spec (hazard on stalks) electrics whilst you're there which are compatible with later dubs like the MK3/Corrado.

Replacing the fusebox is dead easy, just a case of pulling it forward and pulling all the plugs out then refitting in place, the hard part is getting all the wires out that pass thru the bulkhead

[Rain]

its an 89 digi with the hazards on the dash with the fogs and heated rear window switch i got most of the dash out at the moment and thats pretty much why i thought id have ago as it doesnt look overly difficult.

[Rain]

looms now in and everything is working cars still in bits but ive taken today off work to get it finished car starts and runs little lumpy but its a new ecu might need a good run or a good tune who knows yet, wasnt to difficult was extremly fiddly and coat hangers came in handy but the only major problem i had was getting the fuse board put in just plugging the loom into it was a nightmare had to keep taking things out and rearranging it and starting again finally got it all sorted as it was getting dark and its in there all relays and fuses in place everything seems to work great, tested all switchs and radio etc

[...joe]

get the car up and running and unplug the blue temp switch, then blip the throttle over 2500rpm three times to clear the ecu. that should help with making it run smooth.

[Rain]

never even thought of that cheers joe ill try that later

[Judderi]

I would take my hat off to you Jinx-D if i was wearing one. Well done for tackling it yourself, i wouldnt of even tried.

[Rain]

yer i had a few doubts and definitly felt like giving up a few times but the worst bit is i got no dam knuckles left :S