16 replies to this topic

[Frozo]

How Much Does It Cost For a Good Rewire on a Mini?

cheers

[shorty]

well you can buy ready made looms
think there between 100 to 200 quid

[Frozo]

well you can buy ready made looms
think there between 100 to 200 quid

they easy to fit?

and cheers

[shorty]

no idea on that front

someone will be able to tell you though

[Frog]

How Much Does It Cost For a Good Rewire on a Mini?

cheers

Fitting new wiring harnesses are pretty straight forward but obviously you have to strip out most of the car to route it all through. My advise would be take out a bit at a time then route your new one as you go or take picture on a digital camera/phone so you have something to reference against.

[Frozo]

How Much Does It Cost For a Good Rewire on a Mini?

cheers

Fitting new wiring harnesses are pretty straight forward but obviously you have to strip out most of the car to route it all through. My advise would be take out a bit at a time then route your new one as you go or take picture on a digital camera/phone so you have something to reference against.

its a mini rebuild which "Trail of Dead" has very kindly given me (picking up on sunday) so will this make it easier as the car is already stripped down?

[Team Loxley Racing]

The mechanics who fitted my loom said it was a right mission! Glad I didn't try =P

[Frozo]

The mechanics who fitted my loom said it was a right mission! Glad I didn't try =P

lol. i know a couple of mechanics but obviously i will have to pay them

[rimmer1993]

Have the haynes manual at hand and it shouldnt be too bad if you buy the kit, although I'd rather pay an auto electrician

[slyoldfox2001]

autosparks sell wiring looms to suit all varients of minis

rough cost anything between £150-£250

to re-wire it yourslf i would say 3.5-4.0 out of 5 on a difficultly scale.

[Frozo]

autosparks sell wiring looms to suit all varients of minis

rough cost anything between £150-£250

to re-wire it yourslf i would say 3.5-4.0 out of 5 on a difficultly scale.

I'll probs get my uncles friend (whos a mechanic) to come and have a look and see how much he will charge to re-wire if i buy the wires etc

[Team Loxley Racing]

Also with the looms stuff like fuse boxes aren't included... I would recommend getting a new fuse box as well. LOL

[Dan]

Don't put a re-wire in the hands of a mechanic, I've nothing against mechanics but most of the mechanics I know don't even understand how electricity works. Even if you've never done it before, rewiring a Mini with a replacement standard loom shouldn't take you more than 4 hours at the most. I believe I could probably pull a new loom into a carb car comfortably inside an hour, but I know these cars pretty well I think and I was a professional wireman for a while so I have tricks to employ.

Fitting new wiring harnesses are pretty straight forward but obviously you have to strip out most of the car to route it all through.

Not at all. In most Minis made up to about 1994 the most you would have to remove is the dash and a rear C pillar panel. In most of the Minis in question of course, as standard removing the dash consists of lifting out a trim panel. You might want to release the fuel tank if you don't have very skinny hands. It is honestly far easier to do it all at once rather than a bit at a time. The wiring is colour coded and not nearly as complicated as it might look. Just don't be overwhelmed because there appear to be lots of connections to make. The loom was designed to be fitted on the production line in just a few minutes, it's easy. The Haynes manual will tell you exactly what colours go where and once you have the loom placed in the car it's obvious what connects to what.

Get the new loom in your hands and lay it out, make sure you know what sections should be going where in the car before you start and familiarise yourself with the connections. Take a few pictures of the original installation in specific areas like the fuse box if you like but considering that you are presumably replacing it because it's bodged and broken you might not really want to copy what's already in situ. Copying the manual makes more sense.

Take out the dash, find where the front and rear looms join and break the joint. Disconnect everything, remove earth screws, release grommets, pull loom sections back through panels so that it's all free and moving. Tie a pull cord to the forward end of the rear section, making sure you tie off the dead end of the pull cord so it can't disappear into the body, and then get on with pulling out the old and fitting the new. You can use a pull cord on the front too if you like but it's not really needed. Tidy the loom into place and reconnect everything, as you settle everything into place, keep an eye on any twsit in the harness. It's much easier to fit properly relaxed wiring so untwist anything that starts binding up as you go. Feeding it through holes and things will naturally make twists appear in the main harness so bear that in mind. Don't be afraid to pull but make sure connectors aren't snagging as you do. If it's stuck, find out why before yanking on it. It really isn't hard at all though.

You might find it helpful to tie a bit of streamer or cord onto the new loom in any locations where you had trouble feeding the old one out through panels before you start feeding the new one into the body. Things such as the interior lamp wiring for example. Fishing in through the headlining hole is fiddly and if there is a bit of cord in there to get hold of and pull through it's easier than guiding the wires through by themselves. Cable rods might help in a few places too but on the whole, there is nowhere that's really very tricky to feed in a Mini.

Later cars (after about 1994) have a more complex route for the rear loom and require you to do a bit more strippnig down but aren't too different. Injection cars have more things to hook up but again aren't really all that different.

[minialf]

i have an 87 mayfair obviously mk3, so this would be a complete whole car loom not just interior and engine? this would be all the light circuits etc aswell, every wire in the car? http://www.minispare...mp;title=WIRING LOOM

[Dan]

87 mayfair obviously mk3

Your car is a Mk5 Mini. The loom you have found says 'to 1976' in the description! There are only two looms in the majority of Minis, the front loom and the rear loom. There isn't a separate interior loom or engine loom. Anything sold as a full loom will be just that, it will include everything.