Hi guys,

Went to change my o2 sensor, and I accidentally broke the connector off of the wiring harness side! the dealer said it would be $5k to fix because they would have to change the entire engine wiring harness.

I'm hoping you guys have a better course of action here. My thoughts are...

1. Can I just splice the wires directly to the sensor wires, or is something electrical actually going on in the connector itself?
2. If #1 won't work, should I solder new wires into the old harness connector? I don't know exactly where to solder the wires in, so I'm worried I'd ruin the connector in the process.
3. Looks like I can buy a used wiring harness for $200, cut off the connector I need with a little wire to spare, then just splice those wires to my car.

 

Look at the connector you broke. Does it have a five digit number stamped on it? If so, preface that number with 90980-xxxxx where xxxxx is the number on the connector and viola...you now have the part number. Your Toyota dealer can order you the connector and there are guide around on how to move the pins.
On second thought, you may want to go to another dealer if the 1st one only believe $5k can repair this.

 

There's no part number on it. The dealer also told me that on this car, they don't this connector as a separate part, you have to purchase the entire wiring harness... thus the $5k bill.

 

Tell us exactly what you are working on and someone may have a solution. A wrecking yard may be a option too.

Sorry, but we have heard the dealers claim before and have tracked down connectors the dealer said was unavailable. Some dealers parts desk folks go into the "it's not available" mode by default on connectors it seems. Grrrrr.

If you could post up a pic of both sides of the connector would be a big help as some of us have wiring catalogs available

 

See attached... top left pic is from the side, top right is the 'back' side, that connected to the engine wiring harness, bottom left is from the 'front' where the oxygen sensor plugged in, and the bottom right is from the side again but has the oxygen sensor connector plugged into it. The problem is that while I was trying to get the o2 sensor out of it's clip, the entire connector popped off rather than disconnecting.

I'm not sure if the connector itself is just a pass through for the wires or if something electrical actually occurs in the connector itself. If it's just essentially a pass-through... seems like I should just be able to splice on the wires from the new o2 sensor, right? Otherwise I have to reattach this connector or buy a new one.

Does that explain the issue? Thanks again for your help!

 

Nate, what is the number in the top right pic just above the upper pins? Is it 10869? Something else?

http://www.toyotapart.com/90980-10869.html