I am looking to buy a WS6 01 w/ 16.4k miles on it. The dealer says that the wiring harness is bad and has to be changed (are doing b4 it is ready for purchase). I'm leaning away from this car b/c of this but why would an engine wiring harness have to be replaced this early? They said that the engine has to be removed to replace this.

 

Its just wires, so either one of 3 things happened:

1. It was bad from the factory and just had a short.

2. The car was severely water damaged, and the wires became corroded (highly unlikely as the engine would probably need to be replaced too).

3. Dont laugh...an animal ate through it. Ive actually heard of this happening before. I guess that plastic insulation tastes good to some vermin.

 

I would have guessed that they opened the hood and sprayed the engine down with a hose. I've seen dealers do that to cars b4 and it messes them up. I'm getting a dif car anyways but I wondered how this problem could have occured after only 16.4k miles. They only wanted $22,000 out the door for it (M6, 01, red) which is pretty good-except for having the engine removed and reinstalled. I wouldn't trust it for THAT price.

(one dealer in my area had a car very similar and is asking 27000 and wouldnt even come down to 22500 b/c they said they paid more than that! I got mine recently- A4 not M6- for less that that!)