2013 Ram 1500 Big Horn Engine Wiring Harness - Part # 68144497AD

[RamRider60]

Good Day Fellow Ram 1500'ers. I'm in a dilemna that so far, Dodge as well as my dealership has been unable to solve. I am trying to find a Engine Wiring Harness for a 2013 Ram 1500 Big Horn with a 5.7L Hemi and a 6 speed Automatic Transmission. The Part number is 68144497AD. I have the MVP Service Plan that I bought with the truck back in 2013. I had an ECM failure along with a needed Engine Wiring Harness Replacement. Both parts are covered my my MVP Service Plan. Since May 24, 2021, I have been working with my Dodge Dealership and the Northeast Dodge Rep assigned to me to fix this issue. As of August 9, 2021, I have been told the following by the Northeast Dodge Rep.

1. The Engine Wiring Harness for the 2013 RAM 1500 with the 5.7L Hemi and 6 Speed Automatic Transmission has been discontinued as of 03/16/2020.

2. Attempts to find a new OEM supplied engine wiring harness cannot be found. Although I have the MVP Lifetime Service Plan and the part is covered, the one option for me is to work with the dealer to find a salvage part for my truck. This salvage part would void my warranty for the engine wiring harness for the future of the service plan because it is not an OEM part. If it is determined that the wiring harness was determined to have caused the failure of another component attatched to wiring harness, those parts will be void as part of the Service Plan due to the wiring harness being the cause for that components failure. They must prove that the wiring harness has a short.

3. We have now been looking for a salvage wiring harness for my truck since 8/09/2021 with no success. I have been without my truck except for a short 1.5 day period where they put in the new ECM and it drove until the wiring harness blew the fuse to protect the new ECM just put in.

4. My other option is to accept the purchase of a new Dodge vehicle where at such time, after the deal has been worked through, Dodge folks will come up with a CDI coupon which will tell me how much they are willing to give me as a discount for replacement of my current truck. I have until January 2022 to take this option. Anyone know if another year's truck (2014?..etc) wiring harness will work with my 2013? Thanks for any help!

 

[Sherman Bird]

Good Day Fellow Ram 1500'ers. I'm in a dilemna that so far, Dodge as well as my dealership has been unable to solve. I am trying to find a Engine Wiring Harness for a 2013 Ram 1500 Big Horn with a 5.7L Hemi and a 6 speed Automatic Transmission. The Part number is 68144497AD. I have the MVP Service Plan that I bought with the truck back in 2013. I had an ECM failure along with a needed Engine Wiring Harness Replacement. Both parts are covered my my MVP Service Plan. Since May 24, 2021, I have been working with my Dodge Dealership and the Northeast Dodge Rep assigned to me to fix this issue. As of August 9, 2021, I have been told the following by the Northeast Dodge Rep.

1. The Engine Wiring Harness for the 2013 RAM 1500 with the 5.7L Hemi and 6 Speed Automatic Transmission has been discontinued as of 03/16/2020.

2. Attempts to find a new OEM supplied engine wiring harness cannot be found. Although I have the MVP Lifetime Service Plan and the part is covered, the one option for me is to work with the dealer to find a salvage part for my truck. This salvage part would void my warranty for the engine wiring harness for the future of the service plan because it is not an OEM part. If it is determined that the wiring harness was determined to have caused the failure of another component attatched to wiring harness, those parts will be void as part of the Service Plan due to the wiring harness being the cause for that components failure. They must prove that the wiring harness has a short.

3. We have now been looking for a salvage wiring harness for my truck since 8/09/2021 with no success. I have been without my truck except for a short 1.5 day period where they put in the new ECM and it drove until the wiring harness blew the fuse to protect the new ECM just put in.

4. My other option is to accept the purchase of a new Dodge vehicle where at such time, after the deal has been worked through, Dodge folks will come up with a CDI coupon which will tell me how much they are willing to give me as a discount for replacement of my current truck. I have until January 2022 to take this option. Anyone know if another year's truck (2014?..etc) wiring harness will work with my 2013? Thanks for any help!

I guess Dave Ramsey was/is correct in the big picture! Extended warranties are, largely a rip off. The conditions that you void other parts of the warranty or the entire thing if you install a salvage wiring harness wreaks of wanton fraud in that they are doing petty ridiculous things as an excuse not to pay out claims.

As a professional shop owner and current working technician, I've witnessed outright fraudulent denials of coverage just because they just didn't want to pay legitimate, covered claims. I've even recently been part and privvy to 2 different Ford Dealers ******** one of my customers out of "Factory" Motorcraft warranty claims because said dealer didn't perform the original repair. (These folks were out on a road trip when their alternator failed. After calling me, I advised them to take their Expedition to a local Ford Dealer because of Ford's so-called nationwide warranty on their factory endorsed parts bought and installed at one of their accredited dealers coast to coast.) After wrestling with the 2 dealers here in Houston, these folks decided to just have me replace the alternator with a high end aftermarket unit which wasn't available to them on Podunkville, Texas. By this time, they were out 300 dollars (150.00 per dealer) for "Diagnosis" where these mutts failed to perform an AC ripple test. The defective alternator in question was putting out 900 mV in AC ripple, causing CAN/BUS issues.

The system is rigged, I think. After all, why warranty a 500 dollar alternator repair on a 2006 Expedition when they can twist your arm to go into 40 thousand plus in debt?

I advise my customers to decline all the hype and persuasion to buy an extended warranty and put 200 dollars in a special savings account for the 60 or so months that their vehicle has factory warranty. That 12 grand accumulated during this time will pay for many major repairs and likely leave one with a surplus for when the inevitable time comes to buy a replacement vehicle.

 

[RamRider60]

And here's the update for everyone. The company who is reconditioning my engine wiring harness has finished and it has passed their QC process. The fixes involve three cracked connectors and new pins within the connector. Not sure if any of the wiring itself was replaced. The entire harness was re-wrapped with insulated tape and passed their QC process. Their stated failure rate for harness returns is under 1 percent. The wiring harness will be delivered via FedEx tomorrow and then we shall see what unfolds with the truck after that. I need to have both manifold bolts replaced on the truck prior to the dealership putting the wiring harness back on. Fingers crossed that the truck will start, not have dashboard light up like a Christmas Tree and I get full use of my truck again after one year of this nonsense all because Mopar decided to discontinue a part that is vital for the truck to run. I'm currently pessimistically optimistic!

 

[RamRider60]

Just an update to the 13 month saga to now I can say that the original reconditioned engine harness is on the truck and it runs with no dash lights popping up due to lack of communication with anything. The dealership managed to get an additional $1200 out of me to put the wiring harness back on the truck. This would have been covered by the Mopar Lifetime Warranty where I only would have paid $100 but because Ram Care has closed the case, the dealership can't get the money from them to pay for the removal and installation. At this point, I paid it just to get the truck back. Not done with FCA US LLC just yet. I'll update down the road. For anyone with a 2013 Ram 1500 with either a 6 or 8 speed transmission, if you need a new engine wiring harness for any reason, forget being able to get one through Mopar. They discontinued it on March 19, 2020 and there are none to be found. i was told by the Ram Customer Service Rep that they are only required to keep it in stock for 5 years. After that, they can discontinue it at any time for any reason. So you may think a particular part will be covered in your Mopar Lifetime Warranty but there may be some surprises coming your way when you try to get coverage for that particular part.

 

[Sherman Bird]

Just an update to the 13 month saga to now I can say that the original reconditioned engine harness is on the truck and it runs with no dash lights popping up due to lack of communication with anything. The dealership managed to get an additional $1200 out of me to put the wiring harness back on the truck. This would have been covered by the Mopar Lifetime Warranty where I only would have paid $100 but because Ram Care has closed the case, the dealership can't get the money from them to pay for the removal and installation. At this point, I paid it just to get the truck back. Not done with FCA US LLC just yet. I'll update down the road. For anyone with a 2013 Ram 1500 with either a 6 or 8 speed transmission, if you need a new engine wiring harness for any reason, forget being able to get one through Mopar. They discontinued it on March 19, 2020 and there are none to be found. i was told by the Ram Customer Service Rep that they are only required to keep it in stock for 5 years. After that, they can discontinue it at any time for any reason. So you may think a particular part will be covered in your Mopar Lifetime Warranty but there may be some surprises coming your way when you try to get coverage for that particular part.

.....and so goes the saga! These manufacturers are VERY smart! They have many in their employ to predict through actuarial methods, just where and what to cover/ not cover, and design obsolescence in a parallel anticipation of failure.

They know when to drop certain parts so that the hapless consuming public must buy a new vehicle.... they are protecting their jobs. As an interesting note: As a professional technician with my own shop, I am very pleasantly surprised as to how many parts I can still get for Honda cars going back 25 years. I am not plugging for Honda, but wonder why they outshine everyone else in older vehicle parts support!

 

[Skyfox]

You said: "The company who is reconditioning my engine wiring harness has finished and it has passed their QC process."
Can you please tell me the name of the company, and how to contact them, that you used to have this work done?
Thank you

 

[RamRider60]

Have a look at wiringharnessrestoration.com. They are bit expensive but do very good work. My truck would still be sitting at the dealership if it wasn't for these folks. They evaluate your harness before they give you a quote. They have a number of plans to do the wiring harness but the fastest one (costs the most money) could still take four or five months to complete the harness. My harness was pretty bad and I've now driven around 1,000 miles since getting the truck back on the road with no issues. For me, paying the $5000 was cheaper than buying a new truck and I baby the truck so I went that route instead of getting a salvage harness that the dealership was having no luck finding. I think this place is a smaller place where there isn't a large group of techs to work on these things. But they have a less than 1% return rate for the harness and I will vouch that they do QA and make sure its up to ***** before they ship it. The QA found a few hairline fracture cracks in some of the connectors that the original tech didn't see. All the connector pins were lubricated with an anti-corrosion substance so it would help protect the harness down the road. I think my harness is now better than the one they installed at the factory. They are good to work with and you can email them for a status or with any questions that you have and they reply back in a few hours. Very happy with their service. You do have to pay for the shipping of the harness, back and forth and they require photographs of the installation to get them to approve the lifetime warranty that comes with the harness after its repaired. You have 30 days to get the install done. Because it was a Dodge Dealership that did the install, they were easier with the acceptance than if you did it yourself. Feel free to ask me more questions if needed. These guys do all kinds of wiring harnesses, planes, tanks, antique cars..etc.

 

[Skyfox]

Thank you for the information. I am very grateful and I will look into them.

 

[GTyankee]

I know that you are up & running, but i used to spend my weekends parts hunting.
I have a feeling that someone has that section of harness, in a box on a shelf. Many people have New Old Stock in old barns & sheds

I know a guy that buys out stock at dealerships when they are going out of business, he specializes in Ford Products.

Another guy had New Old Stock for Chevys
His stock of 1955 - 1959 pickup parts made me drool, unfortunately, he moved out of State.

Now, I only see the Chevy Guy at the Auto Swap Meet in Long Beach California, 20 acres big !
He likely still hits all the larger auto swap meets

 

[RamRider60]

I wish I talked to you a year ago! Thanks for the info. In case I ever run into this lovely Dodge scenario again, I'll be sure to send a quick "I gotta a guy" message to you for suggestions. Appreciate your reply.

 

[Jeepwalker]

I was wondering why they didn't just fix it in the first place (once a suitable replacement couldn't be found). But at least you have it up and running. Hope it continues to run great.

 

[RamRider60]

Just an update to the 13 month saga to now I can say that the original reconditioned engine harness is on the truck and it runs with no dash lights popping up due to lack of communication with anything. The dealership managed to get an additional $1200 out of me to put the wiring harness back on the truck. This would have been covered by the Mopar Lifetime Warranty where I only would have paid $100 but because Ram Care has closed the case, the dealership can't get the money from them to pay for the removal and installation. At this point, I paid it just to get the truck back. Not done with FCA US LLC just yet. I'll update down the road. For anyone with a 2013 Ram 1500 with either a 6 or 8 speed transmission, if you need a new engine wiring harness for any reason, forget being able to get one through Mopar. They discontinued it on March 19, 2020 and there are none to be found. i was told by the Ram Customer Service Rep that they are only required to keep it in stock for 5 years. After that, they can discontinue it at any time for any reason. So you may think a particular part will be covered in your Mopar Lifetime Warranty but there may be some surprises coming your way when you try to get coverage for that particular part.

An update on this particular thread.... I've now been driving the truck for over 9,000 miles and have not had any issues with the wiring harness or the ECM since. I've had some issues with check engine lights, mostly pertaining to the fuel system that got gunked up due to the truck sitting outside without running for the 13 months. I've been using my Life Time Warranty to get each of these items fixed and we are down to the last item (Replacing Fuel Injectors on Bank 2) which hopefully will take care of 219B DTC I have at the moment. It's been a long haul with this truck but it is getting to the point where it is running like it used to. Interesting that Mopar has now invoked the Do Not Call Us for Dealers who are trying to get authorization for fixes within the Warranty. The Dealerships have to email the Warranty folks and need to wait weeks to get a reply on whether the particular job will be covered. Prior to this, they had a phone number to call to get the Authorization. When they call now, they get the "Send an Email" reply. My new Dodge Dealership had a customer without her car for a month before hearing back regarding the Authorization. Nothing they could do to try and move this along. Customer Care was no help in getting it moved along. The Dealership has no way to track the email to see when it will get responded to. If they call, they are told no one can give them an update. It just needs to wallow through the delay process until someone feels like responding to the email. Pretty sad that this is what Mopar has basically gone to a level of customer service. I would love to get a group within this forum to start banding together to start vocalizing our displeasure with them treating their customers this way. Perhaps enough emails to Stellantis and FCA LLC explaining our sentiment would help them understand what they are doing is not going unnoticed by their customers. The Dodge Truck inventory is just piling up these days and this might get their attention. Anyhoo, everyone have a good day!

 

[RamRider60]

I was wondering why they didn't just fix it in the first place (once a suitable replacement couldn't be found). But at least you have it up and running. Hope it continues to run great.

The Service Manager told me that their mechanic had started to review the harness and he decided that it would be too much work and that he didn't have the time to fix it. I swear this was their answer to me so they were left with trying to find a salvage harness which after a month of waiting for that, I decided to send it to the wiring harness restoration place in Utah because I felt I would never get my truck back if I waited for the dealership to find one. Crazy I know, but that's what happened.