JR's dad walked over to the Bentley and said, "You know I've got the skill and talent to fix you. We can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way. If you choose the hard way, then I am not going to be gentle." First try the car starts.
I think "it needs a new harness" is dealer speak for "it has an electronic problem but we can't diagnose it so let's just charge the customer to replace everything".
Make the bill so high that the problem goes away. If some white collar guy came in, $70k might not scare him so the dealer would have to quote like $300k repair and offer a trade-in.
New harness, new computer with a VERY high bill is code for piss off. I have had PLENTY of cars I have repaired in which their diagnosis was complete rubbish. My favorite was a Ford Taurus shorting out the 5v ref system intermittently. They claimed it needed a PCM. I found the issue in 15 minutes. The harness was rubbing through a valve cover stud and shorting out on the 5v reference wire🤣. Literally had it fixed in another 30 minutes and it was good to go for no parts cost.
I'm pretty sure a prototype built harness could be had for less, but the reverse engineering would be hell. I'm totally with you, send it to J&J and count your blessings that it all came out cost neutral.
I'd wager he's made a bit of money on us watching the videos... 😉 A swedish businessman once said, "-All PR is good PR!" When ur a utuber even a bad deal is a good deal... ☺👍
I bet it doesnt even need the harness... watch ivans video from PHAD. Mercedes dealer wanted to replace the harness and he fixed it without replacing the harness
@@RexerYTRexer There could be a short anywhere in that harness, and there's a ton of common splice points in it that can go bad... if he had a shop he could pull the full interior out and start tracing it all out but it'd likely take weeks and be really repetitive content at that point. The original owner that swapped the column and dumped it ruined the chances of anyone DIY'ing it as well since the original EEPROM probably could have been swapped to the replacement column, negating the need to remarry every component in the start circuit.
Ivan at Pine Hollow Auto Diagnostics just posted a series on a Mercedes Benz AMG that the dealer said needed a $20,000 wiring harness because it had a communication problem. Ivan was able to solve the problem which was a bad ecu that I think cost $1500 to replace.
I love it when someone who’s a technical genius can diagnose which actual part is bad So fix that and suprise suprise the car works fine again . I watched a UA-camr have endless problems with a Gtc bentley like major aggro and it turned out a bentley tech from England said there’s a roof module goes bad stops almost everything working as in boot opening and car starting 🤣
One of my friends had a similar experience with a Phaeton - also diagnosed as having a bad wiring harness, but in the end it was a bad module dragging down one of the CANbus lines.
That happened to my son's car, water in a CAN bus connector, shorted CAN-H and CAN-L intermittently, turned the car into a brick whenever things could not communicate.
What a timely video series for me. My 2007 Bentley GT was stolen about six weeks ago, recovered by the police about a week later. I had no keys.The key that the thief used to take the car was stolen out of my Volvo which was parked in the same garage. I have an appointment with a Bentley dealer that’s two hours away next week to get the keys reprogrammed. These new keys were purchased at around $1000 a piece from a Bentley dealer, who is closer to me however they refused to program the keys because the car is older than a 2010. I really enjoy your UA-cam postings. I’ve been a subscriber for a couple years and I’m fascinated by the skills you have.
Glad to hear you are able to get your money out of the Bentley. I enjoyed the learning experience. Like you said, big thanks to J&J for taking it off your hands and giving you a great price for it.
@@HD-mi3mk I'm sure there are easier ones out there that he could get instead, viewers would probably get tired of the months or years it would take to sort that one out
I bet it's fixable without a new harness but you'd be into it quite a bit of time to trace everything and fix it. Something probably got cut when they swapped or redid the interior. Such an odd history on that car, amazing you were able to get the whole back story on it. Good choice though, time to bail out on it. You don't have the time to spend on it. Good effort sir
Not if reprogramming the module requires talking to the mothership and the only way to do that is through the dealer. And the dealer won''t touch it until the wiring harness is replaced, you can also bet that it's tagged in their factory systems since they auctioned it for parts....
@@ckm-mkc I bet some CAN bus uber-hacker could figure out how to spoof the necessary codes because we know the crypto in Cars sucks galactic muffins. Maybe the guy who hacked the John Deere would be candidate for that.
There's always a way... it's just a VW under it all, after all. They don't want to touch it due to liability. without replacing the whole harness they can't guarantee the integrity of the rest of the harness. Also it's old enough they want nothing to do with it. Luxury brands are really bad about that...
I have fixed wiring issues multiple times that were misdiagnosed by multiple different dealers. The key is to have wiring diagrams, connector views, splice locations, and pinouts available to you. For example, Ford: I can buy a 2 day subscription giving me all of this information for $20. Same example, Ford offers a service in which I can remote in with my j2534 and a laptop and program modules, relearn trans shift solenoids, program keys, Exc. This runs $50 for 2 days unlimited. I have never worked on, or even seen a Bentley in person. BUT, that information similar to Ford is available through Er win after a quick internet search. It would just take a specialist or a knowledgeable person to spend plenty of time to figure out Bentleys particular system. JR, its not worth it to him to spend weeks or months on this car. Punt it off and move on.
Just clicked on the link for J&J, what an amazing company to see what they do to part out cars and save from the environment what can be saved. Sure, you could have parted out the Bentley yourself, it has lots of beautiful parts in and on it. What a blessing to be connected to these companies and how they help UA-camrs out. Right move John, on to the next adventure.
I wonder if Ivan from Pine Hollow Auto Diagnostics could have fixed this. He just got an older Merc going. The dealer had it for three months and said it needed a new wiring harness for $20k. Instead it needed one module. It was a complex job but he cracked it.
I have the exact same car, down to the colour. Fortunately minie is solid as a rock and still going strong. Such a shame that one is destined to be broken for parts. Thanks for sharing.
After I saw your initial throwing in of the towel on the Jag, I knew you weren't going to be able to get this going, since it's more complex, the parts are more expensive and they're not very common. I didn't realize they were so proprietary, though. Right to repair doesn't apply to Bentley, I guess;
J&J Auto Wrecking will always come to your rescue John Ross, they are good friends of the channel and the go to guys when you need parts as well. Everybody needs friends like J&J Autowrecking in their lives...👍🙂👍
@@WatchJRGo No, neglect happened to it. Then again, the Bentley, built in Crewe, and Rolls-Royce, built in Goodwood, are both victims of German engineers leading the pack into following the SECOND KISS RULE. Everyone knows the first. The second is "Keep it Stupid, Simple." The Robert Bosch & Co wiring bound to be a nightmare. To be honest, both Volkswagen and BMW missed the boat. They did the cars backwards. They should have been designed and engineered by the engineers in the factories then found alternative assembly facilities in Germany, then keep the bean counters out of the whole process.
Same thing basically happened on my Passat steering column module went plus one of the other BCM modules had it for a week to fix and they have to authenticate the VIN with Germany to get it to start lucky under warranty
Knowing someone who worked at Crewe the wiring loom is not bespoke for each car. Bentley had the looms for each car on the line in big boxes to go into each bare shell, the first thing to go in the car. They had to heat up the main loom to actually fit in the cars, so it would bend into place. As you said each car has different modules for the loom to connect to. To accommodate this there were additional attachments that connected the main loom, like electrical tails. The only thing bespoke about Bentleys is the interior. Bespoke bodies and engines went out with the end of Rolls Royce at Crewe. Each new Bentley built at Crewe has a build schedule with everything that goes in to the car so they know exactly what loom setup is in each car.
A wiring harness is just wires. If it isn't shorted or has breaks which can both be fixed it should be fine. The alterations to the steering column, I suspect , is the problem.
Sorry to hear the Bentley didn't work out. I was looking forward to seeing this thing on the road again. Cool that J & J bought you out of the project though. I hope the Tesla goes better for you.
This Rube Goldberg start system is not just in Bentleys, Mercedes does the same thing. They call it DAS for Drive Authorization System instead. The players are called ZGW (Central Gateway), EIS (Electronic Ignition Switch), MEL or CDI (Engine ECU for gas or diesel) and the VGS (transmission). And without a dealer level computer that can actually phone home forget trying to fix it yourself.
Seems unlikely that we will see this generation of Bentley on the road in 50 years (unlike the ones from 50-80 years ago that can still be repaired by reasonably skilled mechanics)
Love J&J they sold me full interior seats for my hummer H2. Had an issue where one of my power seat switches were broken when I received it and the guy was super cool and sent me a new one of another set they had
That car is like at the bottom of the list of cars I'd ever be interested ever owning. Along with other such cars with excess complexity, ultra high parts prices, limited shops to have it serviced in. And on and on.
damn, my favorite copart buys are "bad wiring" cars. i can pull and rewire entire harnesses from scratch but 99% of the time when the dealer has said it needs s harness / ecm its usually some bad grounds or fuses.
Sometimes LS swap is not the correct answer!!! Good experience working with English/German nightmare engineering! At least you still have the jag to enjoy some of the most craziest solutions to easy problems!!
This makes me wonder a few things... - Why are these cars so ridiculously complex? - Why are they almost impossible to troubleshoot? - Why are they so ridiculously expensive to fix? JR is correct, it is a VERY nice car with high quality materials and beautiful design. And yet, it ends up being nothing but a scam in the end. I cannot afford one of these cars, but if I could, I would NEVER buy most European luxury cars. People don't like Lexus, but for serious luxury without the scam, it is the most logical choice.
I had a truck where the harness shorted out. It’s not even close to the complexity of a Bentley. But I bought a universal harness made for hot rods, gutted mine and wired back in the basic harness. It started, ran, had signals and all my accessories worked. Always wondered if a car like the Bentley could dump all the computers and put in a less complicated wiring harness.
Good thoughts. Just one part of the problem with changing so much would be how to smog check it. It's all integrated. OBD II cars are tested on a computer, and not the sniff and roll of the older cars.
That's such a shame but totally understandable given the bill.. It's just sad how bad product design and unnecessary over-engineering kills all aftermarket support. Not good for preservation as these cars will be classic one day.
John, it would be nice to get the Bentley up and running but you have to be realistic and this is the best way to cut your losses (yeah, I know you broke even). This car was indeed built in the UK in the Bentley factory in Crewe which is about 65 miles away from me. This is the perfect example of why "Right to Repair" is important. Your Silver Shadow must be simple by comparison.
A sad ending to the bentley such a pity the wrong people came across it before it went to the dealer, I remember a while back in my country we used to have a company that specialised in rebuilding wiring harnesses they closed down due to a fire. maybe they could have saved that harness and you would just need 35k to have the modules coded with the secretkeys.
I bought a 1976 Datsun 280Z in 1977…paid $5600. Had about 5k milled. Unfortunately I discovered that after driving just 15-20 mikes, or some other drinking conditions the car would loose power, mis-fire and the tachometer would begin bouncing from actual revs to redline event few seconds. That’s why it was on the used car section at a Ford dealership! I worked at an aerospace company while in college so I borrowed a multi-meter and invested in a shop manual. Low and behold I, over time,traced it to a bad set of “points” in the distributor. The car has two, the second set kicking in to advance the spark…replaced it and all was fine! In my senior year I sold it to my roommate who drank too much whiskey and crashed it into a bus at my university!
The shifter mechanism has a sensor at the park position that makes sure the rod is seated in park. Personally I think you did the right thing. Doubt it needed a wiring harness. The trouble you would have to go through wouldn't be worth it. You would need ODIS (VW software) to read and work on it.
You made the right decision. Bentley would make it impossible for you to troubleshoot a repaired harness and you'd be making a 25 episode video doing it; who wants that.
What an absurd Rube-Goldbergesque start procedure. You could take half of that away and still make it virtually impossible to steal. I guess you know it's effective when even the owner can't drive it away. 🙄👌
What I learned from JR; You can do half ass repairs on a BMW but you can't do half ass repairs on a Bentley. (Not JR specifically-just folks in general) The only issue I have with Bentley and their anti-theft system is a Black Hat tech savvy car thief or thieves will find a way to steal a Bentley. It's too bad the previous owners totally effed up the security system (CASS) which ruined the ignition system. It's a serious reality check for anyone with the financial resources to buy a new or used Bentley and or Rolls Royce to do their due diligence and make dam sure the previous owner or owners did any "mods or fixes to the car's ignition/security system.
I feel you man. I got swayed by a auction "cheap" 05 cayenne turbo. Mechanic is telling me it is a waste of money. Now I am stuck with it or lose a bunch of money.
If I could work on the Bentley with Watch JR Goes I would drink the shot of whiskey and cold Bartle Skeets with him and pack up the Hash Pipe with Rocky and get all schmoked up.
Thing is that Bentley models, along with Rolls-Royce, only build the cars in England. The engineering is pure Benz (Rolls-Royce) or BMW, so the engineering think behind the cars is more Teutonic that British.
$70K for a wiring harness and installation.......luxury car companies sure are good at seeing their customers coming and fleeces them like a pro.....LOL
Just after the Bentley was hauled away JR’s dad came out and told him that he figured out how to fix it.
Son I fixed that thing on my lunch break yesterday.
@@tumekeehoa3121 just had to tap the hammer on the lugnut 3x every day 😅
JR, I studied the schematics and right over here a jumper wire can be hooked up, it totally bypasses the CASS system!!!! Jr, where's the Bentley?
JR's dad walked over to the Bentley and said, "You know I've got the skill and talent to fix you. We can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way. If you choose the hard way, then I am not going to be gentle." First try the car starts.
JR's dad could probably turn that Bentley into a heck of an ice cream maker!
I think "it needs a new harness" is dealer speak for "it has an electronic problem but we can't diagnose it so let's just charge the customer to replace everything".
Make the bill so high that the problem goes away. If some white collar guy came in, $70k might not scare him so the dealer would have to quote like $300k repair and offer a trade-in.
New harness, new computer with a VERY high bill is code for piss off.
I have had PLENTY of cars I have repaired in which their diagnosis was complete rubbish. My favorite was a Ford Taurus shorting out the 5v ref system intermittently. They claimed it needed a PCM. I found the issue in 15 minutes. The harness was rubbing through a valve cover stud and shorting out on the 5v reference wire🤣. Literally had it fixed in another 30 minutes and it was good to go for no parts cost.
@@dosgos $70k will scare 99.9999% of people.
@@630Cars Might not scare any original Bentley buyers. Just us regular folk.
Yep
I'm pretty sure a prototype built harness could be had for less, but the reverse engineering would be hell. I'm totally with you, send it to J&J and count your blessings that it all came out cost neutral.
I'd wager he's made a bit of money on us watching the videos... 😉 A swedish businessman once said, "-All PR is good PR!" When ur a utuber even a bad deal is a good deal... ☺👍
Good choice to let it go. I did fix a friends simular problem. Bad ground
on 1 of the ECU Harness. 4 long days of complicated troubleshooting.
I bet it doesnt even need the harness... watch ivans video from PHAD. Mercedes dealer wanted to replace the harness and he fixed it without replacing the harness
@@RexerYTRexer There could be a short anywhere in that harness, and there's a ton of common splice points in it that can go bad... if he had a shop he could pull the full interior out and start tracing it all out but it'd likely take weeks and be really repetitive content at that point. The original owner that swapped the column and dumped it ruined the chances of anyone DIY'ing it as well since the original EEPROM probably could have been swapped to the replacement column, negating the need to remarry every component in the start circuit.
Don’t forget the “your move” note he left
Ivan at Pine Hollow Auto Diagnostics just posted a series on a Mercedes Benz AMG that the dealer said needed a $20,000 wiring harness because it had a communication problem. Ivan was able to solve the problem which was a bad ecu that I think cost $1500 to replace.
I love it when someone who’s a technical genius can diagnose which actual part is bad
So fix that and suprise suprise the car works fine again .
I watched a UA-camr have endless problems with a Gtc bentley like major aggro and it turned out a bentley tech from England said there’s a roof module goes bad stops almost everything working as in boot opening and car starting 🤣
I watched the same series. Send the Bentley to Ivan he'll diagnose it...
Saw that series it was tough, Ivan is amazing .
One of my friends had a similar experience with a Phaeton - also diagnosed as having a bad wiring harness, but in the end it was a bad module dragging down one of the CANbus lines.
Yeah anything strange going on could come out as that. Even just water in connector.
That happened to my son's car, water in a CAN bus connector, shorted CAN-H and CAN-L intermittently, turned the car into a brick whenever things could not communicate.
The dealership always says harness and quotes a ridiculous amount of money, when they want the car to leave.
Yeah I was going to say I don’t think it was the harness seems like bs cause they never dug into it really
Yeah, I highly doubt there's anything significantly wrong with the harness. Note to self: Never buy a Bentley.
What a timely video series for me. My 2007 Bentley GT was stolen
about six weeks ago, recovered by the police about a week later. I had no keys.The key that the thief used to take the car was stolen out of my Volvo which was parked in the same garage. I have an appointment with a Bentley dealer that’s two hours away next week to get the keys reprogrammed. These new keys were purchased at around $1000 a piece from a Bentley dealer, who is closer to me however they refused to program the keys because the car is older than a 2010. I really enjoy your UA-cam postings. I’ve been a subscriber for a couple years and I’m fascinated by the skills you have.
That 2010 service cut-off is not planned obsolescence. Incredible!
Yikes. You might want to find a competent locksmith that deals in automotive in your area.
WTF, they wont program the keys for a car older than 2010?!!! That's insane! They don't want people buying their future cars or something?
And Bentleys are supposed to be classic cars…smh
Why would you own a vehicle that needs a $1,000 key? Maybe you're a multimillionaire? If not WHAT ARE YOU DOING?..
Glad to hear you are able to get your money out of the Bentley. I enjoyed the learning experience. Like you said, big thanks to J&J for taking it off your hands and giving you a great price for it.
Completely disappointed, watch JR sell. Sigh
@@HD-mi3mk cant win em all
@@HD-mi3mk I'm sure there are easier ones out there that he could get instead, viewers would probably get tired of the months or years it would take to sort that one out
RIP Bentley.. ps. Thank you for the update. It’s not always about actually fixing it, but knowing what the actual fault is is very good ending
been waiting to see the progress on this Bentley. I must say, loving the content since you sold the building.
Wow... this is a bittersweet ending I didn't expect. Glad you didn't lose a bunch!
I bet it's fixable without a new harness but you'd be into it quite a bit of time to trace everything and fix it. Something probably got cut when they swapped or redid the interior. Such an odd history on that car, amazing you were able to get the whole back story on it.
Good choice though, time to bail out on it. You don't have the time to spend on it. Good effort sir
Not if reprogramming the module requires talking to the mothership and the only way to do that is through the dealer. And the dealer won''t touch it until the wiring harness is replaced, you can also bet that it's tagged in their factory systems since they auctioned it for parts....
@@ckm-mkc I bet some CAN bus uber-hacker could figure out how to spoof the necessary codes because we know the crypto in Cars sucks galactic muffins. Maybe the guy who hacked the John Deere would be candidate for that.
There's always a way... it's just a VW under it all, after all. They don't want to touch it due to liability. without replacing the whole harness they can't guarantee the integrity of the rest of the harness. Also it's old enough they want nothing to do with it. Luxury brands are really bad about that...
They say all what he said to protect there brand and say stuff to make shaw it don't go on the road again
I have fixed wiring issues multiple times that were misdiagnosed by multiple different dealers. The key is to have wiring diagrams, connector views, splice locations, and pinouts available to you. For example, Ford: I can buy a 2 day subscription giving me all of this information for $20. Same example, Ford offers a service in which I can remote in with my j2534 and a laptop and program modules, relearn trans shift solenoids, program keys, Exc. This runs $50 for 2 days unlimited.
I have never worked on, or even seen a Bentley in person. BUT, that information similar to Ford is available through Er win after a quick internet search. It would just take a specialist or a knowledgeable person to spend plenty of time to figure out Bentleys particular system.
JR, its not worth it to him to spend weeks or months on this car. Punt it off and move on.
Well done J and J Auto Wrecking
Just clicked on the link for J&J, what an amazing company to see what they do to part out cars and save from the environment what can be saved. Sure, you could have parted out the Bentley yourself, it has lots of beautiful parts in and on it. What a blessing to be connected to these companies and how they help UA-camrs out. Right move John, on to the next adventure.
Boy, J&J sure pulled your rear out of the fire on this deal! You should be giving them a shoutout all the time for that! 👍👍🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🤘🏻🤘🏻
I’m sure Ivan of Pine Hollow Auto Disgnostics would of had a field day with this car. He’s great at circuitry, modules, wiring, etc.
I wonder if Ivan from Pine Hollow Auto Diagnostics could have fixed this.
He just got an older Merc going. The dealer had it for three months and said it needed a new wiring harness for $20k. Instead it needed one module.
It was a complex job but he cracked it.
Or super Mario..
Ivan is good
Prob yes, BUT he would not want to spend the time to learn how to program the system.
For a discount on $70k he might ...... ;)
Yes .. Isn't that Bentley just an S Class V12 under the skin ?
Essentially “it needs a complete wiring harness” is dealership speak for “we can’t duplicate or find the problem, so time to load the parts cannon!”
"The more complicated they make the plumbing, the easier it is to plug up the drain!" -Montgomery Scott
J&J coming in to save the day again! Glad you have good connects to get out roughly even on this
I have the exact same car, down to the colour. Fortunately minie is solid as a rock and still going strong. Such a shame that one is destined to be broken for parts. Thanks for sharing.
After I saw your initial throwing in of the towel on the Jag, I knew you weren't going to be able to get this going, since it's more complex, the parts are more expensive and they're not very common. I didn't realize they were so proprietary, though. Right to repair doesn't apply to Bentley, I guess;
J&J Auto Wrecking will always come to your rescue John Ross, they are good friends of the channel and the go to guys when you need parts as well. Everybody needs friends like J&J Autowrecking in their lives...👍🙂👍
I wonder if pine hollow could have fixed the harness.
I was thinking the same thing !
Kudus to you JR for trying to revive this beautiful machine, at least you tried.
Sad to see this go down the road but it was a fun journey.
Poor Bentley, it was so young to die.
Florida happened to it 😛
@@WatchJRGo No, neglect happened to it. Then again, the Bentley, built in Crewe, and Rolls-Royce, built in Goodwood, are both victims of German engineers leading the pack into following the SECOND KISS RULE. Everyone knows the first. The second is "Keep it Stupid, Simple." The Robert Bosch & Co wiring bound to be a nightmare. To be honest, both Volkswagen and BMW missed the boat. They did the cars backwards. They should have been designed and engineered by the engineers in the factories then found alternative assembly facilities in Germany, then keep the bean counters out of the whole process.
@@michaeltutty1540 yeah, thats why they went bankrupt in the first place?
@@michaeltutty1540 Help to break it to you, but Bentley and Rolls were in far worse state before the Germans came in.
It really was. That beautiful car deserved to ride again. But walking away on this one was the right thing to do…
While sad, it was great watching you troubleshoot the issues and come up with yet another early 2000s electronics/security problem.
Same thing basically happened on my Passat steering column module went plus one of the other BCM modules had it for a week to fix and they have to authenticate the VIN with Germany to get it to start lucky under warranty
A Bentley is just a very expensive VW, probably why you had the same problem.
Knowing someone who worked at Crewe the wiring loom is not bespoke for each car. Bentley had the looms for each car on the line in big boxes to go into each bare shell, the first thing to go in the car. They had to heat up the main loom to actually fit in the cars, so it would bend into place. As you said each car has different modules for the loom to connect to. To accommodate this there were additional attachments that connected the main loom, like electrical tails. The only thing bespoke about Bentleys is the interior. Bespoke bodies and engines went out with the end of Rolls Royce at Crewe. Each new Bentley built at Crewe has a build schedule with everything that goes in to the car so they know exactly what loom setup is in each car.
it's been a minute since i've heard J&J mentioned anywhere. Good to hear they're still around, and good on them to bail you out of that thing.
A wiring harness is just wires. If it isn't shorted or has breaks which can both be fixed it should be fine. The alterations to the steering column, I suspect , is the problem.
Sorry it didn’t work out, but you got to know when to walk away, and when to run. Good choice ! Glad J&J helped out. They seem to be a great company.
Sorry to hear the Bentley didn't work out. I was looking forward to seeing this thing on the road again. Cool that J & J bought you out of the project though. I hope the Tesla goes better for you.
That's unfortunate - I was especially looking forward to this one. Oh well. Thank god for J&J
This Rube Goldberg start system is not just in Bentleys, Mercedes does the same thing. They call it DAS for Drive Authorization System instead. The players are called ZGW (Central Gateway), EIS (Electronic Ignition Switch), MEL or CDI (Engine ECU for gas or diesel) and the VGS (transmission). And without a dealer level computer that can actually phone home forget trying to fix it yourself.
What a disgrace to consumers..
Bentley said it was a bad harness because their scanner didn't connect all the way to the OBD2 plug.
Seems unlikely that we will see this generation of Bentley on the road in 50 years (unlike the ones from 50-80 years ago that can still be repaired by reasonably skilled mechanics)
@WatchJrGo thanks for calling me back. I am glad your recovering the money you had in it. We will be in touch. Keep up the great content!
Somebody knew what they were doing and hosed you. J and J to the rescue!
Love J&J they sold me full interior seats for my hummer H2. Had an issue where one of my power seat switches were broken when I received it and the guy was super cool and sent me a new one of another set they had
😞 My mama's 65 Buick Wildcat had plungers on it's eyeball vents. I never gushed over them though. Maybe find a nice old Buick next
That car is like at the bottom of the list of cars I'd ever be interested ever owning. Along with other such cars with excess complexity, ultra high parts prices, limited shops to have it serviced in. And on and on.
Yep. Add Maybach to the list.
damn, my favorite copart buys are "bad wiring" cars. i can pull and rewire entire harnesses from scratch but 99% of the time when the dealer has said it needs s harness / ecm its usually some bad grounds or fuses.
If you do, get a real one with the proper 6¾ Litre V8 under the bonnet. They can be made work well.
I love a good puzzle. It gets a little tricky when hacks have been in there and start swapping parts through.
The Bentley Bent. Make's one want go back to the good old days of crank windows and points and carbs.
Well done getting all your money back. I enjoyed watching this saga however short lived. Be careful next time!
Sometimes LS swap is not the correct answer!!!
Good experience working with English/German nightmare engineering!
At least you still have the jag to enjoy some of the most craziest solutions to easy problems!!
Great case for Pine Hollow Auto Diagnostics!
That is an insane history! It did look pretty dodgy though at the start...
J&J saves the day ! Here in beautiful (grey) N.E.OHIO !! N.E.OH Bob
“Needs a wiring harness” is mechanic code for:
“We can’t (or don’t want to) figure out what’s actually wrong with it and we want you to go away”.
This makes me wonder a few things...
- Why are these cars so ridiculously complex?
- Why are they almost impossible to troubleshoot?
- Why are they so ridiculously expensive to fix?
JR is correct, it is a VERY nice car with high quality materials and beautiful design. And yet, it ends up being nothing but a scam in the end. I cannot afford one of these cars, but if I could, I would NEVER buy most European luxury cars. People don't like Lexus, but for serious luxury without the scam, it is the most logical choice.
If manufacturers had their way, ALL vehicles would be like this, i.e., impossible for anyone but them to repair.
I had a truck where the harness shorted out. It’s not even close to the complexity of a Bentley. But I bought a universal harness made for hot rods, gutted mine and wired back in the basic harness. It started, ran, had signals and all my accessories worked. Always wondered if a car like the Bentley could dump all the computers and put in a less complicated wiring harness.
Good thoughts. Just one part of the problem with changing so much would be how to smog check it. It's all integrated. OBD II cars are tested on a computer, and not the sniff and roll of the older cars.
Bummer that was such a cool spec on the colors. On to the next one
That's crazy no car should be like this what is Bentley doing...
That's such a shame but totally understandable given the bill.. It's just sad how bad product design and unnecessary over-engineering kills all aftermarket support. Not good for preservation as these cars will be classic one day.
I like how creative you are with your titles. ...Awesome
I feel like you haven't been gaining subscribers for a very long time now, I wonder why that is. Love the content, keep it up.
John, it would be nice to get the Bentley up and running but you have to be realistic and this is the best way to cut your losses (yeah, I know you broke even). This car was indeed built in the UK in the Bentley factory in Crewe which is about 65 miles away from me. This is the perfect example of why "Right to Repair" is important. Your Silver Shadow must be simple by comparison.
Reliability, Repairability, and Maintainability has been engineered out of newer late model vehicles,............
Holy crap I was guessing $10,000 for the harness, should have known it would be even more ridiculously expensive.
I had a premonition this was “frying pan to gates-of-hell” and the gates are now creaking open.
🤷🏻♂️ welcome to Beelzebub’s Bentley Parts.
It was probably just the ash tray not being plugged in causing all the problems 😁
I’m on eBay uk looking at these for £12000 thinking hmmm
I think I’m gonna buy a old Ford instead 😂
MUCH safer bet👍👍🤣🤣
This car should really goto diagnose dan it would be a great Challenger for him and he always fixes the problem.
These things are so cheap in the uk where the car was made because one wrong move means thousands of £
I was about to buy a similar Bentley, but chickened out. Boy am I happy now.
A sad ending to the bentley such a pity the wrong people came across it before it went to the dealer, I remember a while back in my country we used to have a company that specialised in rebuilding wiring harnesses they closed down due to a fire. maybe they could have saved that harness and you would just need 35k to have the modules coded with the secretkeys.
3:44 A new wiring harness for the Bentley: $35,000. Labor to install: $33,900. Wait time: 42 weeks. UA-cam clicks: PRICELESS.
I bought a 1976 Datsun 280Z in 1977…paid $5600. Had about 5k milled. Unfortunately I discovered that after driving just 15-20 mikes, or some other drinking conditions the car would loose power, mis-fire and the tachometer would begin bouncing from actual revs to redline event few seconds. That’s why it was on the used car section at a Ford dealership!
I worked at an aerospace company while in college so I borrowed a multi-meter and invested in a shop manual.
Low and behold I, over time,traced it to a bad set of “points” in the distributor. The car has two, the second set kicking in to advance the spark…replaced it and all was fine! In my senior year I sold it to my roommate who drank too much whiskey and crashed it into a bus at my university!
A good honest video.
This changes my mind saw a nice blk 2006 Bentley Continental 4dr for $25,000
Not getting what will soon be LAWN FURNITURE & DECOR
The shifter mechanism has a sensor at the park position that makes sure the rod is seated in park. Personally I think you did the right thing. Doubt it needed a wiring harness. The trouble you would have to go through wouldn't be worth it. You would need ODIS (VW software) to read and work on it.
This would be an interesting challenge for Ivan @ Pine Hollow Auto diagnostics, maybe tag team in Keith Defazio 💪
Cars don’t need this level of complexity.
Such intense complexity!
Congratulations. When the juice ain’t worth the squeeze. Knowing when to NOT sacrifice the channel Is the best decision.
One mystery you didn't answer was why the interior was swapped?
Very lucky to find someone to buy it
"Bad wiring harness" sounds like the BS excuse they give you when they don't want to (or can't) fix the car.
Call Ivan at Pine Hollow! He the man! Reminds me of when I tried to find a fuel pump relay on my new to me Audi A6. lol. Learning curve.
You made the right decision. Bentley would make it impossible for you to troubleshoot a repaired harness and you'd be making a 25 episode video doing it; who wants that.
Sorry it didn’t work out for you brother. It would’ve been nice to see you cruising around town in that. Oh well on to the next!!!
I was kind of hoping that as you put it back together you'd find some crucial broken wires but is was not to be. Glad you are not out of pocket.
J&J FTW! RIP Bentley.
When you referenced Sarah McLahlan, I thought you'd say "I will remember you".
What an absurd Rube-Goldbergesque start procedure. You could take half of that away and still make it virtually impossible to steal. I guess you know it's effective when even the owner can't drive it away. 🙄👌
Love to have seen JR cruising in it, at least we you didnt loose on it.
J&J saved the day!
Send J&J a nice Christmas card !
What I learned from JR; You can do half ass repairs on a BMW but you can't do half ass repairs on a Bentley. (Not JR specifically-just folks in general) The only issue I have with Bentley and their anti-theft system is a Black Hat tech savvy car thief or thieves will find a way to steal a Bentley. It's too bad the previous owners totally effed up the security system (CASS) which ruined the ignition system. It's a serious reality check for anyone with the financial resources to buy a new or used Bentley and or Rolls Royce to do their due diligence and make dam sure the previous owner or owners did any "mods or fixes to the car's ignition/security system.
Man just run a wire from the battery to the coil through a switch and done.
I feel you man. I got swayed by a auction "cheap" 05 cayenne turbo. Mechanic is telling me it is a waste of money. Now I am stuck with it or lose a bunch of money.
Just suck up the loss and take it as a life lesson.
Ah.....back in the 70's I rebuilt a 1948 Bentley Mk 6.......how times have changed!
Wow sorry to hear you couldn’t get it sorted. Learned alot more about these cars from your video. Had this same one same color lol.
If I could work on the Bentley with Watch JR Goes I would drink the shot of whiskey and cold Bartle Skeets with him and pack up the Hash Pipe with Rocky and get all schmoked up.
Nice one, you dodged the bullet there! Congrats on getting your investment back!
British car content is always, always welcome!
Thing is that Bentley models, along with Rolls-Royce, only build the cars in England. The engineering is pure Benz (Rolls-Royce) or BMW, so the engineering think behind the cars is more Teutonic that British.
Ye old it needs a harness....i.e. we couldn't fix it. Saw this on ivan's thanksgiving special.
Great recap!
At that point J&J must have been like angels from heaven haha. Talk about dodging a bullet.
$70K for a wiring harness and installation.......luxury car companies sure are good at seeing their customers coming and fleeces them like a pro.....LOL