996 fixed wing wiring harness how-to

[rsq911]

As posted in another thread, my wonderful wife got me an early Christmas/Birthday present of a GT3/Aerokit 2 style wing (from another forum member).

The top three areas to address (after choosing a wing), based on forum threads, are the following:
wiring harness
rear emblem/badge
front lip/spoiler/splitter

If one does a search on “996 fixed wing wiring harness”, you will find a great deal of posts, some dating back to the point of harnesses being $50!

There have usually been two choices, modify/hack the stock pop-up wiring harness, or purchase a new fixed wing version.

I decided to purchase a new/purpose made harness. Well, there seems to be confusion which one fits. The following two oem part numbers fit 1999-2004 996, non turbo:
996.612.070.51 (fixed wing without 4th brake light)
996.612.070.04 (fixed wing WITH 4th brake light)

Yes, I know that “technically” the parts say “third brake light”, but “technically” the third brake light is just below the rear window in the body.

Once I confirmed the part numbers, pricing has “flip-flopped” over the last decade, and the fixed wing without the brake light used to be around $50, and the brake light version was around $110. Well…….. today, the brake light version is around $120, and the non brake light version is $350-390!

So, the more expensive harness comes with less wiring, one less plug and grommet, and costs three times as much! As my wife pointed out to me, most fixed wings do NOT have a fourth brake light, so the demand is higher for part 51, “justifying” the supply and demand pricing.

I opted to go with part 04, with the brake light, modify it, and save $250.

You will need electrical tape, wire cutters/snips, and small tip scissors.

Once you unravel the harness, you will notice four plugs: main connector, fan, work light, brake light. The brake light plug has a foam sock over it and the harness loom also has a rubber grommet, the wire color coding is red/black and brown. The tubing or loom has a sheathed main body that has three separate sections that are brought together in the middle by a fourth tube.

Take the brake light plug and cut the wire tubing just down to where it meets the main split exposing the wires and a ground wire (brown) “Y” shaped connector of three brown wires. Cut the power wire (red/black), just above where it goes into the main loom, and then cut the brown wire where it is attached at the “Y”. Next, pull the red/black all the way through the main loom where it is attached at the main plug/connector. At this point, you can cut it where it attaches to the main plug, or what I did which was to leave a couple of inches that I tucked back into the loom just in case I wanted to reattach anything.
If you notice from the pictures of the two different wiring harnesses, the 51 has the fan and work light plugs going the same direction, the 04 has them going opposite directions with the brake light and fan going the same.

After removing the brake light plug, you will need to cut the center or “fourth” tubing that used to join the three plugs together. This is just a split so the fan plug can flip over to the work light plug, forming a straight line from the main plug/connector. You will notice after splitting/cutting the fourth tubing, that the black wire from the fan is bent in a “U”, straighten this out. Now you will gently push the brown wire “Y” connector down into the main body tubing towards the main plug/connector. Lay the fan and work light plugs side by side, use electrical tape, and neatly close the tubing splits, and you are done! The new fixed wing harness has a heat braiding from the main plug up about a third of the way to protect the wiring and tubing from heat and opening and closing. Note: your spoiler check light will still come on at start up, and shuts off when pulling away, this is normal, and you will not get the light after that.

If you have any questions, let me know, if I forgot something sorry, and there are a couple of pictures from the internet from ECS Tuning's site, the rest are mine. I am not affiliated with them, did not purchase anything from them, but want to give credit.

[DrhamGT3]

I realize that this post is nearly 7 years old, but just wanted to offer my thanks for posting it. I just followed it to modify the now ~$380 less expensive 996.612.070.04 (fixed wing WITH 4th brake light) harness. Works great, easy DIY.