Fixing hotwire attempt

[iammaier]

The other night someone broke into my 2009 AWD vibe and attempted to hotwire it; the car wasn’t stolen, so I assume they were unsuccessful. They cut the white wire going to the ignition switch and stripped a portion of the red wire. Image is attached.

image0.jpeg (639.64 KiB) Viewed 98 times

I don’t have comprehensive insurance so Progressive says they won’t cover costs to fix it. I’ve done some basic electrical work before so I’d be comfortable reconnecting the wires, but I don’t want to mess the car up more by trying to fix it myself if there’s some anti-theft safeguard in the system I’m not aware of.

Thanks for the help!

[joatmon]

welcome to genvibe, and sucks to have that happen.

been a while since you posted, and I hope you've got it resolved by now.

I'd reconnect the wires and see what happens.

Some, don't know if all 09s had keys with transponders in them, needed to start the car, so if yours has that, it may be why yours wasn't stolen

[SlammedNiss]

In this situation, I personally would do one of 2 things.

1. Buy a re-pin kit, and cut off the damaged sections of the wires so they aren't exposed, then crimp on new connectors and re-pin them into the existing plug. (this might not work depending on how much wire you actually need to cut off, because then the harness might be too short)

2. Go to a junkyard or ebay and purchase the exact same ignition plug. Then, again, cut off the damaged section of your existing harness, and crimp in the new one.

Option #1 would look more OEM, but again, might not be able to because you're going to lose an inch or so of your existing harness and might not reach the ignition plug after the fix.

Btw, if you're worried about messing something up while performing the work, simply disconnect the neg. terminal off the battery. The white wire they cut should be your 12v+ and the red wire should be your starter wire that goes to the starter relay.