For unknown reasons, a pigtail of my Mazda Protege5’s wiring harness that connects to one of the two ignition coils (which in turn connects to two of the four spark plugs) had been so badly damaged that only a single strand of wire remained connected. Surprisingly the engine performed much as before, feeling just a bit more rough at idle. But if that last thin strand of wire broke we’d be down a cylinder or even two. So it definitely had to be fixed.

The repair shop I usually use said that they couldn’t repair it. Instead, they needed a new section of the wiring harness to splice in. Neither they nor I could find someone willing to sell just a piece of the harness. The price of the entire harness is over $300. Add labor, and we’re close to $400.

I found Matt Boesch while searching for someone to repair some rust on this car. He’s done some amazing custom car work, even installing a high-performance motorcycle powertrain into a smart fortwo. Much of his work lately involves intakes, exhausts, armrests, and other custom car parts. He’s a great guy who does things the smart way, even if it’s not the easy way.

I mentioned my engine harness problem to Matt. He said he could fix it. And did, in about 20 minutes. He took the socket in question apart, removing the metal connector. He then soldered a new wire to this connector, resinserted the connector into the socket, and the rest was easy. He’d figured it would cost $40 if it took him an hour. I paid him the $40 even though it didn’t take nearly that long. (Well, at least not for the repair. Chatting about cars added another 20 minutes.) Better than new, and it saved me over $300.

Beyond the savings, it’s just good to know there are still people like Matt around, who know how to actually fix things. He’s always looking for new possibilities for mods, so if you have a need that no one is currently providing a mod for, or have a challenging car repair and live in the Detroit area, I’d certainly recommend contacting him.