Originally posted by ShelbyRacer:
... If a replacement harness is used, it will conform to the following:

1) All original electrical functions must be preserved unless specifically allowed to be removed by the ITCS. ...

4) Wire length, routing, and connectors are free.
Understanding that I'm talking about a 1996 VW Golf, all of which appear to have come with the same harness regardless of how they were optioned from the factory in Mexico...

By "original" do you mean to include the "electrical functions" that my actual car came with, including those associated with parts I can remove per the ITCS (e.g., stereo and ABS) or can I "remove" wires associated with removed components?

Does my "replacement harness" have to replicate wires that were in the original harness, but associated with options that I didn't actually have (e.g., the heated seat option)?

Can I build a "replacement" harness that replicates a hypothetical minimum "base model" appointments for my car (e.g., the Citi model), whether that part exists in the VW parts catalog or not? I'd be tempted to whip out an update-backdate defense on this one.

Can I build one that literally includes only the minimum functions necessary to make it go (a la Dick's "7 wires")?

Regardless of intent - explicit or otherwise - the point at which you include clause #4, you have opened the door and allowed me to do all kinds of things. I'll leave out whatever wires I want and argue that the wires are actually there, only infinitely short - "any length."

Hyperbole aside, this wording creates another example of the very bind that kicked off this issue, wherein the specifics of a rule seem to be contradictory to its intent.

Geo gets at this when he applies the "if it says you can, you damn well can" thinking - and there is something to that. Regardless of intent, its the language of the rules that gets inforced.

K

[This message has been edited by Knestis (edited December 26, 2004).]