The dealer wants $200.00 plus just for the cable and another $200.00 plus to install. An online parts store also has it for $200.00, but suggests I buy one from a generic parts store. I just did for $15.00. Question: are battery cables all the same? This one is 78 inches long so I believe it is long enough. I plan to have a local repair shop install it (for less than $200.00). Tnx for any comments. Rakey Ps: just fyi, online parts store guy said a lot of these cables are now going bad.
Many , many battery cables these days are sub harnesses including much more than a simple battery cable. The assembly line loves them, sooo much less actual work for them ! But try selling a 200 dollar harness… to anyone…like you…who simply wants the battery cable.
It is possible…possible to get away with a generic cable. This means more work for you and hence becomes a dicision for you. How much work are you up to investing ?
You can unbuild a harness, keeping the small wires for later re-assembly. You can build, or re-use all the mid-point cantact brackets and pigtails too.
Being that it’s a negative cable you MUST maintain all of the additional contact points along its route. This is one of the big differences between a factory cable and the generic. the gerneric will be long enough to reach from battery to starter but you’ll be resposible for all the other contact points like the block, frame and neighboring harness connections. They’re all needed. Have you read other posts in this forum about the trouble of poor grounds ?
How much work are you willing to invest ? Take a good look at your negetive cable, all of it from one end to the other, to see how much potential work you have with a generic purchase, then decide.
Welcome to getting a Volvo serviced and repaired. Everything is about 4X a reasonable cost.
I too would go for the inexpensive replacement. After all, the factory one wasn’t very good.