mk1matt Posted January 3, 2010 Report Posted January 3, 2010 The car: 2000 X Galaxy Ghia 115 TDI. Noticed something a bit weird the other day. The boot release solenoid was making a weird noise and the boot wouldn't open properly. Then yesterday morning I went to put the rear heated screen on, and the fog light warning indicator came on as well as the dash illumination and the parking sensor. Hmm, that's not right... Turns out there was a wiring fault in the tailgate loom. Over time, repeated bending of the wiring going to the tailgate combined with the rubber shielding breaking down has led to the wiring breaking, and shorting out on the bodywork. Time to get out the trusty soldering iron. The wiring runs through the rubber trunking at the top right of the tailgate. It's slipped in at the top so you need to pull at quite hard to get it to pop out. Once it's out you can see the extent of the problem. This pic shows the broken wiring. The yellow heatshrink is the main earth wire that had snapped cleanly in two. I repaired this before taking photos. For this wire I had to add a couple of centimetres of extra wiring as the cable would have been too short to overlap when joining. The pic also shows that I need to clean the inside of the tailgate shut more to get rid of the green gunk... [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v382/mk1matt/Galaxy/0f354248.jpg[/img] The next pic shows that I've taped up some of the split wires. The taping is messy, but it's really fiddly! You'll see later that I've wrapped the whole up anyway. I've also stripped the ends of the other broken wire, ready to repair. [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v382/mk1matt/Galaxy/96b64341.jpg[/img] I've soldered this one. You can just about see the black heatshrink tubing that I've pushed down the cable out the way. [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v382/mk1matt/Galaxy/34984b7d.jpg[/img] And heatshrink done: [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v382/mk1matt/Galaxy/eb735ae6.jpg[/img] Finally, this is the whole lot re-taped in order to bind it together better and prevent future breakages. After this all that needs to be done is to push the top of the trunking back in place. [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v382/mk1matt/Galaxy/f7a52d04.jpg[/img] So, hopefully this guide will be useful to someone who has found a similar problem. Matt Quote
tjm Posted April 23, 2010 Report Posted April 23, 2010 Thanks for that Matt! I just found out the reversing lights did not work on my 1999. The switch on the gearbox was working, as was the bulbs etc but there was no connection between the two. 5 minutes here turned up your post and 15 minutes with a soldering iron and tape fixed it btw. for any others trying this, the rubber trunking is removed by squeezing it in the middle of the long sides. It then pulls out of the tailgate. The clips in the trunking can be seen in Matt's picture but I thought it worth mentioning in case it isn't obvious. It is also a lot easier doing the soldering and taping if you have someone else on hand to hold the trunking out of the way while you work! I found it was always springing back over the wires and getting in the way.... Toby Quote
Kevinb Posted January 16, 2014 Report Posted January 16, 2014 I was a bit cheeky and asked a local vehicle electrical place in Swindon and they helpfully suggested cutting out the broken wiring, then fitting new wires long enough leave a large excess. Then stuff the excess into the bodywork and seal it back up using the trunking. Their logic was that the wiring will always fail due to the design and as soon as it fails, the damaged section can be removed and a new section moved into position. They also pointed out this worked fine for the door wiring too. Hope this helps. Quote
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