Re: Cant open boot - here is what fixed mine.

2012 Fiat 500 Rear hatch boot wouldn't open. The wiper wouldn't work. Dealer found and fixed the boot loom also known as the wiring to the rear hatch. Work done under warranty.

The wires were badly frayed and 1 or 2 wires were broken completely.

To open the boot hatch to work on it I climbed in the back inside and moved the hatch cover by popping out or breaking off the black plastic plugs. I had to lift the cover to remove the hooks at the top. The cover could not be fully removed, just leaned inside. The latch had a slot with a silver metal bar inside. It looked different than the latch picture in a previous post. I used a flat screwdriver to push down the silver bar and the hatch opened!

Hello and welcome to 2012Fiat500 :wave:

Sorry to hear of your wiring troubles, but glad to hear you've got it fixed under warranty.

2012Fiat500 said:

I spent a long time documenting the fix but needed 5 posts before I could link to the pictures.
I needed 5 posts to link to my pictures.

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Thank you for sharing the pictures; they are some of the best examples we have of this all-too-common problem.

(To keep the thread tidy, I've deleted the extra posts; if any new members with no posting history have a particularly interesting picture they wish to share, please PM me and I'll put them up.)

2012Fiat500 said:

2012 Fiat 500 Rear hatch boot wouldn't open. The wiper wouldn't work. Dealer found and fixed the boot loom also known as the wiring to the rear hatch. Work done under warranty.

The wires were badly frayed and 1 or 2 wires were broken completely.

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These pictures are interesting and worth a closer look.

Notice how the problem is only revealed after you peel back the outer rubber cover that's supposed to protect the harness - with this cover in its proper place, there's only a very slight rubbing of the paint where the rubber sits when the hatch is closed, and the cover itself appears undamaged. You can't tell whether the wiring is still good just by opening the hatch and inspecting the rubber cover.

This suggests to me that the wires are being bent against the end of the rubber cover each time the hatch is opened, and the insulation on the wire is of a brittle type which is unable to withstand the continued flexing. This is clearly a poor and inadequate design and I suspect the rear hatch wiring on all cars built using this type of wire are doomed to premature failure.

I'd be interested to know if FIAT's official repair kit uses wire with a different type of external sheath.

Anyone repairing one of these at home might want to replace the critical part with softer wire designed to withstand repeated flexing - the stuff commonly used for making test leads would seem to me to be a good choice.

2012Fiat500 said:

The latch had a slot with a silver metal bar inside. It looked different than the latch picture in a previous post.

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I suspect there are many detailed differences between Mexican-built US cars and Polish-built European ones.

Re: Cant open boot - here is what fixed mine.

2012Fiat500 said:

2012 Fiat 500 Rear hatch boot wouldn't open. The wiper wouldn't work. Dealer found and fixed the boot loom also known as the wiring to the rear hatch. Work done under warranty.

The wires were badly frayed and 1 or 2 wires were broken completely.

To open the boot hatch to work on it I climbed in the back inside and moved the hatch cover by popping out or breaking off the black plastic plugs. I had to lift the cover to remove the hooks at the top. The cover could not be fully removed, just leaned inside. The latch had a slot with a silver metal bar inside. It looked different than the latch picture in a previous post. I used a flat screwdriver to push down the silver bar and the hatch opened!

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not great for a 2 year old car - do you use the boot regularly?

I bought the car used in 2012 when it was about a year old so I don't know if the boot was opened a lot before I owned it. It is my daughter's car and I doubt she opens it a lot. I am pretty sure part of the problem was that the wiring was tight and I question the quality of the wire and its plastic coating. Perhaps the outside of the wires cracked in the cold weather here in Utah in the winter.

When the dealer repaired it they added some extra length to the wires. I don't know how the dealer accessed the wires inside the body. I was thinking if I had to repair it myself, I would find the wires inside the body, cut one wire at a time, solder and shrink tube a new wire to the good wire in the body and solder the other end of the new wire to the bad wire. Then in the boot I'd pull the old bad wire thru the rubber tube pulling with it the new wire. Then down inside the boot I'd splice in the new wire with solder and shrink tube and leave extra length. I'd repeat for each wire. I'd leave extra in the body and the boot. I'd assume I'd be doing it again in the future. If there was a broken wire or two I'd pull them thru the rubber tube along with one of the other wires I was pulling thru. I'd be gentle so I wouldn't tear the rubber tube.

When cutting the wires I'd cut them at different places so all the splices would not line up but would be a little distance away from each other.

Fiat wraps much of the wiring with cloth to prevent chaffing. I've not seen that in a USA or Japanese car. You can see the cloth in the pictures.

I'd start by writing down the wire colors and going to a store to buy many colors of wire of the right size and also flexible as was suggested by someone else. I'd buy a half meter or so of each color.

Looks like I rambled on a bit.

The reason it fails is the way the wiring moves as the hatch opens and closes, I have a Panda and the wiring moves in a completely different way and doesn't get strained.

My car is currently in for a service and first MOT, it's been reported back that that the boot handle sticks. To be honest I hadn't realised I should be able to open the boot without pressing the remote button first! Apparently it can't be fixed under 3rd year warranty either. I'll be trying out the suggestions here later then...

I suspect that it sticks because you've always used the button. Bit if switch lubricant and it'll be fine

FloJo said:

My car is currently in for a service and first MOT, it's been reported back that that the boot handle sticks. To be honest I hadn't realised I should be able to open the boot without pressing the remote button first! Apparently it can't be fixed under 3rd year warranty either. I'll be trying out the suggestions here later then...

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My boot release started playing up intermittently a few months ago. Sometimes it'd work and others it just wouldn't, while the remote release worked every time. I tried lubricating as suggested but no joy, seems the internal switch had broken loose or something. Took it back under warranty and expected they'd simply replace the micro-switch inside, but no - they replaced the whole chrome-plated 'handle' affair. That was fine but it took about eight weeks for the part to arrive...

FloJo said:

My car is currently in for a service and first MOT, it's been reported back that that the boot handle sticks. To be honest I hadn't realised I should be able to open the boot without pressing the remote button first! Apparently it can't be fixed under 3rd year warranty either. I'll be trying out the suggestions here later then...

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Fixed under warranty in the end. They swapped the part out of a new car rather than have to order it in for me to take the car in another day.
I refused their offer to change the brake fluid for £40 and front brake pads and disks for £200 though. Have volunteered my car to the automotive lecturers at work when term starts to get those sorted at cost price

Since yesterday been having some problems with the boot not opening and had to use the manual switch form inside. microswitch worked a few times but it stopped working today also the fob is not working.

I removed the rubber from the body end and all wires looked good, removed it from the top and noted the fabric but then reading this post went back and had a proper look, 3 wires are snapped and at least 3 exposed - I see what the problem is now.

The car was 3 yrs old in May 2014 and out of warranty.

What are the options, I can fix it myself but could do with a trusted guide and the type of connectors to use or just solder. Soldering will break easily as the connections would be at the point of pinching - i.e. where the boot closes and the wires are bent.

I will do another search on FF .

btw : any car electrical mechanics in the Kingston upon Thames / Surbiton area.

jrkitching help !!

arorat said:

What are the options, I can fix it myself but could do with a trusted guide and the type of connectors to use or just solder. Soldering will break easily as the connections would be at the point of pinching - i.e. where the boot closes and the wires are bent.

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Pictures of broken wiring at this point are being posted far too frequently for this to be fair wear and tear. This is a faulty design and IMO your car's wiring was doomed to fail prematurely from the moment it left the factory.

My view is that Fiat should be picking up the tab for fixing these, regardless of the warranty status of the car. I'd love to see someone sue their supplying dealer in the county court - with an engineer's report saying the wiring was unfit for purpose and doomed to fail, it'd be a near certain win.

Ok, back to the real world, how to fix it?

Firstly, Arorat, forget about trying to join the existing wires together - the cables are too tightly stretched to start with and no repair is ever going to stand up to the flexing of repeatedly opening & closing the hatch.

You'll need to splice in new sections of cable, preferably using a more durable type of wire that is better able to stand the repeated flexing. There's been a recent thread on this subject; you can read it here.

You can use solder + heatshrink, crimp connectors, or (my preferred method) - both.

There's also an aftermarket repair kit, though AFAIK sold only in Germany (but they'll ship to the UK).

Thanks jrkitching, comments noted, performing a search on Fiat Forum brings up this issue again and again. The wire coating seems hard and a softer material should have been used but more importantly as Maxi has also pointed out in one of his posts on this topic, this is a bad design and not an issue on the Panda and as you also say with enough experience behind you, its destined to fail, especially with prolonged use of the hatch.

I take the point about the solder and heat shrink perhaps splice back to the body side with less flexing going on as opposed to the hatch-end (where the wires are perhaps bent from 140 degrees with hatch open to probably 20 degrees with hatch closed) and splice the new wires there.

Would you or Fiat Forum have any objections if I was to pass this link to my dealer in Croydon and see if they will help fix this as a goodwill gesture ?

Thanks again for your time to dig up data from the forum, especially on a nice day like today when we all should be outside.

arorat said:

Would you or Fiat Forum have any objections if I was to pass this link to my dealer in Croydon and see if they will help fix this as a goodwill gesture ?

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It's a public forum; the content can be seen by anyone .

arorat said:

Thanks again for your time to dig up data from the forum, especially on a nice day like today when we all should be outside.

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No problem, LadyKitching had ordered me to gardening duty today and you gave me a good excuse to skive off.

Thanks again, there are no shortcuts with this unnecessary job, I will speak to the service manager at Fiat Croydon MV and see if he would be kind enough to do this work, they have looked after me so far and hope they continue with the good work.

I previously had the "boot will not open" problem (see post #18 on this thread) - at the time I repaired the broken wire and got the boot working but noticed the remainder of the wires in a poor state (but left them for a future project).
Now other electrical problems have started so I need to repair the remaining wires.

I will splice in a length of more flexible wires , I have previously had the tail gate internal cover removed so I know I can connect within that space.
The part of the loom that goes into the car, does it route via the headlining or the pillar and do you have to remove either cover (pillar or headlining) or do you pull slack from within the car - do the repair then post it back into the car?

When my dealer fitted the "official boot wiring repair loom" to my car (the one where every wire is black!) the joins to the old wires were made on the left hand side of the boot, behind the carpetty trim panel, if that helps.