Technical The dreaded boot wiring issue
- Thread starter Andy Monty
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Technical The dreaded boot wiring issue
Sadly I suspect there are two kinds of 500 owners; those who have had this problem, and those who are going to
.Your sister is fortunate in having you to fix it for her; not every 500 owner is so lucky, and Fiat have been woefully unresponsive in fixing what is beyond question an inherent manufacturing defect for folks outside warranty.
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OP
OP
Least I can fix it for her couldn't get any silicone hi flex cable today so got some tri rated from the electrical wholesaler
I wonder how often other people open their tailgates, my car is older but haven't had the issue just yet.....
Sadly I suspect there are two kinds of 500 owners; those who have had this problem, and those who are going to
Your sister is fortunate in having you to fix it for her; not every 500 owner is so lucky, and Fiat have been woefully unresponsive in fixing what is beyond question an inherent manufacturing defect for folks outside warranty.
If it makes you feel any better just about every Mercedes G Class suffers the same issue. Been there, done that. I hasten to add I didn't pay this but they are anywhere between £83k and £250k
Anyway I open/close mine everyday. I need to ration myself
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Just checked the wife's wiring! She opens her boot probably about six times daily. The wiring still looks as good as new after 32 months. Just jinxed it now!!
ahmett
Prominent member
the G glass is designed for people with a size complex and no sense of money = )If it makes you feel any better just about every Mercedes G Class suffers the same issue. Been there, done that. I hasten to add I didn't pay this but they are anywhere between £83k and £250k
Anyway I open/close mine everyday. I need to ration myself
Owch, thanks for that
Ours isn’t one of the blinged up POS, it works for a living and is used for it’s correct purpose in life. And I figure the 500 more than compensates for any size complex’s I may have
OP
OP
well its fixed... for about £10 in materials
took me about 2.5 hours of relatively careful work to do........ 14 wires to make off at each end....
I used a combination of
about 6 M of 6mm2 (heated screen + and - )
12M of 2.5mm2 (boot lock + and - Wiper motor + and -)
12M 1mm2 number plate light + and - along with top brake light + and - )
and 12M .75mm2 Boot lock 2x comunication wires (boot open and boot light to body computer) 1x Boot open button in handle and 1x wiper motor )
(the lengths are generous but it gives plenty to play with i got them all at 3m lengths in different colours )
all Tri rated cable (nice and flexible) one or 2 are slightly larger than OEM but they all fitted in the boot and it seems to fold much better than it did when opening and shutting the boot
Goes without saying dont use a smaller cable then OEM or it might overheat and melt and in the worse case cause a fire
removed boot lining carpet matting thing (plastic plugs and 5mm hex head)
removed high brake light / trim/ washer hose
removed rear seatbelt plastic trim (c pillar) and parcel shelf
at each connection point i cut the loom (having first disconnected battery)
leaving about 9" of original wiring on the boot lock / numberplate light/ boot open switch and high level brake light......
i then cut the heated rear screen cables out the loom (i used insulated blue spade crimps on refitting for these)
carefully removed the high level brake light cable and separated the screen wash hose
i made a new loom up having counted the original number of cores i got a mix of tri rated cables all different colours to make life easy....
in the rear pillar i cut the old loom out (MINDING THE HOSE)
and pulled it back outside the car where the rubber boot is....
from there i taped on my new loom and used the old loom to pull my new loom into the boot and down the internal channel to the left of the glass (( the high level brake light was wrapped so it was accessible at the top of the boot.....
with the wires into the boot lid and into the car (remember to put them through the rubber cable duct)
i set about making the wiring off...
as i had taken care to ID which wire is which (there are a group of all black wires in the loom (ground )
it was then a simple if not time consuming job to make off about 14 cables at the boot ( all cut to length neatly and 14 inside the car with the soldering iron and heat shrink,, before using loom tape / cable ties to hold and support all the joints and cable and protect from chafing
For example in the boot i had a white wire with a green line in the car body i had the same wire i linked it together with a red wire in my new loom i just did one wire at a time to keep it simple
took me about 2.5 hours of relatively careful work to do........ 14 wires to make off at each end....
I used a combination of
about 6 M of 6mm2 (heated screen + and - )
12M of 2.5mm2 (boot lock + and - Wiper motor + and -)
12M 1mm2 number plate light + and - along with top brake light + and - )
and 12M .75mm2 Boot lock 2x comunication wires (boot open and boot light to body computer) 1x Boot open button in handle and 1x wiper motor )
(the lengths are generous but it gives plenty to play with i got them all at 3m lengths in different colours )
all Tri rated cable (nice and flexible) one or 2 are slightly larger than OEM but they all fitted in the boot and it seems to fold much better than it did when opening and shutting the boot
Goes without saying dont use a smaller cable then OEM or it might overheat and melt and in the worse case cause a fire
removed boot lining carpet matting thing (plastic plugs and 5mm hex head)
removed high brake light / trim/ washer hose
removed rear seatbelt plastic trim (c pillar) and parcel shelf
at each connection point i cut the loom (having first disconnected battery)
leaving about 9" of original wiring on the boot lock / numberplate light/ boot open switch and high level brake light......
i then cut the heated rear screen cables out the loom (i used insulated blue spade crimps on refitting for these)
carefully removed the high level brake light cable and separated the screen wash hose
i made a new loom up having counted the original number of cores i got a mix of tri rated cables all different colours to make life easy....
in the rear pillar i cut the old loom out (MINDING THE HOSE)
and pulled it back outside the car where the rubber boot is....
from there i taped on my new loom and used the old loom to pull my new loom into the boot and down the internal channel to the left of the glass (( the high level brake light was wrapped so it was accessible at the top of the boot.....
with the wires into the boot lid and into the car (remember to put them through the rubber cable duct)
i set about making the wiring off...
as i had taken care to ID which wire is which (there are a group of all black wires in the loom (ground )
it was then a simple if not time consuming job to make off about 14 cables at the boot ( all cut to length neatly and 14 inside the car with the soldering iron and heat shrink,, before using loom tape / cable ties to hold and support all the joints and cable and protect from chafing
For example in the boot i had a white wire with a green line in the car body i had the same wire i linked it together with a red wire in my new loom i just did one wire at a time to keep it simple
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OP
OP
