Technical Boot broken

[Georgia bethany]

Hello,

I don't know if anyone can help. I have a 2012 fiat 500. The boot will suddenly not open, a mechanic I use advised it could be the wiring harness. Just wondered if anyone else had similar problem and if there is anything else I could try before?
Thanks

 

[jrkitching]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

The boot will suddenly not open, a mechanic I use advised it could be the wiring harness.

Your mechanic is quite likely correct. This is a well known issue which as affected many thousands of 500's and is a very common failure.

It's possible to open the boot manually from inside the car (you'll need to fold the rear seat backs down) using the emergency boot release; full details on how to do this are in your car's handbook.

IMPORTANT: Before doing this, first open the bonnet and disconnect the battery negative terminal quick release - again, the handbook tells you how to do this. If the wiring is damaged, opening the boot with the battery connected might cause a stray live feed where it's not wanted, which could destroy a number of different electronic modules, none of which are cheap or easily repaired. You'll need to reset the clock afterwards, but everything else, including the radio code, will be preserved in non-volatile memory.

If it is the common hatchback wiring fault, it needs to be patched using extra flexible cable; standard automotive cable will not provide a lasting repair. Indeed, on a 2012 car, it's quite likely it's been repaired previously, and the repair has failed again. There are a lot of used cars out there with poorly executed wiring repairs.

Unless you're planning to fix this yourself (and we'll help you if you do), I'd suggest you take the car to a specialist auto electrician who's dealt with this fault on a Fiat 500 before. Given how common this issue is, finding such a person may not be as hard as you might think. I'd avoid going anywhere near a franchised dealer; others have reported their charges for this kind of work to be considerable.

I'd also suggest you don't ignore this. The next stage in the failure is that the dashboard will light up like a christmas tree, and the repair may then require additional components to be replaced.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Hello and welcome to the forum.



Your mechanic is quite likely correct. This is a well known issue which as affected many thousands of 500's and is a very common failure.

It's possible to open the boot manually from inside the car (you'll need to fold the rear seat backs down) using the emergency boot release; full details on how to do this are in your car's handbook.

IMPORTANT: Before doing this, first open the bonnet and disconnect the battery negative terminal quick release - again, the handbook tells you how to do this. If the wiring is damaged, opening the boot with the battery connected might cause a stray live feed where it's not wanted, which could destroy a number of different electronic modules, none of which are cheap or easily repaired. You'll need to reset the clock afterwards, but everything else, including the radio code, will be preserved in non-volatile memory.

If it is the common hatchback wiring fault, it needs to be patched using extra flexible cable; standard automotive cable will not provide a lasting repair. Indeed, on a 2012 car, it's quite likely it's been repaired previously, and the repair has failed again. There are a lot of used cars out there with poorly executed wiring repairs.

Unless you're planning to fix this yourself (and we'll help you if you do), I'd suggest you take the car to a specialist auto electrician who's dealt with this fault on a Fiat 500 before. Given how common this issue is, finding such a person may not be as hard as you might think. I'd avoid going anywhere near a franchised dealer; others have reported their charges for this kind of work to be considerable.

I'd also suggest you don't ignore this. The next stage in the failure is that the dashboard will light up like a christmas tree, and the repair may then require additional components to be replaced.

Great advice here from jrk. This is a problem on many makes of vehicle, not just our Fiats. In fact my boy's Punto failed in this way at the onset of winter. We didn't fancy tackling it during the cold weather so, until the better weather comes, he's just folding the back seat down and putting things in and out of the boot that way so as to avoid possibly shorting the loom. I believe you can buy a replacement section for the loom where it commonly breaks? I'm going to look into this when we get on to it as I'm thinking if one wire is broken due to stress flexing then the others won't be far behind? As jrk says above, don't just use any old bit of flex to repair this. I've done this by using ordinary electrical wire and it probably won't last longer than a year or so. It's a damned awkward job to do too, so better to get it right first time.

I know this probably sounds "silly" but these wires breaking has been a problem for years on many different makes of car - not just hatchbacks either, doors suffer the same failures - so I always think to myself, do I really need to open this hatch or door? I also tend to put things on the back seat rather than open the hatch if it's something which will go in the back without any hassle. One older car I had - Renault 20 if I remember? - which only needed connections for the heated rear screen element, had spring loaded plungers in the hatch which made contact with brass strips on the body when the hatch was closed - so no wires to flex. An excellent way to do it but maybe difficult for today's cars which have multiple wires.

 

[Ralf S.]

The boot release is a "big amps"job, since the current needed to flip the boot latch solenoid is considerable. There's usually a thicker than the others (possibly black?) wire that breaks (since it's thicker and less flexible).. but while you/your techie has the rubber gaitor off, they should check the other wires too.

Replacement wire "insert" kits are available on fleabay etc. but I don't know how you would tell which ones of these are the super flexible wires JR mentions, or just made up from regular wire. To fit them you/your techie just has to cut a length out of the old wires, fit connectors to the cut ends, and then attach the new wires.

If you have just one duff wire and you want to fix just that one, that would be the cheapest (short-term at least), option. The other wires could be fine and could last for years yet.. or they might also start to pack up one after the other sooner or later... so just fix/replace as many as you can afford, or as many as will reduce your potential aggro' to a level you'll be happy with.


Ralf S.

 

[A3jeroen]

Bought mine from Amazon. It said silicone wire in the description. When I opened up the rubber boot, not one, but several wires were broken or chafed. Think the biggest wires are for the heated rear window. But then there are slightly thinner wires (probably for the lock) and really thin wires for lights and wiper.
Pics in my Topolino Grigio topic.

gr J

 

[Baglady1990]

I bought mine on eBay (came from Germany) with German instructions that my other half translated & I double checked on google

The wires were indeed very flexible silicone as is the new flexi outer much much improved on the original….
I had 6/7 broken or chaffed wires … so I cut through the rest and got to work took a couple of hours to fix and the joins go into the body and the hatch so the silicone does all the work

I did do a previous patch repair with solder & shrink wrap but it lasted about a year & I worried about it constantly!
My moral of the story…. Do it nice or do it twice