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Broken wires in door hinge harness - Repair strategy ?

19K views 7 replies 6 participants last post by  C70-T5  
#1 ·
Hi all,

I lost outside temperature display this weekend then a few drives later all driver's door controls. Connected VIDA and it confirmed that I lost communication with the DDM (Driver Door Module). Checked the fuse and it was OK. Tonight I took some time to pull the rubber sleeve that protects the harness coming out of the body to the connector on the door itself since broken wire issues was often mentioned when I searched this problem online. And there it was, 3-4 wires cut inside the sleeve, a few mm from the connector housing. What is weird is that the wires don't look chaffed or worn through like you would expect from the repeated opening action but rather deeply dented or cut accros like if something sharp was forced on the wires... strange. Anyway, I need to repair that mess and I'm still wondering how to tackle this job since there is no way I can a) retract the rubber sleeve enough to reach the 'inner' end of the wires and b) no room to work with a soldering iron.

I'm reaching to you for ideas on how to repairs this.

So far I'm considering two options
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1- Fishing new wires along the existing harness : The idea is to fish new wires and to solder at both ends. The harness can be found under the carped near the hood release handle with enough space to solder and on the connector side, I should be able the remove the terminal so I won't be cramped to solder that end. The problem I might encounter is actually being able to fish the wires using a thin fibreglass rod or some steel wire as the routing is all but in straight line...

2- Removing all the terminals from the housing and pulling the whole harness inside the car so I have room to work on it and solder new sections. The problem I see is that I risk damaging the fragile terminals (bending them or messing with the locking tabs).

How would you tackle this repair ???
 
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#2 ·
Common, we repaired this often at the dealer.

We typically would remove the door to give some more room to work, and solder the wires back together adding a bit of wire to prevent it from being stressed

We basically never went beyond the pillar when we repaired these, they usually split right in the middle of the loom

The door comes off very easily, just two bolts and someone to help you remove it. Once it's out of the way you can easily expose the broken wires
 
#4 ·
Easiest to just remove door as other responder indicated. Taking the door off is not that difficult and is routinely done by car audio installers as well. A work table, a second set of hands and padded blankets are a must!
 
#5 ·
Remove the door as noted. Get 12 in. Locking Clamp Pliers from Harbor freight to pull the harness out and crimp to hold the harness out while repairing the broken wires. The harness wants to pull inside the car body. I used a low temp melt connector from Amazon. Cut the tie strap off, do not replace it, that is where the wires break. Inspect the rest of the wires at tie strap location for soft spots or almost broken wires and repair as needed.




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#6 ·
Great idea the locking pliers to hold the rubber sleeve out of the way. Thanks. The wires are broken way up inside that sleeve though, not sure if I could pull it back enough.
 
#7 ·
VolvoSweeden made an interesting video about how to check and repair those damaged wires...



Removing the door allow some access to repair the wires... (He qualified that as a 2 men job, because the doors are heavy...


I will have that job to do on my 2007 XC90 V8... My touble involve door lock, the miror flasher and open door signal. I can't remotely unlock the driver door, and while driving, if I activate the left flasher, my XC90 think that the door is open (it feels the flasher signal and triger the open driver door in the infotainement window and dome light as well)
 
#8 ·
VolvoSweeden made an interesting video about how to check and repair those damaged wires...



Removing the door allow some access to repair the wires... (He qualified that as a 2 men job, because the doors are heavy...


I will have that job to do on my 2007 XC90 V8... My touble involve door lock, the miror flasher and open door signal. I can't remotely unlock the driver door, and while driving, if I activate the left flasher, my XC90 think that the door is open (it feels the flasher signal and triger the open driver door in the infotainement window and dome light as well)

Note that the author, VolvoSweeden, disaprooved to put back a zip-tie... Just some electric tape, because it allows some elasticity