4200: Failed tailgate/trunk anciliaries including interior light - split wiring loom

FIFTY

Member
Messages
3,100
Discovered another age related gremlin last weekend when I pulled the 4200GT out of the garage to give it a warm up on the drive. I eventually realised the remote boot release is not working - the number plate lights were also dead.

I could hear the relay for the boot release clicking which helped me trace the fault back to where the wiring loom is secured to the gas strut... I squeezed the loom and the release and lights came back to life

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The repair turns out to be a little more fiddly than I would have liked as that rubber sleeve is rather narrow and I have lost the two blue wires inside the sleeve. Upon closer inspection I can see cracks in the shielding exposing the bare copper cables for the remaining 3 intact wires (more like semi intact) so I concluded that I need to strip back the boot lining to get as much of the loom free as possible in order to do a quality repair

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Removed the cover on the inside of the boot lid and disconnect the 4x connectors. This will allow you to pull some of the loom back through to give you some slack. I am not going to extract all of it as it won't be fun to feed back through into the boot lid.

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It may not be totally necessary to do the above step but I would like to slacken off the loom at both ends to avoid any further damage

Next strip back the boot lining with a focus on the left hand side where the CD changer is fitted. There is a how to on doing this somewhere I can reference if needed... I think most of us who work on our cars regularly can strip back the boot lining in our sleep by now lol. This will expose the main connector for that length of wiring loom

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Disconnect and carefully pull the connector through the void and carefully out of the car via the grommet hole

Then you should have enough slack to pull the blasted rubber sleeve back enough to expose the wires for repair

Now I am waiting on a heat gun and some solder butt conectors so I can finish the repair.

This is a work in progress but I thought to mention in case anyone else has the same issue when getting their car back on the road for Spring as it is an age/wear related issue that has caused the failure. I will update soon.
 
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FIFTY

Member
Messages
3,100
Got the connector out of the car pretty easy.

The glue on the material wrap the manufacturer uses on the loom has gone sticky inside of the rubber boot and is proving difficult to move so I can expose the wires.

Of course the simple bit is fighting back. Any suggestions? ☺

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CatmanV2

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48,547
It's gonna be messy whatever. When I did mine I just spliced in some extra cable, but you've gone a bit too far for that, perhaps :(

C
 

FIFTY

Member
Messages
3,100
Lol it's no drama C. I'll pull it back to find the freyed section on the remaining 3 wires, cut them at the break point and pull it apart at the sleeve.

Then the annoying bit will be feeding the rubber sleeve back onto the loom prior to soldering it back together

I had the same problem on the Mercedes and just used some crimp connectors but I would rather do it properly on this car not just patch it.
 

FIFTY

Member
Messages
3,100
I think a new one is less than £50.00 - pn 200492


Thanks for that Peter

Something to think about... It's either buy a heat gun and solder connectors or a whole new loom - difference in cost is minimal although I would be left with a heat gun and solder connectors for other projects via the former option

I will contact ES tomorrow and ask them to find out what the lead time is for it. I do not want to be waiting a month or more - the MOT is in April. My replacement handbrake that was in stock in the factory (Italy) took 3.5 weeks
 

spkennyuk

Member
Messages
5,931
I had exactly the same issue as this on an alfa 156.

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Stripping the tacky felt wrap back revealed further points where the wiring was breaking down.

I ended up remaking the harness from plug to plug by pinning the harness on a flattened cardboard box. Copying the lengths of all the wires then using a heat gun and solder sleaves at each end of the new wire run making a join at each end about 2 inches away from the plug.

Once all eight in my case lines had been replaced i wrapped the new harness is felt tape copying the original and the various branches off the main harness. The original harness minus the plugs can then be lifted off the board and your left with a pretty much exact copy of the original fixed and ready to plug back in.

All in including the cost of the heat gun, solder sleeves, felt tape and lengths of correct colour wire cost me around £20 to £25

You can use crimp or bullet connector just in the area that is broken. The issue with this is that the harness tends to break in roughly the same place / places so a few crimp connections at the same point suddenly make the harness thicker at that point and more difficult to get back into the rubber sleeve.
 

Navcorr

Member
Messages
3,839
The yellow connector is TE .070 Multilock and I'd imagine those at the other end are too. White connectors are still available but not sure about yellow. If not, to retain originality, perhaps recycle the connector(s) - crimp removal tools are sharp sods though.
 

CatmanV2

Member
Messages
48,547
I think the thing is 'They all do that, sir'

Our Nissan Micra
The 4200
The GT
and the 147 (bidet)

C
 

conaero

Forum Owner
Messages
34,593
I have the same issue in both of our Alfa Giulittas, Both rear wipers are possessed. Known issue broken wires in tailgate flex conduit.

C’mon Italy, sort it out.
 

philw696

Member
Messages
25,114
To be fair most manufacturer's I have worked for suffer the same with age wear and tear change in climate etc.
 

Simon1963

Member
Messages
819
Mrs1963 has an Alfa Mito with the same problem. The wiring loom goes into the roof section and breaks about 50mm from the roof. Was a right pain with no slack to pull through to help me out.
 

zagatoes30

Member
Messages
20,759
As above common issue with loads of moderns, I had to repair the Alfa GT and we have had a loom replaced on the RR (both of them). Is it the bean counters that force manufacturers to minimise cable length and protection at every opportunity they get?
 

CatmanV2

Member
Messages
48,547
Not really. If you bend cable repeatedly, it's going to break. Granted if you have a longer cable, there's less strain (or is it stress) but then you have bloody great loops of cable. Try the cable management of a data centre rack to see the lengths you have to go to.

C
 

FIFTY

Member
Messages
3,100
New tail gate loom wire fitted over the weekend

While I got the last one in stock it looks as though the last batch was made "only" three years ago so if you need a replacement hopefully the factory will just order more from the current supplier

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I threaded a bit of string down the tailgate and tied it onto the new loom to help pull it up and then you just feed it through

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Surprise bonus fix - the second I plugged in the new yellow connector inside the boot the interior light switched on after not working for 5+ years! I tried changing the bulb previously but it did not work. Little strange how it got the light working again as none of the wiring from this loom goes to the light fixture in the boot so it must have been a continuity issue caused by the split wires in the old loom (correct me if I am wrong with that assumption as I am no electrical engineer)

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