Othen

Would I be right in thinking that: - thick brown cable = common earth return. - thick red cable = common 12 supply. Alan

Thank you so much, that is all really helpful. I certainly wasn’t implying that I might attempt this job without removing the door card! This week’s quick fix in the door hinge was a one-off and would not work with a dozen or so wires. I have a patch kit arriving this week, but otherwise my plan is the same as yours: a. Remove door card. b. Snip wires to the connector. c. Assemble new connector and wires. d. Pull wires through to the door space. e. Make connections within the door space (self-solder joints like the ones you used). f. Reassemble. The photos are particularly helpful, thank you. alan

I thought I'd read that the new loom part was £200/side with the VAT whilst doing my homework? £120 is not so bad, but I also read that it is tricky to fit (if I remember correctly the connection to the door lock)? I wonder how much labour the dealer charged for fitting (I appreciate that may be difficult to discern amongst the other items)? I suppose I could have bought just the connector and a couple of gauges of wire - then labelled them according to the colours and so made a DiY kit for perhaps a tenner per side. The kit I've ordered was £27 (inc VAT and delivery) though, so my judgement was that the convenience made it the sensible way to go. If what I've read is right it may not take me much longer to fit the kit with 10-15 self-soldering joints as it would to take the door apart and fit a new loom. My Superb estate may not have any problems with the other door looms: it is a one owner, one driver motor car with only 70,000ish miles, so the other doors have not been opened as much. I was not particularly going to bother checking unless I get a problem. I'll probably keep this motor car until it becomes too expensive to maintain - I'm hoping for at least 15 years use, so I expect little jobs like this will come up from time to time (and when they do this forum is excellent). I wonder, does anyone have a wiring diagram for my motor car (2013 elegance diesel estate)? I don't need it at the moment but it would be nice to know where everything goes. Alan PS. I'm happy with maintaining older motor cars: my two Volvos have a combined age of 101 years!

I’m pretty sure I also read that in one of the threads whilst doing my homework yesterday eve. That does not entirely surprise me: a dealer would insist on replacing the whole door loom, which I understand costs about £200/side, plus I should think a couple of hours of labour. The good thing about VAG motor cars is that parts are plentiful - and there are lots of pattern parts and good used spares out there.

Thank you for that. I agree this was probably a temporary fix. You are right, the wire, and particularly the insulation, gets really brittle with use. I suspect my driver’s door issue is not over yet; I think I’ll end up fitting the wiring patch I’ve ordered. This type of issue is not confined to VAG. One on my other motor cars, a Volvo 244 (albeit now 42 years old) developed spurious electrical issues in the engine compartment. I ended up making up a new compartment loom from scratch - out of better quality wire than Mr Volvo used. My Skoda Superb estate is been first class for the past 9 years (I bought it new), but I suppose it is getting to that difficult age. I like the motor car though, it isn’t worth enough to bother selling but it has only done 70,000ish miles, does 50mpg and only costs £30 to tax. I’m happy enough to do a bit more maintenance as the motor car gets older as long as it doesn’t get too expensive of course. In that respect this forum is first class - it would have taken me considerably more time to sort this problem without it. Alan

I got round to pulling the rubber grommet off the chassis plug today, and found that the thick red wire has broken, but as far as I could tell it was the only one that had severed through and through (see the first photo). I am guessing that prior to me removing the grommet it was only touching sometimes and hence causing the intermittent fault. At this point none of the functions to the door worked, I surmise the thick red wire is probably a common 12v +ve feed. I thought it was probably worth having a go at a fix today. I managed to strip back just enough of the red insulation to allow a self-soldering joint to slide over both ends of the break, inserted a thermal shield (i.e. piece of cardboard) between the red wire and the rest of the bundle to prevent collateral damage, and very carefully melted the solder with a 175w iron. The joint had its own shrink wrap, so that should give some mechanical protection (see second photo): The break had been close to the door end of the wire, so I couldn’t get the soldering iron close to that end. Now I seem to have full functionality of the door: central locking, mirrors, windows and speakers, so this appears to be a good quick win for the time being. The wires are quite brittle, so this probably isn’t the end of the story. I have ordered the repair patch, so I think I’ll still take the door apart and fit it next weekend. I’ll report again when I do that job. Many thanks for all the advice chaps, Alan

... just a thought before I start snipping (one day next week I should think): will I need to disconnect the battery (and hence do I need to find the radio code) or is there a fuse that will isolate the driver's door? I rather suspect there will not be a single fuse because the door incorporates a number of systems - but it is worth asking the question. Alan

Thank you gav_is_con, those links are all very useful. I'd already read the first one and more of less concluded I must have a broken wire or two in the door hinge part of the loom. Almost all functions have returned this morn - except the mirrors parking on command from the key fob (the function still works from the door switch), but I doubt very much the issue will fix itself and is likely to return. I'll pull the rubber grommet off today and have a look, but there probably isn't much point taking it all apart until I have a solution in place. It would seem I have 3 possible courses of action: a. Repair any broken wires individually with solder or crimps and heat shrink. This wouldn't really cost anything, but I wonder whether there would be room for repairs in situ. I suppose it might work if there is just one broken wire. b. Use a repair patch like this one from eBay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284777707436 ... this looks like a better solution in that it comes with a new connector to the chassis loom so I could put new connections somewhere inside the door rather than in the hinge area, that would give me room to use self soldering joints (much easier). Cost about £30. c. Fit a new door loom from a dealer. Cost about £200. It would seem this is a tricky job in its own right and would take me longer than COA 'b'. I'm inclined to go for the repair patch (COA 'b'), order the kit today and fit it when the functions of the door start to deteriorate. Any comments on my plan would be welcomed. I've ordered one of these kits to remove the connector from the chassis loom from Amazon (it should arrive today): https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07S8PS4FY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 ... have I bought the correct item? Alan

After a bit of reading this seems to be the best guide: I'll have a look in the morn and decide on the best strategy. I tried the door again later this afternoon and found all functions had returned back to normal: the mirrors would now fold up controlled from the key fob and so on. I suspect the issue will probably return though. Alan

Many thanks a666andy, that gives me a start point. I'll do some reading tomorrow. Alan

I have had no significant problems with my 2013 Superb II Elegance estate diesel since buying it new, until this morn having dropped my son at school and driven into town for some breakfast; I returned to the car to find the mirrors (which I'd left in the folded position) would not return to their normal places when I turned on the ignition. I then found that none of the power functions to the driver's door would work (central locking, electric windows etc). Everything else worked, so I drove it rather gingerly (no door mirrors) about a mile to a safe car park, pulled over to try everything again. I turned off the car for long enough to find the handbook and look up where the fuse-box was located, tried the ignition again and everything worked: mirrors, central locking, windows... so I had an intermittent fault thought I. I drove the motor home with no problems, power seems to have returned to the driver's door except that the mirrors no longer retract remotely from the key (but they do when switched from inside the car) and when I give the unlock button on the key fob a very long press only the passenger's window and rear windows wind down... so the problem is not entirely intermittent. I've tried the same with the spare (otherwise new and unused) key and get exactly the same result. Any ideas about how to diagnose this fault? Alan

I'd have to use premium diesel to get my Superb elegance estate up to 186 MPH :-)

I noticed that about the fuel efficiency labels - which is one of the reasons I thought the rating system was not up to much. I don't know enough about tyres to understand what the 'Y' means.

This is interesting, the local F1 Autocentre (where I normally buy my tyres) lists the Sport Contact 5 in both MO and AO flavours... note that the Mercedes version gets 5 stars and the VAG only 3 (which I think says more about the review system than it does the tyres) - see the photo. Alan

Thank you for that, my knowledge of tyres (even those fitted to my car) has increased enormously in the past week or so. Coincidentally I do have 4 identical tyres (all Sport Contact 5 MO) which has been more good fortune than judgement on my part, I had rather naively thought that Continental 225/40R18 would have given me the same tyres each time. The tyres have generally been changed in pairs on the same axle when they wore out, plus a few for punctures near the sidewalls. I will have all the records (i keep everything) but I'm not sure I'm concerned enough the build the time lime for the car's tyres as long as they are appropriate for the motor car. I'm happy to keep using 18" Continental tyres on the alloy wheels for summer only. The Yokohama winter tyres (on steel rims) seem to suit the car well (although we have not had any winter weather to test them yet), so I'll perhaps go with those again when they need changing one day. I quite like the routine of changing summer/winter cars twice per year - it forces me to have a good look around and clean everything. In fact I've just bought a spare set of wheels and had some winter tyres fitted to my 40 year old Volvo 244, so convinced am I of the efficacy of the summer/winter tyre strategy. Alan

You may well be right, but as far as I remember the 4 tyres on the wheels at the moment were not all changed at the same time due to punctures (I had a spate of them at one point, the lower profile tyres are certainly more prone). I wonder if Continental just had a glut of the MO marked tyres for a period? It is not really important, the tyres seem to work okay, so I'll stick with them whenever they need to be changed. Alan

I would not have known about the difference between Sport Contact 3 and 5, when the tyres needed changing or had a puncture I'd have just read the stuff on the side of the tyre that I thought was important to the depot over the phone (so: Continental Contact Sport 225/40R18...). It may well be that the tyres have all been replaced by version 5 instead of 3, that won't have been a conscious decision on my part.

I think that is quite likely - perhaps there is a glut of MB tyres sitting in depots. I may well have bought the current tyres at different depots , either King's Lynn or Corby/Kettering.

... I checked the summer tyres (in storage) today, they are all 'MO' marked - I'm guessing they are just what is easily available to replace Continental SportContact 225/40R18.

Thank you for that. It is a little strange, subjectively I'd say the Yokohama tyres are significantly quieter than the Continentals, and from a fairly scientific comparison (well, scientific in the sense of measured by the same means, on a known route, with about the same load and conditions with me driving about the same way) the fuel consumption is rather better. I'm rather dubious about the efficacy of low profile tyres (I mean 40% in this case) on most road cars. My previous Superb (much the same car, but 3 years older (so 2010) and one step down from the Elegance trim) came with 55% aspect ratio tyres on alloy wheels which were quieter. I suspect the 40% ratio tyres are for marketing purposes only and add nothing much to performance or economy whilst being much more prone to punctures and damage. If I was buying a new Superb again I'd probably opt for higher profile tyres (even if that meant downgrading a bit). Alan

Thank you for that. I change the wheels myself and give them a good clean up before storing away securely in my motorbike shed for the winter/summer. I agree it is always a good idea to keep an eye on mechanical parts. Alan

Thank you for that, my knowledge of car tyres is increasing exponentially! I understand your point about all-season tyres, but I have dedicated winter tyres and summer tyres, surely that is a better solution (and saves my shiny alloy wheels from the winter weather)? Alan

Thank you, I have learned something new about car tyres this eve :-) Alan

Thank you both for that reassurance chaps, you had me worried that there was something wrong for a while. I had never heard of the car manufacturer’s marking previously (I don’t know much about car tyres), I’d have just told the garage to get the same manufacturer and size. Alan

Thank you for that, would I be right in thinking the MO marking is of no significance whatsoever on this 7 year old, 70,000 mile car? Alan