I posted a while ago about having no central locking and interior lights after the water ingress problem and have now managed to fix the problem so will post a few pics for anyone who has had the same issue. I accept no responsibility for solder burns, VAG-rage etc.

Tools:

Toothbrush

White wine vinegar

WD40

Paperclips and/or terminal extraction tool

Pliers (to cut and strip wire)

Crimping pliers (must be able to crimp wire as small as 1.5mm)

Soldering iron etc

Some spare copper wire

Time: 2 hours

Rage attack level: 2 (out of 5)

This probably the best info on the web about how to do the preventative maintenance for the water ingress issue on Passat/Skoda Superb so well worth a read beforehand:

http://nackuk.blogspot.com/2010/06/with-some-of-interior-lights-puddle.html

The only thing I would add to that is to make sure that you use proper VAG putty cord to seal the pollen filter. Silicon sealant does not form a good bond with the painted metal of the car and over time it will perish and the water leak will happen again.

I'd already done this about a year ago but just before Christmas the following symptoms appeared again over about a week:

1) Interior lights did not come on when door opened.

2) Interior lights stopped working altogether.

3) Remote central locking became intermittent.

4) Remote central locking stopped working altogether.

5) Alarm would not disarm, even when the car was unlocked with the key. Only disarmed when engine started.

I knew this was a recurrence of the water issue and electrics damage but all the nodes in the passenger footwell were intact, so I turned to look inside the CCM and found that there was corrosion on the inside of both the multiplug connectors and inside the CCM itself. Agh.

There are two multiplug connectors that go into the CCM, one with 23 pins and one with 15. Here's a list what they all do:

https://sites.google.com/site/1810martin/b5-ccm-wiring

So time to learn how to repair...

There was corrosion on several of the connectors actually inside the CCM. I scrubbed off all the green goo with an old toothbrush and some white wine vinegar, and it all came off pretty easily although it was clear that the connections were very badly damaged, especially for the red and black wire (S144 fuse for alarm) and the brown and orange wire (CAN low).

All that green goo used to be copper wire...

As you can see, I am not the best or neatest at soldering. In fact I only started to learn to solder when I bought a Superb haha but I soldered new copper wire in to bridge the gap between the corroded terminals. You can tell the soldering iron tip I used was a bit too broad as I burnt some of the plastic but it did the job and that's all I care about:

Extracting the terminals from the multiplugs is a complete and utter pain in the ar*e to be frank, but it's worth doing. I used a couple of paper clips to remove the larger terminals which come out quite easily but there are tools that will do it too. There's a much better guide on VAG terminals and how to extract them from multiplugs here:

http://www.4130-products.com/step/wiring/index.htm

I had a problem where the CAN low wire terminal was so rotten inside the plug that it broke while still inside which led to a fit of rage and in the end I had to drill it out it was so rotten.

You can tell here where some terminal female connectors are starting to corrode through damp because they have that greenish colour to them:

So once the terminals are removed from the multiplug it's pretty simple. Cut the corroded wire back to good copper, and crimp/solder on a new female terminal. Here's what one looks like before it's slotted back into the multiplug:

I made a mistake with this one where the bottom end of the terminal wasn't quite crimped over the wire cover, only over the bare copper. This made it weaker and so I redid it before inserting it into the multiplug.

The parts you will need can be found here:

http://www.vehicle-wiring-products.eu/VWP-onlinestore/terminalsnonins/mouldingterms.php#round

For the larger connectors the part number is 3-8050 and 3-8020 for the smaller terminals. They just crimp onto the end of the wire and click back into the multiplug but make sure they are the right way up (so the prongs on the female terminal will clip onto the male terminal on the CCM).

This took me about 2 hours to replace the corroded terminals and cost about £15 in parts (almost all of it was the cost of having the new terminals posted out but very quick delivery). Happy to say that the CCM is now working as normal and I have all my lights back and a properly working alarm.

Edited 11 January, 201214 yr by BDZ10

Well done on your work on the superb if it is as well done as your post then you should have no more problems very comprehensive and thorough. I too have gone through the same procedure as your self but I hit the rage stage around about point one. Now I have come across the next wave of corroded wires --- when the oil went to low level in the engine the orange warning light came on put in half litre oil but light doesn't go out turns out there is a white connector in the kick panel on the passenger side of the car and this controls the bonnet open warning light on the maxidot screen which had stopped working on my car turns out this bonnet switch also resets the oil light system (I had to disconnect the battery to reset) checked it out and this connector is corroded but I never could come across the proper connectors to rewire so thank you for making this info available on your post. My advice to yourself before this area causes a problem is take a look and if possible prevent the problem

Again thanks for the info on the connectors

Edited 12 January, 201214 yr by dohertyjj

really helpful thanks as ive looked into my ccm and found slight green copper on one of my connectors which was affecting my central locking and i have cleaned it up and it's ll working again!