Correct Tool for Terminal Wires in Drivers Door Loom

[RubyCubes]

Need to do a temporary fix on my drivers door wiring loom. A new loom is needed but I haven't got the time to get the loom posted to me and installed between now and my NCT/MOT.

 

Am I right in thinking that the tools in the first attached image would allow me to neatly remove the wires from the solid plastic 'plug' (white arrow pointing to it) in a way that I could then 're-plug' the wires back into place once I've repaired the wires?

 

Am I right in thinking that once I unplug all of the wires from that plastic 'plug', that I can then pull all of the wires through the hole in the door (white arrow in the second image) so that I can do the temporary repair on them before feeding them all back through to re-connect/replug them in?

[J.R.]

I dont know if they contain the right tools but I really like your plan of action & will do the same myself when the time comes as it surely will, my eyesight means I cannot work in the dark confined spaces that I once was so capable of.

 

Could you possibly post a link to where those multi-tool kits can be bought, they are definitely something that I should have.

 

I have some pin extractor tools from years back but they require the wire to be cut off flush to use, those look really inspired!

[Breezy_Pete]

Yes, one of those tools will release the pins from the connectors.

You may not need to do that though.  The loom is probably designed to come out the other way, with all the bits to the right of your arrowed hole going through right to left? Not sure.

 

Another thing to consider/investigate is how easy it is to remove the whole door.  On Mk1 Fabias for example it's just the check strap, the A-pillar connectors and two 13mm 'nut-like things' to undo and then the door lifts off its hinges.  Have an assistant though, especially when re-fitting, as the doors are obviously heavy. Once off you have far, far easier access.  I can't see form your photo whether the hinge arrangement has this easy-release feature, maybe post a close-up of a hinge?

[J.R.]

The loom will have been assembled into the door so it can be removed, either in one direction or the other dependant on what are the largest connectors, my guess is that its the other direction to Wino's suggestion as the motor connector is the largest.

 

The tools will still be usefull if the wire breaks are close to the connector and its easier sliding on heat shrink or wrapping insulation if the conductor is apart from the others in the bundle.

[sparky2]

Probably the wire has broken at the door hinge with flexing, try soldering in an extra bit of wire to cover the break and use heatshink tubing to insulate the joints, to find out which cable has broken try bending each one to see if you can 'feel' the break, or solder a couple of sharp pins on 2 cables and buzz them out from either the plug or accross the bend in the cable with a continuity meter or buzzer using the pins to just pierce the insulation and then you save the cost of a loom !  cheers Stuart  (ps the orange connector is probably for the airbags so disconnect the battery)

Edited 2 June, 2021 by sparky2

[RubyCubes]

On 02/06/2021 at 13:12, J.R. said:

Could you possibly post a link to where those multi-tool kits can be bought, they are definitely something that I should have.

 

Found those ones on amazon UK.

 

In terms of removing the door, the wires are broken very close to the door itself, so I don't think I'd get any purchase on the wires if I took the door off. Plus I can't get the soft plastic sheath that surrounds the wiring in the hinges off on the door side - it seems to be in the door pretty bleedin tightly. Good idea though!

 

From eyeballing it, I don't think I can get the plug in the first image through the door because of the initial sheath and the hole in the door side panel looks too small to pull it through.

 

I cannot locate any of those tools to release the wires - I found posts online about filing down paper clips to use and I made a couple of them with paper clips but the wires won't release.

 

Looks like I'll be cutting all of the wires to do a repair / preventative job on all of them.

 

There are two wires that I think are the CAN wires (they are both orangish/brownish) and were twisted together - both of these are broken so I can't tell which one goes to which terminal - would anyone know if I end up reconnecting the wrong ones will that cause problems?

 

[Breezy_Pete]

2 hours ago, RubyCubes said:

 

There are two wires that I think are the CAN wires (they are both orangish/brownish) and were twisted together - both of these are broken so I can't tell which one goes to which terminal - would anyone know if I end up reconnecting the wrong ones will that cause problems?

 

 

You don't say what year the car is, but the first wiring diagram (2008>) I've looked at suggests that one of them is orange/brown and goes to pin 7 of the 28-way at the A-pillar, the other is orange/black, going to pin 8. I doubt it would work right if they were crossed over. 

[RubyCubes]

Ah, sorry I thought I had that in that signature thing - it's a 2009, so that diagram will work! I hadn't looked close enough but obviously one has a brown stripe and the other has a black one, so I'll take a closer look! Cheers.

[RubyCubes]

On 02/06/2021 at 13:16, Wino said:

Another thing to consider/investigate is how easy it is to remove the whole door.  On Mk1 Fabias for example it's just the check strap, the A-pillar connectors and two 13mm 'nut-like things' to undo and then the door lifts off its hinges.  Have an assistant though, especially when re-fitting, as the doors are obviously heavy. Once off you have far, far easier access.  I can't see form your photo whether the hinge arrangement has this easy-release feature, maybe post a close-up of a hinge?

 

Looks like I'll be needing to take the door off now after all...

 

I got all 12 wires redone but when attempting to put the plug back into the socket there is something stopping it from fitting in properly now. I've taken that plug out 6+ times and never had trouble getting it back in but spent almost an hour trying but no luck. Using a mirror to look into the socket I cannot see any obstruction so I'm perplexed at why it won't go back in. The orange snap connector will grip in and the plug will go in at the top but something in the bottom is stopping it.

 

I'm going to have to take the door off to get  a proper look into the socket as I'm at the stage of potentially breaking something I was pushing that hard.

 

I can only find posts on how to remove the panel, but nothing on how to remove the door. Based on the attached images does it look like the car has the same type of nuts to undo to lift the door off it's hinges? Is it the torx type nut the white arrow is pointing to the ones that need to be removed? There's nothing holding them from the inside that would fall into the door if I loosen them?

[Breezy_Pete]

Different to what I've had dealings with, sorry.

The horizontal-axis rear- facing black headed things look odd, not sure what they are?

Edited 5 June, 2021 by Wino

[RubyCubes]

8 hours ago, Wino said:

The horizontal-axis rear- facing black headed things look odd, not sure what they are?

 

Those black headed things are plastic caps that just pop off and show an inverse torx screw (not sure that's the proper term) - could they be the way to go to remove the door?

[Breezy_Pete]

Quite likely, I think.

Seen that type of fastener head before on a Vauxhall. E skt tool needed,  I think. I have a set of them somewhere. 

Edited 5 June, 2021 by Wino

[26DIPP]

I would look at the connector again. I had problems plugging in connectors after rewiring some terminals. If you cannot fit the connector look at the terminal wires again. One might not be fitted properly or slightly bent - even with the best care.

 

I would also consider looking at the other front door and compare before trying to remove the door.

 

Did you manage to fix the broken wire/s in the end? You did not say in the first thread what function was gone - unless I overread it.

[Breezy_Pete]

Door removal covered incidentally here: Skoda / VW worn door hinge fixed without removing the door - YouTube

He doesn't remove the door, but shows/removes the grubscrews which he mentions as being E8 skt.

 

You would just loosen or remove those grubscrews then the checkstrap then lift the hinge halves apart. 

Repeating warning about weight of door/ 2 person job, if you do opt for removal.

[RubyCubes]

21 minutes ago, 26DIPP said:

I would look at the connector again. I had problems plugging in connectors after rewiring some terminals. If you cannot fit the connector look at the terminal wires again. One might not be fitted properly or slightly bent - even with the best care.

 

I would also consider looking at the other front door and compare before trying to remove the door.

 

Did you manage to fix the broken wire/s in the end? You did not say in the first thread what function was gone - unless I overread it.

 

I ended up not removing any of the individual wire connectors and instead just cut all of the wires to do some preventative work on all of them (see first pic below - this was mid way through the job). Doing this meant that I had to do the same for the wires inside the door (see second pic). So it did feel like it doubled the work but once I got into the flow of it things went straight forward enough and I have loads of wire to work with now so will be very easy to repair from the hinge if one of the crimps goes in the future.

 

The drivers door airbag warning light was on and the car lost communication with the control unit in the drivers door - I couldn't lock the car anymore and when in the car the dash showed the drivers door being open even though it was closed.

 

8 minutes ago, Wino said:

Door removal covered incidentally here: Skoda / VW worn door hinge fixed without removing the door - YouTube

He doesn't remove the door, but shows/removes the grubscrews which he mentions as being E8 skt.

 

You would just loosen or remove those grubscrews then the checkstrap then lift the hinge halves apart. 

Repeating warning about weight of door/ 2 person job, if you do opt for removal.

 

Ah that's a deadly find - thanks a mil - looks easy peasy (famous last words!). Just to check though, when removing the check strap, do I remove it from the car side (white arrow) or the door side (yellow arrows)?

 

 

[Breezy_Pete]

Logically, the single bolt end, but I would invite confirmation from Superb owners who've removed one. Seems likely that there's a captive nut in the A-pillar, but I can't promise you that with any confidence. That's an XZN tool fitting, not a Torx, by the way, just in case you didn't know.

[RubyCubes]

Ok so I got it sorted without needing to remove the door.

 

The issue was that because of the repair job I did that involved ALL wires being cut and crimped, it was very difficult to get the orange snap clip (probably not the right term) into a 90 degree angle from the plug itself which is needed to get the plug to seat properly into the socket. Image attached shows where the orange snap clip needs to be able to move to in order to allow the plug to properly seat into the socket. Initially I could only get the orange clip down about 45 degrees after the repair job - I thought my pushing on the wires would pull out some of the crimps but thankfully they all stayed in place.

 

I turned on ignition, read the codes, cleared them all, and bingo bango, all codes gone and the car will now lock itself and registers the drivers door as being closed.

 

I think ideally if anyone comes across this, an alternative solution would have been to have gotten the right tool to allow you to release all of the wires from the plug so that you don't have to cut and repair them all. Though by cutting them all I have at least possibly done the preventative work on them all so may have no further trouble with this in the future - my car has over 300,000km on the clock (not bad for the supposedly dodgy BXE engine) so hopefully the next couple of hundred thousand won't involve further drivers door wiring issues.

 

 

Edited 7 June, 2021 by RubyCubes

[26DIPP]

My daughter's FII had broken wires in the passenger door boot and I fixed it by soldering them. This way I had less material inside the boot - and I only did the broken ones.