Random electrical/central locking issue

[SarahBurgin]

Hi there. I hope someone can point me in the right direction for a new issue my 61 plate, superb estate has decided to throw at me. 

 

I feel like it's a central locking issue but I don't totally know, I initially thought it was the drivers door but it seems a little more involved than that. 

 

Symptoms - 

1- unlock car using key fob, open drivers side passenger door to stop it autolocking whilst in the boot - the alarm still went off so I assume the passenger door didn't register as being opened? 

 

2 - successfully unlocked car, got in and pressed the number 1 setting on the drivers seat to adjust my mirrors after husband drove it. Didn't work. Neither did the electric window or the wing mirror control on the door. Annoyingly, I didn't check the other windows before locking and unlocking the car and being able to adjust everything 

 

3 - driving home, opened window and I get home and it won't close. Central locking from the key fob only locked passenger side doors and boot. Manual key lock allowed all doors to lock. Unlocking and locking from key fob eventually allowed me to close the window. 

 

Not sure if this next bit is in any way related - I have a warning light to replace the lefthand running light, but it's been replaced and its working fine. 

 

I am absolutely clueless when it comes to car electrics, so I'm not even sure what to Google to find what I'm looking for! I have tried but nothing is quite the fit of my issue. 

 

Thank you for anything you may suggest! 

 

Sarah 

[chimaera]

Probably damaged wiring between the driver's door and the A-pillar, a pretty common problem. The driver's door has the master controller for central locking, electric windows and wing mirrors, so damage to the wiring there has wide ranging behaviour.

[SarahBurgin]

Thank you. I considered this but wasn't sure as it seemed to affect the back door too. I didn't realise it had a master controller there. I looked up changing the cables that run to the drivers door, is there some sort of control board too then that I may need to change? 

 

When I was looking, I got the impression the board was behind the glove box? 

[gav_is_con]

 

Try some of these threads and start with the drivers door loom. If you search it’s happened to loads on this forum. 

[Derbyshirebod]

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

With the age of the car and from the many posts on the forum as the others have said this is a common issue. It happens right across the VW / Skoda / Seat range of cars where cables are in any hinged area. The cable insulation has got old and brittle lost its plasticity and cracked the copper wire work hardens and eventually breaks due to the doors being opened and closed.

 

I have had this issues with both my front doors with 2 broken cables and multiple cables with damaged insulation. I've had the same problem with a broken cable to the tailgate for the heated rear window.

 

Both the front doors have the same control unit as in the drivers side door photo I've attached. I don't know about the rear doors as I've not had those apart yet! Though I know at least one of those has cables with damaged insulation.

 

As more than one function is being affected I would strongly suspect that the earth feed cable to the drivers door controler unit has probably already broken inside the rubber boot between the door and door pillar and is making intermittent contact hence why things work and sometimes don't. 

 

There are 13 cables varying in 4 different sizes going to the drivers door. The Ø2.5mm ( 29Amp 2.5mm²) cable brown with purple tracer is the one that's likely to have broken. 

 

It's more than likely there will be more damaged wires and it's probably  wise / more cost effective in the long run to have all the wires in the door hinge area replaced. There are several options, replace the affected sections of wires as I have done. But if you're having to pay someone like a garage to do the job it's quicker and cost less in labour to use a repair kit.

 

Wiring harness repair for all 4 door

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/144205914904?hash=item219357a318:g:9nQAAOSw8SthJdz9

 

Plug & harness for individual doors

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/185197392892?hash=item2b1e9ff3fc:g:WP8AAOSwzwphqer

 

Edited 28 February, 2022 by Derbyshirebod

[SarahBurgin]

Amazing! Thanks for the info everyone, I'll tackle that this weekend ☺ 

[SarahBurgin]

It's definitely the cables, but I can't for the life of me work out how to get the door side free?

 

I've got the loom free on the car side, sorry, I can't even work out how to post an image on here! I'm used to FB! 😂 

 

I've watched some YouTube vids but the never seem to show the crucial bit! Do I need to take the door panel off like your last picture? 

 

On 28/02/2022 at 01:28, Derbyshirebod said:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

 

With the age of the car and from the many posts on the forum as the others have said this is a common issue. It happens right across the VW / Skoda / Seat range of cars where cables are in any hinged area. The cable insulation has got old and brittle lost its plasticity and cracked the copper wire work hardens and eventually breaks due to the doors being opened and closed.

 

I have had this issues with both my front doors with 2 broken cables and multiple cables with damaged insulation. I've had the same problem with a broken cable to the tailgate for the heated rear window.

 

Both the front doors have the same control unit as in the drivers side door photo I've attached. I don't know about the rear doors as I've not had those apart yet! Though I know at least one of those has cables with damaged insulation.

 

As more than one function is being affected I would strongly suspect that the earth feed cable to the drivers door controler unit has probably already broken inside the rubber boot between the door and door pillar and is making intermittent contact hence why things work and sometimes don't. 

 

There are 13 cables varying in 4 different sizes going to the drivers door. The Ø2.5mm ( 29Amp 2.5mm²) cable brown with purple tracer is the one that's likely to have broken. 

 

It's more than likely there will be more damaged wires and it's probably  wise / more cost effective in the long run to have all the wires in the door hinge area replaced. There are several options, replace the affected sections of wires as I have done. But if you're having to pay someone like a garage to do the job it's quicker and cost less in labour to use a repair kit.

 

Wiring harness repair for all 4 door

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/144205914904?hash=item219357a318:g:9nQAAOSw8SthJdz9

 

Plug & harness for individual doors

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/185197392892?hash=item2b1e9ff3fc:g:WP8AAOSwzwphqer

 

 

[Derbyshirebod]

3 hours ago, SarahBurgin said:

It's definitely the cables, but I can't for the life of me work out how to get the door side free?

 

I've got the loom free on the car side, sorry, I can't even work out how to post an image on here! I'm used to FB! 😂 

 

I've watched some YouTube vids but the never seem to show the crucial bit! Do I need to take the door panel off like your last picture? 

 

 

 

Yes I initially struggled to get the door card off ☺️ And use some proper plastic trim removal tools other wise you're likely to scratch things. You can get a very basic set for under £5 on Ebay.

 

Lever off the little speaker cover behind the chrome door lock latch. There is one torx screw behind the speaker cover the same as the two torx screws on the lower edge of the door card.

 

Lever up the door switch panel with all the switches in place. There are two connectors to the switches that will need disconnecting. One has a blue spring loaded tab which is a bit of a PITA to disconnect unless you use a flat bladed screwdriver. You can then access to undo and remove the two M6 torx socket bolts.

 

There are 6 trim fixing clips round the door card. Start levering the door card off from the bottom with trim removal tools I've marked the positions on the photo I've attached.

 

There isn't enough room even if you remove the door to replace the damage section of wires as you won't be able to pull the wires far enough out. So yes you'll have to remove the door card it so that you can cut off  the old cables and be able to have enough room to solder new wires on. I removed all the wires and replaced them all with new wire adding a few more inches which I then fed inside the door. You can see in the photo where I cut the loom with tin snips and left enough cable so the cable and joints could be pulled through the rubber boot (not in the photo) into the door. I didn't bother tapping the rubber boots back on to the cables so I could pull / push them through to where I wanted them. I did bind the new cables with with some insulation tape but not inside the large corrugated rubber boot so hopefully the cables can move as they need to when the doors are opened and closed without pulling or straining at the main door pillar plug. Make sure you run the cables round the side of window channel guide. If you run the cables on the wrong side of the window guide channel the door glass will hit the wires as the glass comes down ( I wonder now I know that! 😊)

 

The 1st time I did this I removed all the connectors from the terminal block and soldered the new wires to a small amount of wire I left coming from the connector. On reflection i don't think this is a good idea to make a joint so close to the connector as you really need the cables to flex here and I had to bend them down to get the orange connector block lock in the open position. On the second door I left a small amount of the original cable. I did buy some replacement connectors but at £5 for 10 not particular cheap IMO and then to do a proper job you need a crimping tool for around £30.  I've bought enough cable of varying sizes & colours to repair all 4 doors. Though if I ever have to do this job again I'd buy cables with connectors though I couldn't find any when I was looking to repair my car!!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/144205914904?hash=item219357a318:g:9nQAAOSw8SthJdz9&mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=710-53481-19255-0&campid=5336836713&toolid=10001&customid=38947X1001323X6b06f89b7ddb587bb79384b8599563e2

 

If you turn the ignition on with the door pillar connector disconnected it will throw up the air bag warning light and you'll have to reset it with diagnostic tools such as VCDS which I have. Though I used my very old Super Vag K + Can to reset the air bag light which I bought several years ago when I had a 2004 Seat Toledo. There is a lot of things I can't access on my Superb with this diagnostic scanner. There is a now a newer version.

 

To attach photos to a post go to the bottom left hand side of the screen to either drag or select files from your phone or laptop. If you want to attach photos you've used before go to the bottom right and click on "Other Media" these files are usually smaller and use less memory which can be useful when you want to attach several photos and are getting close to to the limit of 10MB.

 

Edited 1 March, 2022 by Derbyshirebod