Broken Sleeve on Electrical Harness leading to Trunk Lid - How to fix? [TOC, Photos done]

[EnglishPhaeton]

Bump

anyone got any experience of taking this part of the boot apart before I try my luck...??

Thanks

M

Mike,

TOC retrofitting warning triangle. Looks a doddle, but so did opening and closing the headlight washer covers!

Stu

[n968412L]

Stu - good spot - thanks very much!
Regards
M

[n968412L]

Just had a crack at putting some PTFE lubricant in the cable cassette as preventative maintenance. On both my GP0 (MY05) and GP1 (MY09) both cassettes are liberally dusted with graphite powder - and seem in perfect condition. So maybe the factory cracked lubrication of this in 05 and it's been OK since?

regards

M

[EnglishPhaeton]

Just had a crack at putting some PTFE lubricant in the cable cassette as preventative maintenance. On both my GP0 (MY05) and GP1 (MY09) both cassettes are liberally dusted with graphite powder - and seem in perfect condition. So maybe the factory cracked lubrication of this in 05 and it's been OK since?

regards

M

I've had no problems with either of mine (05 and 06 but both MY 06) touch wood.

Stu

[Victor R]

So maybe the factory cracked lubrication of this in 05 and it's been OK since?

Both of mine are '05's. One needed the harness repaced (discussed earlier in this thread). One has not. That one is a late MY '05, so perhaps...

On the other hand, the second car has had far less use than the one that needed to have the harness replaced, too.

Victor

[Paximus]

My MY2006 broke... no sign of graphite, or any other lubricant.

Chris

[n968412L]

Odd... poor quality control when these cassettes are assembled originally?

Anyhow, hope mixture of graphite and PTFE works OK... and I'm now wondering if the graphite was graphite or just worn grey plastic powder!!

Not taking it apart again to check.

M

[DNAguy]

My claim was denied on the basis the it was "wiring." Cost me $2,200 for repair. This is clearly a design defect because it happens so frequently.

Buck

[Ekremsky]

Hi, as I read I see that many people had a problem with the wiring on the trunk lid,I had mine too:first rear lights stopped to light on,after that the other lights,after that the lid did not close,and when I opened the lid's wiring harness I saw a very dissapointing picture,some 10-12 wires were cut-off:

after several days of repairing and soldering I made this:







It is not original,but everything works fine now,only the white tube needs to be painted to black,and all cost me about $20

Ekremsky

[Paximus]

A neat and effective solution...

CB

[Paldi]

Seven months since I snipped off the fraying mesh. Everything is still fine and dandy... no sign of wear on the plastic tube yet.

[PanEuropean]

Archival Note:

A related discussion, with a tale of woe caused by poor quality workmanship when the wiring harness was replaced: Puzzling Trunk Problems.

Michael

[TampaAPB]

Hi Everyone - I have read through this forum and the myriad of ways people have addressed the trunk lid wiring harness problem. On my '04 Phaeton about a week ago, I noticed the left hand side of the trunk lid was not flush with the body panels, opening the boot I saw the plastic tube was bent and had wedged itself into the area where the hinge/water seals are, causing the slight protrusion I observed. Although the mesh has long since frayed away, the tube had always looks reasonably intact until last week so I left it alone sans some occasional graphite lubricant.

So now that I can see exposed wires (thankfully all the trunk wiring is intact - there were no splits or frays), I have a choice as I see it:

1. Try one of the home remedies suggested in the forum
2. See if my real driver platinum will cover it - I have 3 years remaining on mine!

I think the right answer is to go with #2 - I can always go route 1 if denied. It looks like many of these claims have been denied in reading the forum. What's important to say or do in connection with the dealer making the claim in order to have success going route 2 - any recommendations?

[Victor R]

In my opinion, there is not much you as an individual can do to get the warranty company to cover this. I think it all boils down to relationships between the dealership and the warranty company. Part of this is directly related to how much business/interaction a dealership has with the warranty company, so in that sense, the larger the dealership, the better. Part may also be how much the dealership emphasizes to service writers that they need to "push" the warranty company.

In your case, I see two conflicting issues:

• the mesh harness has been removed prior to asking for warranty work. I could see that being interpreted as interfering ("voiding") the warranty on that piece.

• on the other hand, the damage is sufficiently severe to affect how the lid sits. Definitely something that should qualify.

Good luck! Mine was covered under warranty. If yours is not, brace yourself for an at least $1500 hit.

Victor

[Sinco01]

I've had similar problems with the boot harness which I think have damaged the boot release (manual rather then automatic) - boot now only opens with a key. Anyway the boot harness is now replaced and wiring ok but I have brake lights on all the time once the engine has started running.

The diagnostics say faulty brake light switch which I have replaced twice with genuine vw parts. Could there be a connection between electronic control unit in the boot/trunk which may have got damaged by wiring shorting in the past and what now appears to be some kind of malfunctioning of the traction control? This is a manual hood rather than a power hood.

Any ideas or similar problems anyone?

[Paximus]

Hi (sorry, I don't know your name),

It is worth noting that there are two wires in the trunk harness of the same colour. Crossing them during repair could affect the operation of both the lights and the trunk lock, as you describe. Post #29 in this thread refers: Broken Sleeve on Electrical Harness leading to Trunk Lid How to fix TOC Photos done

Just out of interest, did you have to carry out the whole steering column removal procedure to replace the brake switch as per the repair manual, or did you find a work-around?

Chris

[Sinco01]

Thanks Chris

name is Andy sorry I missed it off.

The replacement wiring harness only had one red and blue wire and I had the brake light issue before I replaced it. When I traced the spare wire back it went back to the same wire - this may have been a previous repair but I had the car for 4 years now without lighting issues until recently and previously it had been vw serviced from new with no obvious reference to the repair in the service history.

We managed to get the brake light switch changed without removing the steering column by pulling out but not disconnecting the fuse box.

I'm pretty convinced the problem lies in one of the electronics boxes but don't know which one and would be happy to be proved wrong.

Andy

[Paximus]

Hi Andy,

The brake lights are supplied with voltage by the Left and Right Rear Light modules J690 and J691 and the Left and Right Rear Lid light modules J692 and J693. They are switched on by individual 'analogue' wires (ie on or off, not CAN-bus) from the Central Convenience controller which lives on the shelf in the trunk.

It is possible but not likely that all four light control modules have jammed on simultaneously, which makes it more likely that the reason the brake lights are on is that the Central Convenience controller is telling them all to light.

It does this on the presence of the 'analogue' voltage signal from the brake light switch (+12V means 'on') fed from 5A fuse SB15. This wire also connects to the Trailer controller (if fitted), the ABS controller and the ECU, all of which could plausibly put up the 'on' command voltage if there was a short circuit.

The first place to look for short circuits is on a VCDS scan, since most wires are monitored by the diagnostics system. Do you have access to a VAG-COM cable? If so please post a full scan.

As a first physical test I think you could pull fuse SB15 in the panel under the steering column and see if the brake lights stay off. This fuse lists as feeding the ABS, trailer module etc, but I believe this is only in reference to the brake switch.

I can mirror the test on my car tomorrow to see if I am misleading you.

Chris

[Paximus]

I confirm that pulling fuse SB15 turns off the brake lights as above and also puts up ABS, ESP and Suspension Level warning lights on the panel. There's no Brake warning light lit.

The car still starts and drives, but with no brake lights.

Chris

[Sinco01]

Thanks Chris

It's going to be a couple of days before I get the opportunity to look at this again but will respond when I do.

Andy

[johnt26]

Trunk Harness DIY, Broken Sleeve on Electrical Harness leading to the Trunk lid.

We decided to replace the trunk wiring harness after too many failed repairs. Plus we wanted to return to the factory look.

A few things we learned along the way:

There are 22 wires on the harness for a Phaeton with the power trunk; three pairs of wires are identical. The two that are important are the ones that Michael pointed out in post 29 here. The other two pairs are probably insignificant but we used the ohmmeter on them and labeled them on both harnesses just in case. I believe that they run the brake, reverse and taillights that light simultaneously regardless if they are right or left.

Almost everything went well, we did have a problem that was a VW part issue that I’ll cover after the DIY.

We ordered the short harness from Zeb at 1st VW Parts; the part number for the Phaeton with the power trunk was 000-970-053-A, it was $390.16. There were not any harnesses in the USA so the part was ordered from Germany. It arrived within a week, it was a full harness so I contacted Zeb and he said maybe that’s what they are sending out now and he advised me to use it.
Here is a picture(note that the tab on the upper left of the cassette was broken):


I obtained this crimping tool from Amazon, about $60, a proper crimping tool is key to this repair, I wish I had ordered one years ago.



I disconnected both batteries, starter then comfort, negative first. Be careful, the battery cover on my comfort battery positive terminal was black.

I cut down the harness in the car and the new harness and attached the butt connectors on the kitchen table to save time lying on my back in the trunk. I decided to go against the TSB and not stagger the connectors for ease of install as I had a large cavity under the hat shelf that would accept the repaired harness with the butt connectors together.



We attached the new trunk harness to the Phaeton’s wiring harness and crimped the connectors. A magnifying glass, good light and/or young eyes help to identify the subtleties in the colors of the wires.



The finished product and a shot of the harness tucked under the hat shelf.



On to the testing…all the lights worked perfectly, we thought we were golden! Then we pressed the trunk close button, the trunk closed about halfway, the latch extended then everything came to an abrupt stop.

We thought, “Oh no, where did we go wrong!” The troubleshooting started; after spending a half of a day tracing all the wires and verifying the connections we made, checking fuses, wiring diagrams and running a VCDS scan that yielded a report that the trunk latch had a “mechanical failure”, we thought, really?, what are the chances?

After much consternation and gnashing of teeth the last thing we checked was the new harness. We discovered that the new VW harness was wired incorrectly, the plug that connects to the latch mechanism was the issue! Slot ten should have the green wire with the white stripe and slot five should be empty, they wired it backwards!

The new harness with the wire incorrectly inserted in slot 5 :



The old harness with the wire correctly inserted into slot 10 (also note the box with the part number):




My local VW Dealer was nice enough to fix the plug, no charge, as I didn’t have the proper tool for the micro connector removal (I ordered a set since). There is a post about that here. Kudos to Thompson VW in Warrington, PA! It was a Saturday and the Phaeton Tech was off. The Tech that fixed the plug didn’t know enough about the Phaeton to garner a guess as to what would happen if we pressed the trunk close button with the latch already extended, so we took the car home.

We had a heck of a time getting the trunk lid in sequence again. We tried all the normal ideas on the forum including opening the trunk and pressing the remote open button and even re-adapting the trunk controller. We ran through the output tests for controller 46 on the VCDS but the latch just didn’t want to behave and stayed extended. We then ran the trunk through several open and shut cycles using the key, muscle and hope and suddenly the trunk was happy and everything returned to normal.

My suggestion is: trust, but verify, that the new trunk latch plug is wired the same way as the one you are removing to save yourself from the pain we endured. The tail lights are not a real issue.

Other than the problem we had with the harness, the job was fairly simple and straightforward. We are delighted to have our Phaeton back to factory specs!

Special thanks to my wife Sherri for all her help with the install and daughter Logan for lending her eagle eyes for wire color/stripe identification. Unfortunately first assistant Garret was busy the day the install took place.

If anyone decides to tackle this job and is close enough for me to assist in person or if not, by phone, drop me a PM, everything is so much easier the second time around!

[Paximus]

Hi John,

Thank you for a very helpful post. This is one DIY job that ought to save a few hundred over the dealer invoice and which helps give a sense of ownership and satisfaction. Also family bonding. Nice flowers, by the way!

Chris

[chillson]

Nice job John! If you dig up the post about my harness replacement (maybe part of this thread, I didn't look), you will see that the first harness I received from Zeb had a broken tab/flange also. I sent the entire kit back and he replaced it. I am on my second Phaeton now (with original harness) and I figure I have about 20K miles to go before it will need to be replaced. It isn't broken yet, but the mesh is fraying. I am trying to protect it with strategically placed wraps of Gorilla duct tape. We'll see how long it lasts. If I try to do the repair myself, I will certainly give you a ring. Thanks...Jay

[johnt26]

Thanks Chris on the flowers, 25 roses, one for each year of Sherri putting up with me and my car fetish!

It was our 25th Wedding Anniversary, what better way to celebrate then hanging out in the trunk of a Phaeton for two days (with the Jersey handle disconnected ! Michael has to update the label file to "bodies" in the trunk! )

Jay,
I did notice that you had the same broken tab issue with your first harness, I thought I may have gotten yours but your first harness was a partial (short) unit, correct? I decided to keep the harness and use the half of the old cassette with the tabs on it.