McDiesel
Active member
Hi All
I had a scenario where nothing worked from the driver's seat- no windows, locks, trunk, nothing and the door was always shown to be OPEN on the display. The interior lights were ON and the soothing sound of the chimes serenaded me as I drove
... for a minute or two.
I read several threads and this one was my favorite http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?t=5694197
I had high hopes that this would be a good fix and found it to be well done and easy to follow. I went thru the whole scenario and didn't think the switch was bad in my latch (P/N on driver's side is 3B1837015AS) but I was in that far so I disassembled the latch unit and re-flowed the solder on the circuit board inside the assembly (P/N above). I was able to check the switch with an ohm meter and verify it was in fact working. Upon reassembly though I had nothing good to report, same scenario.
I was searching on tdiclub and found this thread: http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=276816 which discusses the broken wire issue. I like pictures and decided to make a short write-up of my own to hopefully help somebody. I was certainly quite frustrated after putting all the time into this project and staring at failure.
Since I already had the outer sheet metal/door skin off based on Shovelhead84's instructions (first link in this post) and having noted in the second thread that it was recommended to push the boot into the door, I decided to give that route a try.
I started by trying to follow the guidance given to remove the boot but was not doing well with that so i took a narrow straight slotted screwdriver and gently slid it in from the top to pop the boot loose
With the boot pulled back you can see a broken wire- sure enough as stated the larger wires break first and they break clean too like they were cut.
I released the connector by popping the orange lever down, then pushed the boot thru the door and got it out in the open. The orange wire was severed cleanly and the red with the tracer was scored but not yet broken. I cut both wires off and tinned them by applying liquid flux and solder. Then soldered them to a new wire that was also prepped so it would readily take solder. I had a piece of heat shrink tubing already cut and ready to slide into place for each end. Genius or feeble minded I had decided on making a loop with the slack as to allow it to move a bit. I checked the other smaller diameter wires and they were all fine (visual inspection only).
After shrinking the heat shrink it was time for a test. By manipulating the latch manually the door was seen to be opened and closed on the display!!
When putting all the wire and boots back in place, take your time and resist the urge to use a flat screwdriver. I found that the boot that fits into the door should be pressed down into the bottom of the hole and back towards the door and then work the edges in by pulling the tabs together. Once you get it real close, a press of a finger into the middle of this seal above the wires made this one pop right into place.
When plugging back into the body of the car my connector did not want to engage. I actually tested it once before I realized the connector was out too far. For some reason it was difficult to get it in all the way but it finally seated and the results were a success.
I had a scenario where nothing worked from the driver's seat- no windows, locks, trunk, nothing and the door was always shown to be OPEN on the display. The interior lights were ON and the soothing sound of the chimes serenaded me as I drove
... for a minute or two.I read several threads and this one was my favorite http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?t=5694197
I had high hopes that this would be a good fix and found it to be well done and easy to follow. I went thru the whole scenario and didn't think the switch was bad in my latch (P/N on driver's side is 3B1837015AS) but I was in that far so I disassembled the latch unit and re-flowed the solder on the circuit board inside the assembly (P/N above). I was able to check the switch with an ohm meter and verify it was in fact working. Upon reassembly though I had nothing good to report, same scenario.
I was searching on tdiclub and found this thread: http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=276816 which discusses the broken wire issue. I like pictures and decided to make a short write-up of my own to hopefully help somebody. I was certainly quite frustrated after putting all the time into this project and staring at failure.
Since I already had the outer sheet metal/door skin off based on Shovelhead84's instructions (first link in this post) and having noted in the second thread that it was recommended to push the boot into the door, I decided to give that route a try.
I started by trying to follow the guidance given to remove the boot but was not doing well with that so i took a narrow straight slotted screwdriver and gently slid it in from the top to pop the boot loose
With the boot pulled back you can see a broken wire- sure enough as stated the larger wires break first and they break clean too like they were cut.
I released the connector by popping the orange lever down, then pushed the boot thru the door and got it out in the open. The orange wire was severed cleanly and the red with the tracer was scored but not yet broken. I cut both wires off and tinned them by applying liquid flux and solder. Then soldered them to a new wire that was also prepped so it would readily take solder. I had a piece of heat shrink tubing already cut and ready to slide into place for each end. Genius or feeble minded I had decided on making a loop with the slack as to allow it to move a bit. I checked the other smaller diameter wires and they were all fine (visual inspection only).
After shrinking the heat shrink it was time for a test. By manipulating the latch manually the door was seen to be opened and closed on the display!!
When putting all the wire and boots back in place, take your time and resist the urge to use a flat screwdriver. I found that the boot that fits into the door should be pressed down into the bottom of the hole and back towards the door and then work the edges in by pulling the tabs together. Once you get it real close, a press of a finger into the middle of this seal above the wires made this one pop right into place.
When plugging back into the body of the car my connector did not want to engage. I actually tested it once before I realized the connector was out too far. For some reason it was difficult to get it in all the way but it finally seated and the results were a success.
