Rear hatch wiring repair - Golf

[iBran]

Some time last year the lock on the rear hatch stopped working, stuck in the unlocked position. The alarm still worked, blaring the horn if the hatch was opened without pressing the button on the remote.

Soon after, the rear wiper stopped working as well. Sprayer nozzle worked, but the wiper motor appeared dead. Being a lazy guy and finding both of these features mostly inessential, I let it be.

Last night I finally decided to look in to it, and sure enough, pulling off those rubber boots at the top of the hatch revealed plenty of damage to the wires. On the driver's side, 8 wires were cracked and bare, and the heavy-gauge brown wire had completely broken. Passenger's side was just as bad--all wires cracked, and the blue wire was severed as well.



I did a hasty soldering job and covered the bare wires with electrical tape, but that doesn't seem like a long-term solution. Has anyone found a better way to repair/refurbish these wires?

 

[CL65mech]

I would recommend splicing in lengths of new wire. You will need to gain access to the harness by removing various trim panels on the hatch and possibly in the car. The splices cannot be were the wires flex. Do one wire at a time and use crimp splices. I did this repair more than two years ago and have not had an issue with it.

 

[brandtmeister]

at 210k miles and yep same thing... last week about everything in trunk latch stopped working (rear window heater hadn't worked in a while) and with it the alarm won't set, can't roll down windows....
on one side ~3 wires severed and rest with severely cracked insulation, other side all but 1 wire severed...they sure don't build em like hey used to anymore.
well, off to get some wire and crimp splices...not how I wanted to spend my sunday afternoon, at least it's warm outside