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DIY rear door harness fix on 2008 wagon


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I own a 2008 Legacy 2.5i wagon, I live in Canada and I have no garage. It's quite a bad combo for a DD car, especially in winter when the temperatures can easily drop below -30°C.

 

The wires that go from the body to the rear door through the rubber duct (passenger side) were constantly breaking in the last 3 years. One at a time but it always happened in the worst time and the temperatures where typically so low that I didn't even touch it fearing I would break the plastic trim.

 

First the reverse lamps went, I fixed it. Then the wiper - fixed it. Then the lock - fixed it. This winter the locked stopped working again and the wiper was moving really slowly. I got sick and tired of this and decided to change all the wires.

 

I've used BNTECHGO silicon wires (http://bntechgo.com) because they are rated for use from -60°C to+200°C. I've used 16AWG for the ground wires, 20AWG for most of the other wires and there were about 4 wires that were beefer so I used 18AWG for those. In retrospective I could have used 16 and 18 for everything.

 

Here is what I did:

1. disconnect the battery

 

2. remove the rear gate trim: start with both pillars and then remove the top piece:

1791743330_reargatetrim.png.e8705d47363966e17217ba113d1208d9.png

 

3. remove the trim from the rear pillar in the trunk area:

301539752_rearpillars.png.f28f422492fbf6e9f7388fb51ec87634.png

 

And then pull the ceiling trim down - there are 3 clips in the back and I've also pulled 1 on each side so I have more wiggle room.

IMG_20190509_174358_small.thumb.jpg.b9d9773f2a469841225d3185f4966c0f.jpg

 

You can tell that some of the wires have already been fixed. Also someone fixed one ground wire before me (I own the car since 2015). It's a 16AWG wire and he extended it with 20AWG (that yellow with red strip), oh well...

IMG_20190509_174345_small.thumb.jpg.ea0577e6065d4d163c1cb6bb2fba1f8d.jpg

 

4. I've cut all the electrical take to expose the wires and then using my multimeter I've started labeling the wires. You can go by wire color in most cases but the ground wires are all black and there is 3 of them. There is total of 14 wires going through said rubber duct.

IMG_20190509_182641_small.thumb.jpg.a7e6d07e9524139bb714b3d8271138fd.jpg

 

5. When I had everything labeled I've cut the wires on the body side - not that it really matters and pulled them through.

IMG_20190509_183641_small.thumb.jpg.8d516b4f0b0a2276503628241074d307.jpg

 

6. I've prepared all the wires with corresponding gauges. Colors were mostly off except for the ground wires. I eyeballed the length but it was roughly 60cm (2 feet). I taped the ends with painters tape, pulled them through the duct. The oem harness has a rubber sleeve on the wires that is taped with electrical tape as well. I've reused the rubber pieces and taped it as well. Then I installed my new harness in place.

IMG_20190509_191731_small.thumb.jpg.0c36cda8e2575344fefceda9bc55b03d.jpg

 

7. the next step was trimming the old wires, stripping the ends, putting on the heat shrink isolation and soldering the wires together. I was using my multimeter a lot to make sure I have the correct wire from my new harness. Measure twice, solder one. At this point I've only put the heat shrink over the joint so they can't touch, I haven't used lighter to shrink it permanently - I wanted to test everything first.

IMG_20190509_205256_small.thumb.jpg.e3e00c5985dee4ba2851822efd0dbe62.jpg

 

8. I've reconnected the battery and tested everything. All worked - finally.

 

9. Used lighter on the heat shrink, rubber sleeves and lots of electrical tape to cover the wires.

IMG_20190509_215140_small.thumb.jpg.923e363cbd8ea7ef89f30421dd052138.jpg

 

10. reinstalled all the trim, put the tools back and thew away the old cracked wires.

 

 

Time: took me almost 5 hours from changing to work clothes to sitting back in the dinning room - way more then I expected to be honest. But removing the old electrical tape was very time consuming + I've spend a lot of time labeling the wires and make sure I get that right. I also took my time soldering the wires together.

 

Tools: I've used a couple of screwdrivers, small scissors for the electrical tape, wire strippers and soldering iron (Hakko FX-888D). Without a proper soldering iron it would take me way longer.

 

 

Hope this helps to someone who has the same problem...=)

Edited by iaacek
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