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Broken tailgate wire

Patdon10

New member
Joined
Oct 29, 2007
Location
Fairfax, Virginia
Anyone know what this goes to?

My rear squirters don't work anymore. Could this be why?

IMAG0045.jpg
 
Yep, that's why. Typical breakdown of the wires in there.

You will eventually lose the rear wiper, window defroster and finally the plate lights, which will get you pulled over. I simply bypassed them inside the trunk door for cheap+quickness, but i believe IPD (www.ipdusa.com) sells a kit to repair this. It's kinda a pita to feed the wires through.
 
those things go bad all the time, most people wait until the tag lights stop working and they get pulled over/ticketed before fixing it.
 
Oh hey, did you mean squirter's or the actual wiper going, i might have mis-interpreted by being a lazy ass and reading too quickly. If it's just the water sprayer not working, you could have a bad pump up front, or the water line that runs to the rear sprayer is broken. Easiest to just pull the line in the engine compartment and have someone push the sprayer button, see if it sprays. If it does, check the line and make sure the sprayer isn't clogged (it snaps on/off, carefully!) But that severed wire is still the beginnings of what I mentioned above. :)
 
Note to anyone trying to repair the wires in question: I spent about 10 hours total trying to rewire without removing the tailgate or undoing the hinges at all, making new wires myself using some large-gauge primary wire and heat-shrink tubing to bind them together and protect my splice-connections. I got the left side done, and the right side is impossible. Just go ahead and pull the tailgate off, it will save you a lot of time, pain, and general frustration. Plus, if your ground wire is broken... you can't do anything about it without undoing the hinge bolts.
 
I have lost just my rear wiper.
However, at first, when I bought the car, it would work.
It would however not park, eg. it would park where it was, when I turned it off.

Then, one day, no wiper :(
Everything else works though! Also, if I squirt water on the rear window, no wiper function.
I guess this means defective wiring, as the front wipers work?

They use the same relay, right?
ps. I have checked my fusebox :-)
 
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Mine is bad too...but although broken clear in half, they make contact when it is closed and everything works...for now (been that way for months). I love my Volvo...things break but never stop working all together.
 
Nike: Just Do It!

Get a helper to help wrangle the hatch - it's surprisingly heavy and awkward when unbolted.

Carefully undo the rear corners of the headliner - the fabric (should be, lol 30 years old now) somewhat stretchy and it is sewn to a plastic lip that fits into a slot. Just sort of pull it toward the edges to release that lip.

Then unplug the wires, on both sides, and unbolt the hinges, pull the wires out, remove the hatch. Unbolt the hinges from the hatch and fish the old wires out of the sides. That's the hardest part (for me anyhow) - there's not a whole lot of room to spare in there. Then hinge back on the door, and then back onto the car.
 
That’s very helpful, thank you.
Am I correct that there are two Seperate harnessed ? I ordered the pass side harness from Swedish arparts.com? Didn’t see anything for drivers side, but one of those wire is broken too.
And, are the hinge bolts inside under the headliner ?
 
The harness does not come with the black wire that you are seeing. That wire is a ground between each side of the hinge... effectively it grounds the hinge and tailgate. Get some high quality copper wire for the black ground wire. I'm about to do the repair myself too.

and yes there are two separate harnesses. They're both available from volvo @ $50 a pop. Supposed to last longer than the swedish car parts ones, something about the wire being specialty built for repeat bending.

Here's the ground wire

fullsize_18123.jpg
 
Yes, two harnesses, one on each side. Certainly not one of Volvo's finest engineering feats. The bolts are on the underside of the roof, clearly visible when the headliner is out of the way.

Left and right harnesses: https://www.ipdusa.com/catalog.asp?numRecordPosition=0&SEARCHWORDS=240+tailgate+wiring

Use a wire or strong cord and tie to one end of the old harness before pulling it out of the hatch side, then use that to pull the new harness through. Take a quick pic of all wires on either end before undoing anything in case you're not clear on reassembly.

Another nice thing to replace while you have it apart are the gaskets under the hinges: https://www.ipdusa.com/catalog.asp?numRecordPosition=0&SEARCHWORDS=240+tailgate+hinge+gasket

Also, I had a peculiarly hard time with the rear sprayer nozzle on mine, the rubber hose just wouldn't come off the nozzle on the hatch. *REALLY* stuck on there, like it was glued in place.
 
I do one side at a time instead of unbolting both hinges. Makes it easier to hold the rear door up. I use a movie grip C-stand for that. Take the cylinders that hold the door up off first.
 
/\ /\ /\ You'r making me thing I did it the hard way - taking the whole hatch off and replacing the wires, then bolting the whole thing back on.
 
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