Loom Question

[pablo 0]

Having a few electrical gremlins at the moment:

 

pass sidelight wont work (tho does a bit if wiggled)

washer pump for windscreen doesnt work

side and front indicator didnt work (but now fixed).

 

All the problems are on the front pass corner, the indicators were fixed by chopping back the wires and crimping on new wire. The old wire was in bad shape internally. Connectors were rather corroded too.

 

Rather than chop up the wires and leave it messy and prone to failure again I was thinking of replacing the loom. But I know naff all about the wiring in a pug.

 

Is the aux stuff on a seperate loom?

Does this loom connect at the bulkhead or in the engine bay? Or does it run right back into the cabin.

Where would the major earth point be for this loom? (might be worth cleaning)

 

Thanks for any advice.

[pug_ham 244 3 Cars]

It might be worth trying to fix these issues by removing the earthing points in the inner headlamp panel at either side by cutting the spade terminals off & re-crimping ring terminals on to bolt them straight to the chassis using the central bolt for the earth block.

 

All lighting problems I've had up front have been fixed by doing this but if they still persist tbh its much easier to fit new lengths of wire with the correct ends on that fit inside the old plastic plug covers imo. If its done correctly it shouldn't be any more prone to failure or messy.

 

This loom comes from the fusebox to the front of the car, if its available won't be cheap & they are a pain to fit. Even getting one from a different GTI doesn't always match up all the plugs right.

 

Graham.

[pablo 0]

oh sounds like fun, the wires themselves are getting brittle and the copper inside has gone black and is very difficult to work with. I couldnt solder to it and ended up using crimp connectors to get a good connection. When trying to strip the end it regularly snapped the whole lot off. So Im guessing there may be more issues in there too.

 

Ill try the earth points too but they seemed to have been redone in the not too distant past and looked pretty fresh with new connectors etc.

[pug_ham 244 3 Cars]

Solder isn't the best way to redo the wires, decent environmental crimps & the correct crimp tool will make a much better job from experience.

 

If you are pulling the wire out with the insulation when stripping it back you're using the wrong size stripper.

 

I tend to move at least a few inches in from the terminal in an attempt to find decent wire before i recrimp a new section in.

 

Graham.

[mr_exe 1]

If you do decide to solder, the key in my experience is clean the oxidised blackened wire thoroughly with emery paper. In some cases a bit of flux helps the job along

[Artemide 1]

Washer pump is known for getting ´´stuck´´ over time if not used. I got mine to work like that: get the lever that controls washer pump fixed in a position so that the pump is ´´ON´´, then grab a screwdriver or smth, then tap and twist the washer engine. Mine starter working immediately. I also used to had problems with some indicators and relays, but everything was fixed by just cleaning the corrosion off the connectors.

I bet your car´s wires theirselves don´t have anything wrong with them, just the corrosion has kicked in and the problem lies in connectors mostly.

[pablo 0]

yes that seems to be a common problem alright, a couple of the indicator connectors wouldnt wor keven when cleaned though unfortunately which pointed me to a wiring problem. Job for another day!