Broken wires in drivers door wiring loom

[cnpaterson]

Hi,

Just wondered if anyone else out there has experienced the same prob as I did with the drivers door wiring loom?

My wife first noticed that the interior light would not go off and the drivers door indicator on the dash was not registering, then the elec window became intermittent in operation. Once she had remembered to tell me about these faults I had a quick look and noticed the central locking to that door was also intermittent and the light on the door only came on when door was slightly open but went off when fully open. The speakers then started to crackle and before I knew it there was a 'POP' sound from, what seemed to be the front speaker and an electrical component burning smell (ozone smell) appeared...the concert radio unit had gone blank, and still is

I discovered the fault to be somewhere along the wiring loom between car and drivers door, when I squeezed the loom conduit, I heard electrical sparking. I disconnected connector and pushed connector block through the conduit, and discovered 4 out of the 4 power/signal cables were either completely broken or damaged, exposed cores with all 4 (must have been due to wear and tear?)! The speaker wires were also showing signs of wear and exposed cores evident. I repaired all the cables and reinstated, everything now operational but radio is still dead

I take it the speaker 'POP' sound was due to one of the power cables hitting an exposed speaker wire? could this have blown the head unit? What could have blown? Can it be repaired?

Anyway...is this sort of wear and tear expected on an 8 yr old car? the car has 100k on clock but is still in good nick so has not been abused.

Any advice or info would be much appreciated

Thanks
Craig

 

[scott b]

i have heard of the fault, it might of back feeded down to the headunit, post the problem in the ICE section, more likely to get a defo answer

 

[quattrojames]

That sort of wear and tear shouldn't happen really, but it's a common known fault and all cars have them I guess.

Most likely an inline fuse gone isn't it?

 

[paul20v]

sounds like the live has fed the speaker as you thought and ******** the radio
especially if you had an electrical / circuit board smell
worth checking fuses but dont be suprised if there fine .

 

[fourcircle]

I'd imagie the inline fuse would only protect against surges in the power cable. power going up the speaker wire could really ****** it. There may be internal glass fuses as well but it would probably require taking apart to be sure. I've got an iffy speaker on the driver's door so i'll take this as a warning to sort it out before I suffer the same.
good luck

 

[murran]

yeah its common fault. i dont know why vag havent come to a solution for this problem.... its been around since mk3 golfs ***

 

[Alan H]

It's a common fault on a lot of different vehicles. Not just VAG cars.

I had the issue on my BMW..... unfortunately copper and the plastic sheathing loses it's flexibility as it gets older and eventually it'll break.......