Broken driver's side door wiring harness on 2006 Jetta

[chittychittybangbang]

When I got the car the mirror turn signals were working but I just noticed that the driver's side wasn't working.

Upon further inspection, the door wiring harness was also broken. I also had this on the mk3 Passat TDI. Supposedly the early mk5 Jetta were bad but hopefully they improved this on later cars. The repair is to solder new wiring or replace the door wire harness.

Why they can't just use higher quality wiring for at least the door harness, I don't know. The insulation cracks and in bad cases, the wiring also breaks. It breaks because it bends back and forth when the door is moved. PITA. Pics and procedure to fix to come later.

[rickb]

Mk4 have this problem too. There's something about VW hinges that they can't seem to figure out..

[chittychittybangbang]

Finished the writeup:

http://www.myturbodiesel.com/1000q/a...tta-repair.htm

Here is the picture of the broken insulation. It wasn't bad to the point of broken wiring. I also added this caution to the buying checklist/new owner inspection for early mk5 Jetta.

[Ben06]

Is this something that will become a common problem? Should I check mine? It looks like the bigger wires are broken.

[FXDL]

Are both the drivers side and pass., side wiring harness the same, or is there a left and a right harness?? A new one for drivers side is $172.00 before taxes up here. The price has gone down from $220.00 so I was told. The rubber boot at the pillar, one of the clips that hold it connected to the pillar broke off. I hope one can just buy the rubber boot and I can change it if I get the wiring repaired ok. Will stop at the dealer on my way home today and find out. I will try in my case to take the drivers side door panel off as the wire is broken off too far in towards the door and try and repair first I hope and save 200 bucks. I looked at the other post for broken wires but wanted to know if the harness just plugs in pretty much as easy as on the door panel as it does into the door pillar? Thank-you and all have a great week-end eh.

[chittychittybangbang]

Not sure what you're asking, it's clipped into the door pillar with the red locking lever and then pull it out. There are some more pics in the FAQ Article.

[FXDL]

The drivers and pass., side are diff., wiring harness, so the dealer shows, is what I was asking before. They do sell just the boot as I got one and will have take the door skin off etc., to replace it. The boot cost just under $12.00 out the door for a new one. The hole in the boot end that is in the door is so small that the plug in the pillar I am sure will not go through it so with the door skin off I will cut the wires and feed the pillar plug and wires through it and crimp and solder them back together. I may use male, female spade connecters instead and wrap them real good to protect them from each other etc... Before I will repair any broken wires in the boot area as there is 2 broken now and any that look to be bad, or just repace them all with very flexable type wire and a bit longer at that. It is a lot of work for just the boot to be changed but like I said will repair and or replace all the wire that is in the boot area so I hope will not do it any more. One of the wires is showing an air bag light on my dash, I hope the small broken wire is it, and there is not one more problem to look into after I fix the pain in the __ door wiring.

[chittychittybangbang]

Well there was an airbag recall for some wire harness, I think it was under the seat or something.

[FXDL]

Yes,thank-you. You are wright I did see a recall on my car I believe for airbags. Thank-you for reminding me of it. Have a great day now eh.

[drajac]

Yeah, I had that problem in the middle of last winter. Power line broke off and I couldn't use any switches from driver's door, including fuel tank door release. Removed panels and soldered wires with help of Chity's post. Fun part was, I had to do that in my non-heated garage in sub zero temperature