Lost a door speaker? Door button inop? How to fix your door loom wiring.

Vic

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My GTS had three things wrong in the drivers' door-The speaker quit working, the lock status light went out, and the outside release button didn't open the door. This happens because the wire loom between the car body and the door has to make an infernal bend, as the car door closes. The wire looks to be normal car wiring, but for a tight bend like this, it should have been special flexible weave of copper conductor, and super flexible insulation. This type of wire exists in other industries, but is not common in car looms, because its usually not needed. I don't think this is planned obsolescence, just a hasty design to avoid ballooning development costs and time. Whatever the reason, many older Vipers are losing door functions out of warranty, and here is a simple way to fix it. You can have a new loom installed, I heard it costs about $200. But that will be the same type of wire, and it will fail again. So I quit being lazy, and decided to do it myself and save money and mostly, time lost with my Viper in someones' shop. You most likely don't need a schematic to do this repair.

Here is picture showing the super tight bend the wires have to make as the door is closed. The design forces the wires to make a 180 degree bend in a three inch length, and this goes beyond the design spec of the wire, and any reasonable hopes of longevity. The place where the wires snap from fatigue is right in the center of the boot, where the wires make the tightest bend. Damm auto focus!
7642006_0410repair_door_loom0015-med.JPG


Materials needed- You need to have a 25watt soldering iron, about $8 at Radio Shack, (the one in the picture is rechargable, about $50) some rosin core solder, some heat shrink, about $2.50, again from Radio Shack, some 18 or 20 gauge stranded wire, (uh, huh, Radio Shack), a 5/16" nut driver or socket, some strippers, (Thats not for a bachelors' party, they are for stripping the insulation off the wires), about 10 or 12 bucks from R.S., and a hair dryer or heat gun like the one shown. Note that the power window wires are thicker than the rest, because of the higher current draw, and I don't know what that gauge is, possibly 16. If you are fixing a power window wire break, you will need the thicker gauge. You can tell by examining the end of the broken wire, and buy new wire that matches the thickness of the copper strands.
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First, you need to remove the gill piece just forward of the door, by removing the 5 body screws with the nut driver or socket. Each screw on mine had a horseshoe shaped shim between the body and the gill piece, be careful to save these for reassembly.
7642006_0410repair_door_loom0001-med.JPG

While you have the gill off, its a good time to adjust the door hinge, if you need it.
door adjustment instructions

Next step, loosen the boot ends, (or bulbs), from the car body and the door, by squeezing the bulb sides together, and massaging them out.
7642006_0410repair_door_loom0002-med.JPG


Now you can see the wires, where they run through the boot. Tug on each of the wires gently, one at a time. Any broken ones will pull out of the boot easily. Needle nose pliers may help. Pull the wires out of each end of the boot.
7642006_0410repair_door_loom0003-med.JPG


Strip the wire ends, maybe 3/16" long each. Make sure you use the right size hole on the strippers for the gauge of the wire you are stripping, as you don't want to lose any conductors. Strip each end of the broken wire(s). Darn auto focus works crappy in low light. Sigh...Someday I'll figure out the manual focus...Onward...
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Wires stripped, ready for splicing. Sorry 'bout the fuzziness.
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Cut some spare wire from your roll to make splices, maybe 10" long each for ease of handling. You can always cut off any excess if they are too long. Fish these through the boot, so that you end up with a few inches of wire coming out of each end of the boot to solder the splices to. Taping the ends together helps them get through the boot. Needle nose pliers help to grab the wire ends inside the boot. Shove them through from one side as far as you can, then look in the other end of the boot, and see if you can snag the other end of your splice wire with the needle nose pliers and pull it all the way through. You need one splice extension for each broken wire that you found. I thought I had three broken ones because I had three failed functions, but there ended up being four, possibly the power and return lines for one single function accounted for the fourth wire. Splice extensions pulled through boot, stripped and ready for heat shrink tubing.
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Install some heat shrink tubing over the wires, about 1.5" long each, pushing them down far enough over the wires so the heat of the soldering won't begin to shrink the tubing before you want it to. You need two pieces for every broken wire, one on each side of the boot.
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With heat shrink installed on each end of every splice extension, we are ready for soldering now.
7642006_0410repair_door_loom0009-med.JPG


Twist the wire ends together to make a strong mechanical union, before applying solder. You need to tug on your extensions, to make sure you are soldering the correct wires together. For example, I had a green wire with a dark stripe, and also a green wire with a light colored stripe. Don't cross them up. If you are not looking closely, you might accidently switch them, so make sure that the proper wires are rejoined together with your splices, identifying each one before soldering, making sure that your splices join the correct ones. Before you apply solder, protect your carpet from molten solder with something non-flammable. I used some canvas. Solder the splice extension on each side of the boot, one end to the wire coming out of the body, and one end to the wire coming out of the door.
7642006_0410repair_door_loom0010-med.JPG


Wires all soldered, ready for heat shrinking. Let the solder joints cool down, then slide the heat shrink tubing down, centering them on the solder splices.
7642006_0410repair_door_loom0012-med.JPG


Carefully apply some heat, just enough to contract the heat shrink tubing. Don't heat up your carpet or door seals!
7642006_0410repair_door_loom0013-med.JPG


Now we are all heat shrunk, and ready to tuck the excess wire into the body. (While I was doing this, I found the fourth broken wire!) Tuck the excess wire into the body, and the other end into the door. You don't want to tuck them into the boot, because it is already very tight in there, and you don't want your splices to be subject to flexing.
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Shove the boot ends fully back into their respective holes, put the gill piece back on and go for a drive, enjoying your restored functionality!
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KWIK96

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Good job Vic.
Did mine a month or so ago. It is amazing how the wires clean snap almost as though cut with sidecutters.
 
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Vic

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Good job Vic.
Did mine a month or so ago.
You are one of those can-do types! :)

Hope this thread helps someone who just needs a little direction. Might save 'em money.



[/QUOTE]It is amazing how the wires clean snap almost as though cut with sidecutters.

[/QUOTE]

Exactly what I thought, they were cut clean and square! And all at exactly the same spot. Uncanny.
 

ViperDave

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Great post, did mine last month also, didn't replace the wire, but rather just soldered them back together, in hindsight i will probably have to be back in there someday to fix it again. At least i will know what i am doing next time so i can skip the trauma of stripping the door down to find a problem which was somewhere else.

It would be good if your post was moved into the illustrated upgrades as it is so clear and it looks as if this will be happening to more and more as the cars reach that age.
 
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Vic

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You too, Dave? Wow, must be a more common problem than I thought!

Like you, I was going to attack the problems by opening up the door panel, but thought I'd give this a try first. I was suprised that all three of my problems were due to broken wires, but also kinda stoked that the door didn't need surgery!
 

GTSnake

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Re: Lost a door speaker? Door button inop? How to fix your door loom wiring

I've done 3 on my door so far. That's one of the joys of owning a Viper.

The problem is not only common, it's an epidemic.
 

ViperDave

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Re: Lost a door speaker? Door button inop? How to fix your door loom wiring

I was fooled by the apparent condition of the wires and harness when i pulled back the boot at the door end, it looked perfect and i could not dislodge any wires with reasonable force. it wasn't until after drawing a blank elsewhere i decided i would have to remove the gill to try and get the other end of the boot off that i managed to separate it from the body and found two almost cut like breaks and a further one about to go. The quality of the wire was not good, fairly stiff with oxidization on the strands making it harder to solder.
Taped it up good and proper when done to try and hold all the wires together more to help them support each other and hopefully try and spread some of the stress.
 

2BADD 4U

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Re: Lost a door speaker? Door button inop? How to fix your door loom wiring

Vic!

That was a GREAT post and very imformative!

You da MAN!!! :2tu:


Dave
 
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Vic

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Re: Lost a door speaker? Door button inop? How to fix your door loom wiring

Wow, so many people have had this happen to them, its kinda shocking!

Thanks for reading! :laugh:
 

GTS Dean

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Re: Lost a door speaker? Door button inop? How to fix your door loom wiring

This problem happened to my car within the last month! Thanks for the writeup, Vic.
 

Batboy

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Re: Lost a door speaker? Door button inop? How to fix your door loom wiring

This happened to mine as well. To have a Viper Tech cost me $200 (2 hours). So, that's how much you save by doing it yourself. Good job!
 

ByteMe

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Re: Lost a door speaker? Door button inop? How to fix your door loom wiring

Both times my door failed both myself and the tech thought it would be this problem, but neither one was. The first time the door latch was jamming and the second time the microswitch for the door open button failed. The button failure was pretty humorous because tapping on the door at the right location caused the door to open - sort of like the Fonzy effect.
 

alexander m embry

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My 2001 GTS had the same thing go wrong..but i had read about all the viper owners having this problem that i deceided to make a wiring harness that runs the length of the door boot so if it fails again i only have to unplug the harness and plug in a new one. One draw back was that i had to cut the boot on the underside belly so to have easy access to remove and reinstall.
 
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