Rover owners: Tailgate Wiring Repair

The rear wash/wipe hasn't worked on my 214 for a very long time. The wiring loom that crosses between the body and tailgate on the right side was a horrible mess. I could see at least one broken wire and a few old dodgy repairs. I decided it was time to sort it out properly so I bought some stuff and then waited three weekends for it to stop raining!

There are 10 wires in the loom of different sizes so I bought 3 gauges of wire from Halfords (the spools contain around 5m for less than 4 quid each) and two sizes of heat-shrink insulation from eBay.

The first task is to remove the earth strap from the battery. Then the four bits of plastic trim from the tailgate - a few screws and clips (very easy). Next pull away some of rubber seal from around the right side of the body, pull out the plastic trim from the inside of the rear pillar and pull down some of the corner of the headlining.

Inside the bottom of the tailgate unplug the electrical block connector and spade connector. Then I tied a cord around the plug so that when I pulled it down into the tailgate I could retrieve it later. This will give you 3 or 4 inches of spare wire to work with at the end of the loom you are going to fix. Now be brave and cut all the wires removing all damaged parts and cut back some of the hard plastic sheath.

Working inside the car I then used twist and solder joints to extend all the wires by approx 12 inches. Don't forget to put the heat-shrink on! The 10 new wires can then be pushed up through the holes into the gap between the body and tailgate and the other ends can be soldered. Take care about colour-coding and choosing the correct gauge of wire. There are 3 thin wires, 5 medium and 2 heavy. I think they were 5 amp, 8 amp and 14 amp but I would have to go out in the cold now to check. Two wires have the same colour code (grey & red I think it was) but they are different gauges.

Now it can all go back together so that only brand new wiring crosses the gap and can be neatly taped up. Everything works again although the rear washers took a bit more work to clear the lines after months (maybe years) of neglect. A worthwhile job that took a couple of hours and under a tenner in parts.

Cord connected to connector which is now inside tailgate.