Severed wiring leading to hatch, strange problems - Impreza Outback Sport 97

Has anyone else had a similar problem with their impreza wagon? Over a period of many months, I noticed the following problems:

- the interior light stopped going on when the hatch was open

- the rear wiper motor stopped working

- the rear lock stopped working with the remote control (it still worked with the key, just not the keyless entry)

- the rear window sprayer stopped spraying

Since none of these failures were anything more than an inconvenience, I really didn't feel like paying someone to fix them. I finally decided to fix the rear wiper myself since it was a relatively easy job. I replaced the motor, but it didn't fix the problem. This is where everything got really strange. During this process, I noticed some wiper fluid dripping out from a hole in the bottom of the hatch. I felt around inside the hatch and realized it was flowing down the inside of the hatch from the top of the hatch. I removed the rubber cover between the car body and the inside of the top of the hatch on the drivers side. The only thing inside that rubber cover was the wiper fluid line leading to the rear window and it was severed. It looked like it was compressed to the point of cutting through the line. After seeing this, I removed the rubber wiring cover on the other side of the top of the hatch and sure enough 6 out of the 9 or so wires inside were also severed. They all seemed to have been compressed by something to the point of being cut.

It is quite possible that when the hatch is closed, it is applying too much pressure to these wires/tubes and causing them to be cut. It is also possible, but seems less likely, that this could have been someone tampering with the car. Any thoughts? Any similar experiences? Any chance that I can get this fixed for free on a 9 year old car(unlikely, I realize, but it does seem like a manufacturer defect)?

Reply to
frisbeepappy
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Hmmmm.....is it possible that someone used the car while you were out of town and had a wreck, got the car repaired, and said nothing to you about it? I got nuthin'

Carl

Reply to
Carl 1 Lucky Texan

It may have been made wrong, routing those through a pinch point instead of the proper channel. In the alt.autos.volvo forum broken wires in wagons at the tailgate hinge are pretty common, though.

Mike

Reply to
Michael Pardee

Terrific. Bright minds at Subaru removed the mechanical rear locks on late impreza wagons: if this happens on mine I won't be able to open the rear gate at all !

Reply to
Body Roll

Sounds like somehow the wiring harness and juice tube got mis-routed. Instead of being the torsion joint you like to see it became a folding joint, and over time caused fatigue in the wires and even the plastic tubing.

Easiest thing will be to go to a junk yard and get a new harness rather than trying to repair all those wires. Most important point is to get them routed properly after the replacement. You will probably see the proper routing as you take the wires off the car at the junk yard. Alternately, get it repaired by a mechanic. Its not a repair that requires any high amount of Subaru knowledge.

Reply to
dnoyeB

Common problem on the early cars. On my 10-year-old it failed first whilst still just under warrantly and the cable was replaced. Went again a few years later. Haven't bothered to do anything about it.

Reply to
David Betts

Thanks for all your replies. The wires definitely go through the correct point on the car and hatch because the rubber covering only fits into one place on the car and the hatch. I doubt it was caused by a malicious act or accident. And it really doesn't look like the wires get compressed a whole lot like I first thought might have happened. The most likely reason that I've heard is that they broke due the stress from the range of motion they go through whenever the hatch is opened and closed. The range of motion combined with the aging, increasingly brittle, wires caused them to break.

So I soldered them back together, I just didn't have the heart to pull new wires through the frame. I guess the best way to keep wires from breaking is to only open the hatch when you really need to? Sigh... I wish I didn't love my Subaru so much, because then I could just get rid of it. Here's hoping it doesn't happen again.

Reply to
frisbeepappy

Pulling a new harness thru there wouldn't be of any advantage, as long as you did a good job on the repair.

I had tailgate wires in a Cherokee crap out in similar fashion, after 10 or 12 years...the symptom that got me looking into it was really odd, too--IIRC, the rear parking lights illuminated dimly when the tailgate was fully opened, even with key-out/ignition off...it had me scratching my head for a while.

The fix was still good this year (over ten years later) when I bartered the Jeep off.

Reply to
CompUser

Its not that they are not going through the correct hole, its that they are not going through the hole correctly. You should make sure the wires do not bend like an elbow, but instead are aligned so that they twist like a wrist. A racheting action at a right angle or thereabouts.

Solder at the break point will be even faster to fail than before. I would have put a new harness in. Would have been no harder than soldering if you can find all the clips. Most important is to ensure the type of stress put on the wires when the door is operated.

Reply to
dnoyeB

dnoye is quite correct; soldering the wires will fix the problem, but it probably won't last very long.

Two things contribute to failure at this flexure. The most obvious is the way the wires "lay" as they exit the "D" pillar and enter the rubber boot; if they are kinked here, they won't last very long. The less obvious problem is that it is a horrendous b___h to snake the harness down thru the "D" pillar (at least it was on the 94ish Legacy wagon that I installed a hatch on a few weeks ago); there are sharp sheet metal edges that grab and frequently scrape and/or cut thru the wire insulation; conductors as well if you tug hard enough, I'd suppose.

Even so, in the long run your best bet will probably be to replace the harness, being very careful not to cut anything, both when you pull the replacement harness out of the donor vehicle, and when you reinstall it in yours. Keep working at it until you get the wire bundle to run smoothly between the chassis and hatch, and you should have a long lasting fix.

It occurs to me that a creative person could probably make their own harness by soldering the appropriate connectors onto their own wire. Soldered connections would be OK in this application, as they wouldn't be subject to repetitive bending, and you could pull all of the wires thru before installing the connectors, which would greatly simplify that task. If you decide to try this, see if you can'f find some of the teflon jacketed wire (an electronics surplus store?); it will be considerably more expensive, but will be much easier to work with, and less likely to abrade or cut during installation.

Good luck.

ByeBye! S. Steve Jernigan KG0MB Laboratory Manager Microelectronics Research University of Colorado (719) 262-3101

Reply to
S

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