volvo 240 - 2 failures

The wiring harnesses in the tailgate hinges have failed, it's a very common problem and an achiles heal of the car. Fortunately new harnesses are not expensive or particularly difficult to replace. There's one running through each hinge, if you open the gate you'll be able to see the break.

Thanks very very much for the extremely quick reply. Most useful. I shall check it out. So this would cause both faults would it?

And, probably your license plate light is out as well. They all go through the hinges...

Thanks very much for the information. Anything else that could have failed? We have had a red light warning come on today, probably unrelated.

The license plate light is still working, just checked :-)

Those harnesses run everything in the tailgate, window wiper, power lock, license plate light, center brake light, and the rear window defroster. Not all the wires will break at once but once one breaks the rest are not far behind.

Thankyou James and Clay. Too hot to be fiddling with the car this week, so shall take a look at it at the weekend when its a bit cooler :-) Shall phone the local dealer and ask for prices for a new piece.

Will we have to replace all the broken wires? that could be costly?

Dealer is probably $$$, I'd check FCP Groton or alloemvolvoparts.com personally. Post back if you need help replacing, it's not too hard but a helper will be needed to remove the tailgate and you have to mark the hinge positions to make alignment easier.

The wires are each part of a custom made harness, you just buy the two harnesses and they plug in at both ends. I think I paid about $45 for the pair last time I did one.

Ok thanks so much for your help. I will let you know how it goes.

I had wiper and lock problem. It was the passenger side (in the US) ie right side harness. I still haven't replaced the driver side (left) as it was more work.

Howard

Yeah I have the same problem and I traced it back to that area (hinges). I was not in handy with a new harness, but I found that you can pull some of of the wiring that is still protected and not broken through and place that in the hinge. I just spliced all of the connections together and then put them inside the tailgate. Now my rear wiper works! I spliced my defrost over as well but I wasn't sure if that works yet. Being summer and all I haven't had a chance to turn it on. :)

Howard Nels> I had wiper and lock problem. It was the passenger side (in the US) ie right

Not sure if you use eBay, but here it is.

Mwveenhu wrote:

Thanks. I am actually in the UK, but that picture gives me a good idea what we are looking for.

btw... I'm going after the wiring in my tailgate too. John Law pointed out to me the other night that my license plate light doesn't work. Any pointers on how to get the hatch release off? The panel is popped loose all around but I can't see how to get it past the handle.

It pops upward, it just press fits down onto a flange.

Sorry to be so long getting back to you but my Dad has only just had the chance to look at the car. After hours of trying to work out how to get to the harnesses and failing to do so, he pulled the roof overlay down and just under the roof there was an unplugged cable. He plugged it back in and everything worked. It seems over the years the foam protection around the two plugs had worn away and they were loose. Perhaps going over a speed bump or something made them finally come unplugged from each other. Was just a case of plugging them back into each other and put some binding tape around to keep them in place. Thanks for your help anyway and to everyone else. If someone has a problem database they could add it to the database as something which might be an issue.