donpb

The entire wiring loom wires are wrapped in cloth tape. I had to remove some of it in order to get to the broken wires. I'll be black electrical taping them back.

audiophool

Don't solder and heat shrink!!

The point where the solder wicks into the strands becomes a new point of failure. This is true of any wiring harness that is subject to flexing. Use a butt splice crimp (bare), and cover with adhesive lined heat shrink.

tstiglich

Agreed, to a point. If soldering, one would have to add a splice of wire of sufficient length such that the soldered ends are not subject to bending stress.

FormerE30Owner

You can also get heat shrinkable butt splice crimps. I have already done a bunch of wires in that same harness.

FormerE30Owner

But that point might be too far into the tube to be accessed. Better to butt crimp a long wire to both ends of the broken wire.

donpb

I was planning on using wire tap connectors but now butt crimp seems to be a better option. I had pulled the entire hardness out of the tube and so no problem getting to the wires. I haven't fixed it yet because I've been under the weather for a few days and also this isn't urgent. From the photo, you can see that I have two broken wires and two exposed.

scottalexander

I see your thick brown wire is fully cut in half.

When my trunk stop opening and I unraveled the wire loom, my brown wire was also cut in half.

That told me the brown wire was hanging on by a strand for a while (and the trunk still opened).

When my trunk opened I was not observant enough to see the 2 interior trunk lights were out (because those wires were cut in half).

This would have told me to unravel the loom a lot sooner.

donpb

@scottalexander Yeah this all first started awhile back with the left license plate light notification. But since there are two plate lights, I didn't really care much to fix it in a hurry. What got me moving forward recently though is the trunk would not open. I plan to butt crimp them bad boys this weekend.

scottalexander

The reason I added 5 inches of extra wire to the broken wires is because I refused to put back the black rubber grommet.

I wanted plenty of wire to move freely for flexibility around where the grommet used to fit.

donpb

I saw what you posted previously about it being the cause. I agreed. I'm definitely not putting that grommet back in.