Giulietta Tailgate Lock - Wouldn't open

[Bear157]

I'm not sure if any Oz Giulietta owners have had this problem, but whilst my Giulietta QV was still under warranty, I had the tailgate wiring 'fixed' as it would not open with the fob or the badge. The only way to open it was to crawl in through the rear seats and click the switch on the lock...not ideal.

Anyway, after it was repaired, I went along merrily for about a year and then it happened again...out of warranty this time. I asked my local Alfa service guy to look at it, but he said it might be best to let an auto electrician look at it. With me needing the car every day, this was proving to be a hassle, so I've just put up with it...until now.

A bit of googling and it turns out this is a reasonably common problem, not only for the Giulietta, but for many modern cars as they try and cram heaps of small wires into two gaiters either side. Eventually a wire or two beaks and lights, locks etc stop working. I was able to ascertain that the wiring for the lock is on the passengers (left) side looking at the rear. After pulling the gaiter gently out and unravelling the material tape (and all the poorly taped electrical tape from the warranty 'fix'), I carefully pulled on the wires until I found that the two thicker wires were broken. I spliced in some slightly longer and thicker (3mm instead of 2mm) wiring and re-attached the wires and everything is like new again...no, actually better.

Hopefully that will help anyone else that has this issue. If you have a soldering iron and a bit of patience you can solve this pretty easily. There are some new harness sets and gaiters on alfisti.net at about 70 euro plus postage, but you still have to pull the whole lot apart, connect and re-tape everything. For 40cm or so of wire, a bit of solder, some plastic wire shrink and a bit of time, you won't need to spend the money for an Auto Electrician to chase the problem.

[bonno]

Thanks for sharing and I am sure that future forum users will benefit from your experience.
cheers
bonno