V70 Driver's door sensor?

[Cubbington]

Evening Chaps,

@ Green Van Man, sounds like a good idea to use thicker cables where possible; you don’t really think how much stress they go under...vibration, temperature, humidity...just never had this happen before, so surprised!

@ Tatsfield, I’m sure you’re correct, but I’m expecting the call to say telling me that the loom’s been replaced and the fault’s still there...not that I’m being pessimistic!

I did ask about the humidity sensor and they’re not going to replace that until the loom’s replaced, the fault’s gone, and all fault codes are cleared.

Will report back when I have an update.

Cheers,

Nick

[richardt1994]

Hello All,

Have been away for a few days and since I cleaned and re-seated the multi connector on the driver's door the fault has not re-appeared. Keeping my fingers crossed. She is due her MOT at the end of April so may send her to Rigby Volvo and ask them to read any error codes relating to the drivers door sensor etc. I may be joining @Cubbington in ordering a wiring loom... :-) As GreenVanMan suggests I suspect that there is a cracked piece of copper somewhere in the wiring or connector that looks OK because it is covered in plastic. Having looked closely at the loom when the door is opened and closed it does flex a small distance every time and with a 9 year old car the door must have been opened and closed 1000's of times...

[Cubbington]

So, after receiving a call earlier in the week to let me know that Volvo Sweden had sent the wrong wiring loom, I got another call on Friday to say that the new loom had been fitted and the guess what? The fault's still there...

They've now told me that it looks like the lock they supplied is incorrect (apparently a chassis number cut off point for a different lock), so are waiting for another one to come in. Needless to say, I'm highly doubtful that's going to cure it either...

Anyway, at least they've put in me in a courtesy car; a brand new V40 Cross Country. It's a D2 auto, and it's surprising how that lighter car isn't that much slower than my weighty D5...brakes are also significantly better, so much so that on the way back from collecting it I called to ask them to check mine over.

Hopefully some good news later this week, but in the meantime, I've got a good few hundred miles to cover in the next few days, so will enjoy it in this new wagon :-)

Cheers,

Nick

[Cubbington]

Right, good news finally, the car is fixed!

I got a call yesterday letting me know that the lock I fitted was the correct one, just a newer version, which was obvious when replacing the old version without all the water seals covering it.

I was then asked if I would authorise the time involved to start removing the dash to check the wiring going further into the car, so gave them the go-ahead as the car needs to be fixed.

Another call late yesterday confirmed that they'd found that part of the wiring loom (I'm guessing leading to the driver's door) had been rubbing on the steering column, had shorted to ground, and in turn fried the CEM.

As promised, I got a call at around lunchtime today, letting me know that after replacing the CEM, and I assume repairing the wiring loom, the the car is now locking fully and all faults, including the humidity sensor have cleared!

This might explain the odd rubbing sound I've been hearing internally when spinning the wheel, which started a few weeks ago and is only noticeable when the car's been driven for a while; when I bought it, there was a USB charging cable poking out of the A-pillar, which I found was a 'Road Angel' charger that had been fitted, by the look of things, professionally, but I wanted rid of it, so removed it and maybe shifted something when I pulled it all out...

An expensive lesson learnt in assuming a part is faulty, inadvertently damaging another part replacing it, and also in removing previous modifications...

The garage have been methodical in their approach, finding what I was expecting to be one of those electrical gremlins that was going to rinse me of thousands and be uneconomical to repair a lot more quickly and cheaply than expected, so really pleased with the service. I've just got to get this V40 back to them before I get too used to it's comparatively ridiculous fuel-sipping economy!!!

Cheers,

Nick

[richardt1994]

Bad luck @Cubbington :-(
After 2 weeks fault free my identical problem has now become a 100% solid fault and the old girl will no longer lock as she believes the drivers door to be open no matter what. She is going in to Rigby Volvo in Birmingham tomorrow to be investigated....

[Cubbington]

Evening Richard,

Hey, it's fixed, so that's the main thing...the savings account will hurt for a little while, but you gotta look at these things pragmatically.

Sorry to hear the fault's come back permanently on yours, but hopefully having not gone down the route of randomly replacing and damaging parts, your final cost will be somewhat less than mine.

Please let us know how you get on.

Best,

Nick

[Cubbington]

Hi Richard,

Have you taken the car in yet?

I collected the car yesterday and had a quick chat with the technician who worked on it, and he told me that he’d actually taken the driver’s door off to inspect the loom in the a
A pillar.

Apparently it’s really easy to remove the door; just undo the bolts that hold the retaining strap, and the two bolts on the hinges and it comes right off, giving easy access to the connectors and loom.

Hope that helps, if it’s not in the garage already.

Nick

[richardt1994]

Hello,

The V70 was returned to me by Rigby Volvo yesterday all sorted :-) They had to order a lock assembly overnight from Volvo to prove that it wasn't the lock that was faulty - it wasn't the lock, as I suspected. They found that the problem was the large multi-pin connector that connects the wiring loom to the door at the hinge end. Their "electrics expert" said that it was just one wire broken away from the connector pin and that he was confident that stripping back the insulation and re-crimping the wire into the connector would work and be a lot cheaper than replacing the whole wiring loom. I agreed on the grounds that if it fails again we know where the problem lies and can replace the wiring loom. I will have to see if this proves to be a long lasting repair or not.

Hopefully I have had a lucky escape from a larger bill! I am assuming from the fingerprints left in the dirt around the door bolts that they removed the door to allow easy access to the wiring and connectors. However, I am well aware of my mechanical limitations and will take it back to Rigby if needed. They approached the problem logically, kept me regularly up to date with progress and their technicians did their best to minimise the cost.

[Cubbington]

Great result!

Nice that they we’re able to fix it quickly, fingers crossed you don’t need that loom.

Covered just under 200 mikes today, and have completely forgotten about the economy of that V40; so happy to be back in my squishy comfy mobile with it’s throaty D5 😃

Have a great weekend,

Nick

[richardt1994]

and you too :-)