Tailgate removal

[Macer1977]

I reversed my XC90 into a tree today, the glass has gone and the top spoiler is badly damaged, so the whole lot is going to need replacing.......I have bought a complete replacement upper tailgate on Ebay. Do anyone have a step by step of how to remove and replace?
thanks

[Heliski22]

No reply?

I had a similar problem some weeks ago - damaged tailgate - but, in my case, it was due to reversing (or trying to) out the garage door with the tailgate open! Fortunately, it was still fit to be closed and has remained so for the last couple of weeks.

Like you, I found a replacement via eBay and just this afternoon started to dismantle the replacement on the garage floor preparatory to changing it over. I figured this would also give me an opportunity to find my way around the various fixtures and fittings too. It seemed straightforward enough, remove all the interior panels, unplug the various electrical connectors, slide the loom out through one of the screen pillars, do the same on the door still on the car, swap them over and re-assemble.

However, there is no way the wiring harness is going up through the pillar, (a) the plugs won't fit in at the bottom end and (b) it seems to have a hidden fixing in the pillar which won't allow it to move anyway...!

Am I missing something? Is it necessary to remove the rear glass in order to extricate the wiring harness? Keep in mind there is no connector plug between the tailgate and the main body.

22

[owenfackrell]

Just a thought. There isn’t a connector somewhere inside the car? Thinking how the cars are assembled with the doors, boot, bonnet just bolted on after being assembled elsewhere.

[Heliski22]

Yes, you're right, Owenf...

I discovered it all today. Up until 2010 the connector block was behind the rear ceiling panel, the one with the interior light. Post 2010 it is at the end of a long four foot (-ish) section of wiring harness that disappears down behind the rear pillar to a couple of connector blocks.

Problem for me now is that the harness in my replacement tailgate was cut out of the donor car about two or three inches shy of the connector blocks.

So, swapping the tailgates over is physically easy but I need to ponder whether snipping the plugs (plus a suitable length of wiring) off the end of the harness that came out of the car and re-joining with properly soldered and sealed will be any problem seeing as everything is so heavily computerised and with modern wiring - I presume that I am simply reading too much into that.

[owenfackrell]

Swiss might be the bet to advise on this as he’s an electrical engineer I believe but i cant see it being a problem to break and rejoin the wires properly.

[Heliski22]

Nor me, frankly.

There's a good bit of panel removal to get at the various plugs as they're behind the side panel over the left rear wheel arch so it's easy to see why they were cut where they were.

There is still the problem of identifying the ends of the cut wires and where they go to as there seems to be no numbering (they're all white) except at the ends. However, some time and patience with a multi-meter should fix that.

As far as I can see, everything in the tailgate is 12V supply/activation - wiper motor, rear door lock, interior door panel light, heated rear screen, top brake light - rather than part of any safety sensing such as the wires into the rear seat belts, for example which, if unplugged, will trigger a message on the dash.

Without the tools (and no great desire to have to buy them) removing the screens seems a much more troublesome route to go.

Thanks for the reply!

22

[Heliski22]

All done, cutting and rejoining with solder seems to have worked.

The replacement tailgate is on the car and everything appears to be functioning normally. Services affected included the heated rear screen, rear wiper, door lock, number plate lights, top brake light and the courtesy light on the inside of the tailgate

A little bit tedious with thirteen wires and therefore 26 labelled ends to manage in a small space.

I had found (and paid for) some wiring diagrams online which helped me resolve one mismatch but all well in the end.

I suppose I shall be sniffing around the left rear corner of the car for a while wondering if something is burning or not...!

[SwissXC90]

Originally Posted by owenfackrell

Swiss might be the bet to advise on this as he’s an electrical engineer I believe but i cant see it being a problem to break and rejoin the wires properly.

There’s no issues with joining wires together to repair a loom. As long as the joins are soldered and properly insulated.
And a tailgate without backup camera is simple.
The backup camera cable would be more of an effort to join, but still possible.

As for wiring diagrams, I recommend asking the forum before paying anyone.....

[Heliski22]

Originally Posted by SwissXC90

There’s no issues with joining wires together to repair a loom. As long as the joins are soldered and properly insulated.
And a tailgate without backup camera is simple.
The backup camera cable would be more of an effort to join, but still possible.

As for wiring diagrams, I recommend asking the forum before paying anyone.....

Thanks for all that Swiss, it's reassuring.

I went looking online while under a little bit of pressure after realising I had a mismatch which I really didn't want to try guessing my way out of. Without definite information, I might as well have been looking under a bush.

I didn't pay much though...!

[Johneym]

Hello Lads,
Volvo v50 2009

want to change tailgate as damaged. Guy in scrapyard removed an interior roof panel just inside the tailgate door, cut the bunch of wires there then removed the tailgate , all from doner car.
Was not best pleased at the wire cutting as thought there may be more to it than that. But on the positive side I thought maybe save a bit of time as no need to remove tailgate panels etc, just do as he did and join up the wires in the same place on my car.
Imagine my disappointment on opening the outer protection tape only to discover all the wires are black !! 10 black wires. What happened to coloured wires?
Would appreciate advice on what to do.
Many thanks,
John