Tailgate removal V50

[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

[IainG]

Hi
Would be tempted to get a diagram Haynes/ on line to identify the purpose of each coloured wire on the car loom first.
Take off the inner panel form the old tailgate and test and confirm where each of the wires actually goes. Or as many as you can. Then on the replacement tailgate do the same in reverse and mark up each of the 10 black wires. Use a meter on ohms to follow each black wire and label it.
Don't cut your wires too short, leave pleanty of length. Solder and heatshrink each join. Take your time and draw a diagram before you start. You will also have the screenwash pipe to reconnect.
One question before you start. Are there the same number of wires on your car as on the replacement tailgate. i.e. Is it the same spec?
I assume wiring will do
Numberplate light
High level stop light
Lock and lock release switch ( not sure if there is a deadlock as well??)
Windscreen wiper
Tailgate "shut" switch
Heated rear window
Possibly something else??

Just make a diagram showing wire colours for each of these circuits on the car and then label up the black wires to identify, then just join them.
Personally I would strip back all the ends of the wires and slide on a piece of heatshrink for each of the joins. If you are tight for space the joins can be staggered. i.e. Not all the joins in exactly the same place. I do twist the bare wires together before soldering. Slide on and shrink the heat-shrink
Disconnect the battery first just in case. If you want to be sure as you go along you can test each circuit after you have connected it. Just make sure the other bare wires are not touching anything as you test each circuit. Also don't shut the new tailgate until you have proved the lock assembly works correctly first. Also just do the initial shut and opening without the tailgate trim fitted in face you do have a problem. You could still have some access from inside the car to sort.
Leave yourself plenty of time and good luck
Just a last thought, check the black wires in case they are numbered. Some have small numbers running the length of the wire to identify them. If they are numbered it will make life easier in identifying each circuit as it will be easier to identify the other end of the wire visually.

[Johneym]

Iain,
thank you so much for the long informative post. I really appreciate it. Great advice.
Not sure what you mean by following the coloured wires from the loom first.
I have a volt/ohm meter which I have never used. What ohm setting should I use when checking for current?
The new and old are the very same wires. Incidentally, 3 are thicker and 7 thinner. Any significance there?
One of the thicker wires does indeed have numbers.
Most important for me at the moment is the tailgate lock switch and upper brake light. Tell me , is it possible to test one by one simply by switching on ie the brake light(keeping the brake pressed) and then touch each wire in turn to an opposite one, then switching on ignition at each touch, to see if it lights, in which case I will know the correct one?
Cheers,
John

[Mikemcgann]

hi.
Long time lurker here but I feel compelled to join now. Haven't found a definitive answer to my issue.
I have a similar issue to the above poster. I have a 2009 v50 with a damaged tailgate. A farmer up the road has an old one he uses around the farm only, 2008 I think. He has told me I can swap the tailgates if I want. The issue is the wiring. Is there a wiring connection block somewhere in the car or the tailgate? What's the simplest way with least damage risk, of getting to it? So far I have just removed the interior roof panel and seen all the black wires talked about above.
Any help would be very welcome.
Sorry for hijacking thread but maybe it will help everyone.
Thanks,
Mike.

[Teddy1975]

Tailgate wiring is like the attached picture. There should be a multi-pin connector in the left-hand side of the car, 64/48, and the single wire that goes to the right-hand side of the car is likely a ground wire (I haven't checked my car to see if that's what it is, it might also be an antenna wire).

What the pins in the connector are is described in the other attachment.


This is for cars from 2008 and up.

[IainG]

Hi

Not sure what you mean by following the coloured wires from the loom first.

On the old tailgate just to confirm/ prove double check where they go and what circuit they control.

[Mikemcgann]

Thank you Teddy. Very good of you to send the diagramme. I have the rear roof panel removed, which is not very large, but the wires just pass parallel with the car ie back to front inside the open panel. The rest of the roof appears to be all the one piece, which is very large given the roof size. Have you any idea how to get to this multi pin connector?.
The numbers you gave me 64/48 and the numbers on your chart, what do they refer to?
Thanks a lot,
Mike

[Teddy1975]

The numbers in the first row of the table (under No.) is the pin in the connector.
The second row tells what component the other end of the wire connects to, and the number after the colon ( : ) says which pin it connects to in the plug on the component.

The third row describes the colour of the wire. OG-BK = Orange/Black, BK = Black, OG-BU = Orange/Blue.

All of that is from the Wiring Diagram for P1 cars that I've downloaded from a Volvo support website, which I can't recall right now.

If you have removed the panel over the tailgate, you can shine a light in over the D pillar panel, into the corner of the car roof. You should be able to see the connector in there. Accessing it requires removing the D pillar panel, which I haven't done myself, but there should be no need to drop the headliner to access this plug.

Best of luck.

[Johneym]

Thanks Teddy, you are a shrine of info. This has helped me a lot too. I notice there are 2 connectors on the car side. 1 of them is the red highlighted one, however, on the other side of the roof there is a connector too. According to your drawing,this appears to be halfway between the c and d pillars up at roof level. It also appears to be much more difficult to get at. Have you any idea of how to get to this?

Thanks,

John

[Teddy1975]

I just had a look in my car and I think you would probably need to lower the rearmost part of the headliner to get to that connector.

You might be able to do this by removing the D pillar top trim pieces on both left and right hand sides and carefully reach in from the back making sure not to stress the headliner too much in the process, but it might be better to search for how to replace the headliner, as the removal steps should be described in those posts.