Vic
VCA Venom Member
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My GTS had three things wrong in the drivers' door-The speaker quit working, the lock status light went out, and the outside release button didn't open the door. This happens because the wire loom between the car body and the door has to make an infernal bend, as the car door closes. The wire looks to be normal car wiring, but for a tight bend like this, it should have been special flexible weave of copper conductor, and super flexible insulation. This type of wire exists in other industries, but is not common in car looms, because its usually not needed. I don't think this is planned obsolescence, just a hasty design to avoid ballooning development costs and time. Whatever the reason, many older Vipers are losing door functions out of warranty, and here is a simple way to fix it. You can have a new loom installed, I heard it costs about $200. But that will be the same type of wire, and it will fail again. So I quit being lazy, and decided to do it myself and save money and mostly, time lost with my Viper in someones' shop. You most likely don't need a schematic to do this repair.
Here is picture showing the super tight bend the wires have to make as the door is closed. The design forces the wires to make a 180 degree bend in a three inch length, and this goes beyond the design spec of the wire, and any reasonable hopes of longevity. The place where the wires snap from fatigue is right in the center of the boot, where the wires make the tightest bend. Damm auto focus!
Materials needed- You need to have a 25watt soldering iron, about $8 at Radio Shack, (the one in the picture is rechargable, about $50) some rosin core solder, some heat shrink, about $2.50, again from Radio Shack, some 18 or 20 gauge stranded wire, (uh, huh, Radio Shack), a 5/16" nut driver or socket, some strippers, (Thats not for a bachelors' party, they are for stripping the insulation off the wires), about 10 or 12 bucks from R.S., and a hair dryer or heat gun like the one shown. Note that the power window wires are thicker than the rest, because of the higher current draw, and I don't know what that gauge is, possibly 16. If you are fixing a power window wire break, you will need the thicker gauge. You can tell by examining the end of the broken wire, and buy new wire that matches the thickness of the copper strands.
First, you need to remove the gill piece just forward of the door, by removing the 5 body screws with the nut driver or socket. Each screw on mine had a horseshoe shaped shim between the body and the gill piece, be careful to save these for reassembly.
While you have the gill off, its a good time to adjust the door hinge, if you need it.
door adjustment instructions
Next step, loosen the boot ends, (or bulbs), from the car body and the door, by squeezing the bulb sides together, and massaging them out.
Now you can see the wires, where they run through the boot. Tug on each of the wires gently, one at a time. Any broken ones will pull out of the boot easily. Needle nose pliers may help. Pull the wires out of each end of the boot.
Strip the wire ends, maybe 3/16" long each. Make sure you use the right size hole on the strippers for the gauge of the wire you are stripping, as you don't want to lose any conductors. Strip each end of the broken wire(s). Darn auto focus works crappy in low light. Sigh...Someday I'll figure out the manual focus...Onward...
Wires stripped, ready for splicing. Sorry 'bout the fuzziness.
Cut some spare wire from your roll to make splices, maybe 10" long each for ease of handling. You can always cut off any excess if they are too long. Fish these through the boot, so that you end up with a few inches of wire coming out of each end of the boot to solder the splices to. Taping the ends together helps them get through the boot. Needle nose pliers help to grab the wire ends inside the boot. Shove them through from one side as far as you can, then look in the other end of the boot, and see if you can snag the other end of your splice wire with the needle nose pliers and pull it all the way through. You need one splice extension for each broken wire that you found. I thought I had three broken ones because I had three failed functions, but there ended up being four, possibly the power and return lines for one single function accounted for the fourth wire. Splice extensions pulled through boot, stripped and ready for heat shrink tubing.
Install some heat shrink tubing over the wires, about 1.5" long each, pushing them down far enough over the wires so the heat of the soldering won't begin to shrink the tubing before you want it to. You need two pieces for every broken wire, one on each side of the boot.
With heat shrink installed on each end of every splice extension, we are ready for soldering now.
Twist the wire ends together to make a strong mechanical union, before applying solder. You need to tug on your extensions, to make sure you are soldering the correct wires together. For example, I had a green wire with a dark stripe, and also a green wire with a light colored stripe. Don't cross them up. If you are not looking closely, you might accidently switch them, so make sure that the proper wires are rejoined together with your splices, identifying each one before soldering, making sure that your splices join the correct ones. Before you apply solder, protect your carpet from molten solder with something non-flammable. I used some canvas. Solder the splice extension on each side of the boot, one end to the wire coming out of the body, and one end to the wire coming out of the door.
Wires all soldered, ready for heat shrinking. Let the solder joints cool down, then slide the heat shrink tubing down, centering them on the solder splices.
Carefully apply some heat, just enough to contract the heat shrink tubing. Don't heat up your carpet or door seals!
Now we are all heat shrunk, and ready to tuck the excess wire into the body. (While I was doing this, I found the fourth broken wire!) Tuck the excess wire into the body, and the other end into the door. You don't want to tuck them into the boot, because it is already very tight in there, and you don't want your splices to be subject to flexing.
Shove the boot ends fully back into their respective holes, put the gill piece back on and go for a drive, enjoying your restored functionality!
Here is picture showing the super tight bend the wires have to make as the door is closed. The design forces the wires to make a 180 degree bend in a three inch length, and this goes beyond the design spec of the wire, and any reasonable hopes of longevity. The place where the wires snap from fatigue is right in the center of the boot, where the wires make the tightest bend. Damm auto focus!
Materials needed- You need to have a 25watt soldering iron, about $8 at Radio Shack, (the one in the picture is rechargable, about $50) some rosin core solder, some heat shrink, about $2.50, again from Radio Shack, some 18 or 20 gauge stranded wire, (uh, huh, Radio Shack), a 5/16" nut driver or socket, some strippers, (Thats not for a bachelors' party, they are for stripping the insulation off the wires), about 10 or 12 bucks from R.S., and a hair dryer or heat gun like the one shown. Note that the power window wires are thicker than the rest, because of the higher current draw, and I don't know what that gauge is, possibly 16. If you are fixing a power window wire break, you will need the thicker gauge. You can tell by examining the end of the broken wire, and buy new wire that matches the thickness of the copper strands.
First, you need to remove the gill piece just forward of the door, by removing the 5 body screws with the nut driver or socket. Each screw on mine had a horseshoe shaped shim between the body and the gill piece, be careful to save these for reassembly.
While you have the gill off, its a good time to adjust the door hinge, if you need it.
door adjustment instructions
Next step, loosen the boot ends, (or bulbs), from the car body and the door, by squeezing the bulb sides together, and massaging them out.
Now you can see the wires, where they run through the boot. Tug on each of the wires gently, one at a time. Any broken ones will pull out of the boot easily. Needle nose pliers may help. Pull the wires out of each end of the boot.
Strip the wire ends, maybe 3/16" long each. Make sure you use the right size hole on the strippers for the gauge of the wire you are stripping, as you don't want to lose any conductors. Strip each end of the broken wire(s). Darn auto focus works crappy in low light. Sigh...Someday I'll figure out the manual focus...Onward...
Wires stripped, ready for splicing. Sorry 'bout the fuzziness.
Cut some spare wire from your roll to make splices, maybe 10" long each for ease of handling. You can always cut off any excess if they are too long. Fish these through the boot, so that you end up with a few inches of wire coming out of each end of the boot to solder the splices to. Taping the ends together helps them get through the boot. Needle nose pliers help to grab the wire ends inside the boot. Shove them through from one side as far as you can, then look in the other end of the boot, and see if you can snag the other end of your splice wire with the needle nose pliers and pull it all the way through. You need one splice extension for each broken wire that you found. I thought I had three broken ones because I had three failed functions, but there ended up being four, possibly the power and return lines for one single function accounted for the fourth wire. Splice extensions pulled through boot, stripped and ready for heat shrink tubing.
Install some heat shrink tubing over the wires, about 1.5" long each, pushing them down far enough over the wires so the heat of the soldering won't begin to shrink the tubing before you want it to. You need two pieces for every broken wire, one on each side of the boot.
With heat shrink installed on each end of every splice extension, we are ready for soldering now.
Twist the wire ends together to make a strong mechanical union, before applying solder. You need to tug on your extensions, to make sure you are soldering the correct wires together. For example, I had a green wire with a dark stripe, and also a green wire with a light colored stripe. Don't cross them up. If you are not looking closely, you might accidently switch them, so make sure that the proper wires are rejoined together with your splices, identifying each one before soldering, making sure that your splices join the correct ones. Before you apply solder, protect your carpet from molten solder with something non-flammable. I used some canvas. Solder the splice extension on each side of the boot, one end to the wire coming out of the body, and one end to the wire coming out of the door.
Wires all soldered, ready for heat shrinking. Let the solder joints cool down, then slide the heat shrink tubing down, centering them on the solder splices.
Carefully apply some heat, just enough to contract the heat shrink tubing. Don't heat up your carpet or door seals!
Now we are all heat shrunk, and ready to tuck the excess wire into the body. (While I was doing this, I found the fourth broken wire!) Tuck the excess wire into the body, and the other end into the door. You don't want to tuck them into the boot, because it is already very tight in there, and you don't want your splices to be subject to flexing.
Shove the boot ends fully back into their respective holes, put the gill piece back on and go for a drive, enjoying your restored functionality!
