Problem with Alarm going off Irratically / Boot Interior Light or High Level Brake Light not working

One of the reasons for the alarm going off irratically and the boot interior light or high level brake light not working is the way the electrical cables are run into the boot. They are tied to the left hand side boot hinge, and every time you open and close the boot, the wires are flexed, leading to the wires fraying and finally breaking. Apart from the lights, this affects the alarm system, triggering it randomly, and if more than one wire is damaged, it can also lead to shorting and fuses blowing.

Unclip the tie-wraps, remove any insulation tape and take the wires out of the protecting tube.

You can see one wire completely broken, and the insulation on the wire on the extreme right has split, baring the copper wire underneath.
The two wires on the extreme left are for the highlevel brake lights, and have been repaired earlier.


Rather than trying to join the two ends together, insert a small length of similar wire, so as to stop the resulting join being too short or tight. Use a multi-core wire, as these are more flexible. Before soldering, slip a length of shrink wrap onto one end of the wire and slide it out of the way, so that it is not affected by the heat of soldering.


Once you have soldered the ends together, slide the shrink wrap up into place, and then protect the other wires (and the bodywork) from being affected by the heat from a heat gun or hair drier.



Do the same with any other damaged wire.



Re-insert the wires back into the protective tubing and wrap with insulation tape. Then clip all the wiring back into place. Try not to make the lower fixing too tight, leaving it able to flex to some degree as you open and close the boot. You should be able to use the original fixing that fits into the hinge arm, by pulling the old cable loop out, and using a small tie-wrap through the remaining hole of the clip.