Door loom replacement kit vs complete loom

[ianlovatt]

I think the wiring has finally given out in the hinge/bellows section on driver's door. It's had various fault codes and lost speakers a while ago but now having locking issues.

Looking around online it's seems pointless to try to patch the 17year old wires and replacing the loom seems the only realistic option.

I can't decide whether to replace with a genuine loom (believe the part number is 8E1 971 029) vs buying a herth+buss loom kit 51277117

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Not too bothered about the price (assume new door loom is double the kit) but more about how straightforward and risky the job is to do. Replacing the door loom seems to involve extra disassembly and risks snapping bits that are working ok whereas the loom kit has the risk of sizing length of the wires and crimping but seems it might involve less unnecessary disassembly in hard to reach places in the door?

Any advice appreciated!

Cheers
Ian

[Larhal]

Hi Ian,

My driver side door lost all fundtion due to the wiring harnes. It was on a Sunday and my window was half open, couldent leave it at that time to repare the next week.

Had a wiring harness from the passanger door I replaced last year.

To make the work easer I pulled the trim from the inside of the door and the speaker to gain access to the wiring harnes. I removed the door, 2 bolts easy and unplug the harnes from the car, and put on a work table. My wires in the bellow were repaired by the previous owner about 11 years ago, but kind of shoddy repair. the old harnes from the passenger door was in very good condition. I cut the wires about 350mm from the plug. replaced the broken drivers side plug with the good one. I sodered the wires and used heat shrik tubing. All was well then I re wrapped the loom with electrical tape. re installed the door and all works well.

So for a repair kit I would say go for it. the reason the wires brake in the loom is that they flex alot. the repair kits, I will get one for my passwnger side door. The repair kit has
silicon covered wires. this will help with the flexing.

Good luck.

[ianlovatt]

Thanks for sharing your experience Larhal, good work sacrificing the passenger door to save the driver's one!

Yes the repair kit looms look like they come with tubing around the wires too which seems a good idea.

Pulled the bellows/cover bit off to confirm the problem and there are definitely some sad looking wires in there...
Shared album - ian lovatt - Google Photos

[Larhal]

Yes i see your problem. Go for the repair ki and you wont be dissatisfied.

[ianlovatt]

Bit of a post-match analysis here for anyone facing the same thing.

It seems the door loom is about £160 each and I think they are side specific ie.drivers and passenger side. My local Audi dealer parts office was a bit confused about what was the right thing to order and given the price I went for the kit I listed above. As both sides were indicating potential wiring issues I got two kits as the kits are not side specific so worst case if messed up I could have a second attempt at fixing driver's side which was causing the biggest issue (central locking)

The 2 kits were ~£100ish including postage from Germany (seems like the site I used was part of *******?)

Unfortunately as pictures linked to below show the pinout on the kits was different to what was on the car! As I didn't have the right tools I had to fettle with a sewing pin to remake the connectors - massive pain in the backside! Either way at the end of day 1 I had fixed the driver's side. Shame as the kits seems good quality I can only assume it's some differences in UK spec or model of my avant

Shared album - ian lovatt - Google Photos

I did the passenger side the next day and found signs of bodged door trim removal in the past and the speaker still doesn't work after fitting the replacement kit (what vcds was reporting before I started work) so not sure what the real problem is there.

Hope this helps someone
Cheers
Ian

[Larhal]

Hi Ian,

I have looked at the replacement ones also. There are at least 4 different ones supplied. It is hard to match them up. Good show fixing the loom . Really do not know about the speaker issue. Have you tried the other speaker (front) to see if it is a speaker problem?

[ianlovatt]

Larhal,
Yes I was looking at the different repair kits herth+buss offer and they claim one for the front doors and one for the rear and I definitely got the one their product listing said was for me (part number in previous post) but yes there were quite a few different companies offering them so we'll worth trying others.

Thanks yes I was thinking the same about trying the other speaker but can't bring myself to fight with both the door trims again just yet!

Cheers
Ian