Replacing the tailgate

[Mazzyh]

Hi

My tailgate has suffered major damage and it's easier to replace it than repair it. Has anyone got experience of this? It's a 72 plate pre facelift model.

My specific questions are:

How difficult is it to remove the trim to get to the nuts that hold tailgate to the body?

The two wiring looms - where is the best place to disconnect them? One has a connector near the door hinge area but the other doesn't, so how hard is it to extract the other one and rethread it into the new tailgate?

The replacement tailgate has everything on it thankfully but they cut the loom that isn't connected at the hinge area. Before I start damaging things, I thought it better to ask.

There's a very useful thread and linked webpage that rcEng provided about the trim on the lower part of the tailgate but beyond that, I'm in the dark.

Many thanks.

 

[Alb]

Does this help?

 

[Mazzyh]

Thank you!!! That's really helpful.

Thank you so much!

I'll report back when I've done it (or if I encounter any issues).

 

[Mazzyh]

Interestingly, what I thought was a cut loom is actually the washer pipe. The other two wires, which look like earthing wires are intact.

So far so good.

 

[Mazzyh]

I've replaced the tailgate. It was surprisingly easy. For anyone doing this in the future, here's some tips. The tailgate I got was complete with lights and wiring looms. The left one, which is the main loom has a plug in the end. The other, as I mentioned, has the screenwash house and a couple of wires.

Don't remove the interact loom - it's far easier to disconnect the old one. The plug is on the C pillar, so you need to remove the rear passenger side trim - just enough and then the C pillar cover. Once you've done that it's just a simple plug in and go.

The other side required the existing loom so before removing the damaged loom from the new tailgate, attach some string or wire and then pull it through. That was you can connect the new look and pull it into the tailgate. Because it has multiple plugs on it, I used masking tape to make it as flat as possible with nothing dangling. It then how through more or less easily.

All worked fine. I'm still trying to adjust it to fully lock but that's today's job. As there has been some deformation of the rear, I'm beginning to think I need to beat out the aperture a bit.

So far, so good and I'm now watertight

 

[Alb]

Did you pop in the wiring for a rear dashcam at the same time? Seems like a good opportunity.

 

[Mazzyh]

I didn't. I didn't actually think about it. Still time. No tailgate trim is back on yet as I'm still trying to get out to close properly. It will close and lock but it's just not enough to tell the car that it's closed.

The crash bar was also badly crushed, so I've bought one from a breakers. The bumper is going to be a challenge as it's severely cracked and split in multiple places.

I'm enjoying the challenge so far. Lovely car though. I had a ZS EV from new but sold it 2 years ago with only 4000 miles on the clock. Because it was new (and I'd never had a new car before) I was nervous about taking it anywhere it could get damaged etc. Silly really. So getting this 3 year old with damage is perfect. I intend to use it at every opportunity instead of my ICE car.