From what I can tell this is a pretty common problem.

I searched the forum and found the answer pretty quick (lots of good information on this site), but thought a picture might help…



At first I thought the wires were OK, until I slid that boot back and tugged a little on the wires. I spliced a new section of wire in, but hear there’s a replacement wiring harness available too.

Brad

 

thanks! my rear door lock isn't working. just checked and it looks just like yours even with some wires stripped down to the copper. Never thought to look at that, good info.

 

Replaced mine. Same problem.

 

Wow, thats pretty sad really....

Kinda makes you wonder what other parts of the harness throughout the truck might fail....

 

Just to add another confirmation on this, my truck did the same thing on the rear drivers side door. I noticed the door lock and speaker not working when testing out the truck at the dealer (just bought it used) and had them fix it. Since I didnt fix it I didnt see the problem but I am assuming there is a sharp edge next to unprotected wires???

 

thinks its from the repeated bending back and fourth as the doors are open and closed a jillion times. seen lots of vehicles do this not just dodge so its not just the wonderful chrysler engineers not using their heads.

 

Cold ...very cold weather and not enough wire is what I think happened to mine. All but one of the wires were snapped. Cheap wire could also be the cause. They weren't cut by anything just broken/snapped on mine.

 

ShouldBFishin: (and anybody else) Just wondering how much use your rear door gets. I dont have kids living with me anymore so the rear door doesnt get used much at all.

 

The rear doors don't get a lot of use (my 14 year old daughter rides up front) and there are no sharp edges. I'd have to agree with Scotty, the combination of cold weather, length of the wire and perhaps cheap wire caused them to snap.

Would have been a good thing to show the Dodge engineers a couple weeks ago, but I didn't know at the time. Based on what I've read in this forum, it is pretty common. Sometimes a picture is really worth a thousand words.

My previous vehicle (Mitsubishi 3000 GT) was 10 years old and had nearly 200K when I sold it never had any issues like this so I did not expect to see this with the truck at 5 years old and about 90K on it. (Yes, I still miss driving that car, but I could not financially swing keeping it at the time).

A little irritating, but a fairly easy repair - I used wire that I had on hand, but will probably look for something specifically to deal with this issue next time.

 

I believe it is cause by fatigue and cheapo wire being used in the harness. Most of the wires in the door harness is a thin insulated 22-18 gauge wire. Instead, Dodge should have used at least 14-16 gauge heavy insulated wire. That is what was my fix after having to go and do both rear doors about six months apart. I need to do the right rear door again since the dome light is spotty when using that door at night.

Yeah, my back doors get used a lot since I have a one year old and a teenager with lots of friends that ride in the back.

Shawn

 

Good stuff. Thanks for sharing the info!

 

Thanks for the fix had the same thing happen to my 08 1500 quad cab.. added some wire and electrical tape now speaker and lock working

 

I have been without the driver's side rear door lock and speaker for well over a year and it has always been a point of contention for me. I hated those items not working but did not want to spend the money to have someone else fix it.

I had heard before about the wires in the doors sometimes splicing, however I thought that something was actually happening "inside" the door itself. Your picture showed me exactly where the issue is/was. I went home last night and fixed the speaker and the door lock in 15 minutes.

THANK YOU!

Jason

 

I have been searching for information or part numbers for the wiring harness, and have had no luck. Can anyone help me out or direct me into the right direction so that I may fix the problem. Thanks

 

Should be able to just strip the wires back, reconnect them with a western splice and heat shrink them.

That's what I did.