Intermittent Electrical Issue Resolved

[Donovan]

TL;DR - Check your door plugs!

Many moons ago I made a post regarding an electrical issue I was having with the convenience system of my car. Whilst driving, intermittently, the headlights, AC, window motors, wiper motors etc. would stop working and become non-responsive for anywhere from 5 - 30 seconds. This rendered the car basically undrivable in anything other than a well lit afternoon with no chance of rain. Since I had some time off work recently I decided to go through the car with a toothpick until I had some idea of what was going wrong.

The car had been to auto-electricians previous to my ownership and was listed as "unable to replicate fault", which I didn't want to waste my time (or money) on repeating. I also couldn't make the fault happen on command which made it very hard to diagnose. I started with the battery and alternator system, checking all grounding points and voltages were what I'd expect with the car on and off, then moved on to the other easily accessible grounding terminals in the engine bay and under trim panels on the A pillar and rear boot and finally I checked all buttons, switches etc. in the cabin. Found out that when trying to open the passenger-side rear window from the driver seat controls the system would throw a wobbly and become unresponsive. Removed door cards on both those doors and back-probed the plugs to test what was going on but found that the rubber boot on the rear passenger door wasn't sitting right. Pulled it off and the plug came out with it, turns out the clip has snapped off the plug to hold it in and it was sitting loose, causing some form of implausible signal to the controller and therefore faulting it.

I'm pleased to have found it and that I can enjoy the car rain or shine, light or dark again but thought this may be useful for someone in the future, such a simple problem but found with pot luck.

[jonytek]

Good to know. I only read the first line but remember you posting a while back. It's always good when people report back.

[marc1]

Well done mate. Persistence paid off nicely.