HOW I FIXED MY V70 TAILGATE OPEN WARNING LIGHT

Post by Ryann � Sun Dec 29, 2019 12:19 pm

After way too much work, I just fixed this on my 03 V70 and I thought I'd share in
more detail what my problem and solution was. If I had read this, it would have
saved me a ton of work and grief. This may also apply to the XC70 and XC90.

Background:
The circuit for the tailgate open sensor passes through the latch, then through the
rear glass breakage detection sensor, then to ground (which it shares with the rear
defroster).

Access
If you take the trim off of the inside of the rear hatch, you will see two wires
attach to the rear window on the left side. The big red one is defrost, the small
one is glass breakage. On the right side there's just one large black wire. This
should be ground.

Testing
Test the ground at this thick black wire. I used the rear 12v outlet, but you could
go direct to the battery if you want to take some things apart.
If you have ground here, your harness may be ok.
When I tested resistance between the glass breakage sensor (small wire to glass on
left side) and ground (large black wire to glass on right side) I had 800 ohms
which is much too high. I've also heard of these wires becoming broken or otherwise
mechanically detached from the window.

Solution
My solution was to run a small wire from the glass breakage sensor (small wire to
glass on left side) down around the bottom of the rear windows to the ground (large
black wire to glass on right side). This bypasses the glass breakage sensor. Very
easy and I don't really care if my alarm doesn't go off if my rear window is
broken.

Hope this helps someone.