Reatta interior lighting problems.....

[Barney Eaton]

Today I helped a Reatta owner track down some lighting gremlins and got some first hand experience with the ground splices under the passanger seat.

First you must remove the seat, door threshold, and get the carpet out of the way. Then you need to remove the plastic top of the cable duct.

We found several factory splices and one that someone before us had made.

There was a some (rust) evidence that water had been in the cable duct but it looked pretty good until we removed the electrical tape and started examining the splices.

The first one we tackled was 5 wires coming from the console (the looked like black with white stripe, but the manual says dark blue with white stripe.

These are crimped with 5 wires of the same color going in the direction of the passanger door and then either to the front or back of the car.

After cutting the splice, some of the copper wires desintigrated as we touched them....we cut them back until we got good wire then needed to sand off the oxide on the wires to get them to take solder. Once tinned, we recrimped and then soldered the crimp joint and rewrapped with electrical tape.

We were having so much fun I failed to take pictures but out of 4 splices only one was sound. We also redid the repair that was done by someone else as that wire broke as we handled it.

When we finished, the dome light worked as it should and the owner will report on what else got fixed by repairing these ground splices.

This is not the first time someone has had interior lighting problems and it was traced to these ground splices.

I often ask Reatta owners to check under the passanger seat to see if it is damp or wet..... this car was dry but he has only owned it for 2 years so who knows how many times the floor has been wet...... it must have been several times.

If you are having electrical problems and after checking the standard stuff...

check those splices under the seat.

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[Guest mongeonman]

I have had to fix these splices to a couple years ago,but i d ont exactly remember what it fixed but i remember it did fixe a couples of problems.think it was the theft deterent and other things.

[harry yarnell]

Good post! I too have done this repair , but on the sister car , the Riviera.