So my hatch is rusted and I am going to by a used one. Has anyone done this replacement already? My big question is do I have to splice the wiring harness or is there a connector to unhook the wiring from the hatch to the rest of the car?

Thanks

 

Im doing the same. Short answer, no plug and kinda a pain in the ***.

remove the plastic panels. Remove the brake light. Then go in and unplug all the wires. Pop off the clips that hold the wiring to the sheetmetal. Then gently pull the wiring up and out through the top.

im at this point now. Feeding the wiring back into the new hatch looks like a nightmare...

 

 

I've thought about splicing as well. When I pulled my new hatch out of the junkyard I just said F'it and cut the wires. There is a funky cable going down the driver side, almost looks like old school antenna wire. I doubt that would splice. No clue what it does, it goes to a box of some sort midway down the driverside of the hatch.

I suppose if you were to splice it you could hide everything in the rubber accordion boot between the body and the door.? Should be plenty of room in there for the splices.

On mine I and just routing the wires. The car sits inside all winter, I can walk away from it if I get pissy. If your car is a daily I totally understand saving a few hours by splicing...

 

... the process you will end up doing will greatly depend on the condition of the hatch you get as a replacement... if the wiring harness is cut at your new hatch ... well that would be a cause to do off set splices. if it is the complete harness to the connector, then you will be dropping the headliner to run the harness.

Best of luck.

Motor On1

 

I replaced my hatch. It really was not that big of deal. Removed all the wires from the hatch, with the hatch was still connected to the car. Reinstalled the new hatch and then ran the wires back in to the hatch. Took maybe an hour to do the wiring in and out.