Rear window exploded.

I'm going to have to change my tailgate!

Put the rear demist on in the recent snow, after about 5 mins of it been on there was an almighty bang. The rear glass just exploded!

I suspect it was a bad connection on the glass. And a hotspot was formed causing the explosive failure.

Symptoms before it blew up looked like a faulty relay. Demist was intermittent and weak. I hadn't got round to replacing the solenoid.

I'm going to nip into the scrapyard tomorrow and grab another tailgate. Shouldn't be a problematic swap. 30 mins with the correct tools and I should be good to go again! I did get a glass quote for a replacement panel, They wanted £250 and that wasn't even autoglass! The full tailgate should be less than £50.

The explosion itself, was exactly that. I was doing 40Mph at the time, And a good portion of the glass blew out into the road. The rest fell into the car onto the parcel shelf. The person who was sitting in the rear seat didn't even notice it was the glass, and nothing hit her.

Iceni wrote:I'm going to have to change my tailgate!

You are welcome to add any photos of the procedure you make to replace the tailgate, it will give others an insight to what is involved.

How to attach images to the forum help page.

Iceni wrote:The explosion itself, was exactly that. I was doing 40Mph at the time,

Iceni wrote:They wanted £250 and that wasn't even autoglass! The full tailgate should be less than £50.

Let us know how you get on an how well the colour matches

There were no local C3's in the scrapyards! I ended up going 45 miles out to Dudley to pick one up.

Colour is identical, Baby metallic blue. If mine has faded then this one has faded in exactly the same way as you can't tell it apart.

Cost £30.

Included in that was a wiper motor + arm. High level brake light, 2 plate lights, Catch, button, hinges, Strike plate and some of the inner trim.

The loom had been butchered at the gromet that goes into the body. The breaker probably didn't know there is a connector block inside the car that can be pulled out with the gromet.

All fittings are Torx style, Even the small ones. And everything else can be done with a flat screwdriver.

Carpet out, and placed over the striker plate (this will stop you shutting the boot and locking it without a working switch).

Panel plates off, Verticals first then the central one. The central one needs the lower side releasing first then it slides towards the roof.

Electrical cover on the left side of the door. 4 torx head screws, into plastic spreaders. Expect the spreaders to snap. You then have to release the gas strut to get the plate off. Then put the strut back in.

Wires all disconnected and pulled out of the door, I did this because I needed the loom as the new door had a butchered loom.

High level brake pulled out, and the wires and pipe pulled out.

Gas strut Spring clips released on both sides (top only).

Break the upper hinge bolts. The upper one is a bit awkward but a standard torx key should just fit.

Open the tailgate fully and get someone to hold it open taking the weight and lifting at the same time. The bolts should come out by hand once you get a turn or two on them, Remove both fully then have the assistant knock out the struts.

Lift the tailgate up and away from the car.



To put it back in.

Position the hinges ready to receive the tailgate.

Each person take one side of the tailgate and lift, The stronger person hold in position whilst the weaker one gets the 2 bolts in finger tight.

At this stage the positions can swap and the weaker person should hold the boot open, whilst the stronger one dogs up the bolts making sure they locate correctly.

Drop on the gas struts, and sort the clips.

I had to pull through the old loom into the new door, I used electrical tape to connect everything together and just fed it all through.

Connect everything back up, Test the Catch and button by using a screwdriver shank to replicate the striker, Once the catch is set the button will release the screwdriver. If it doesn't then you need to troubleshoot that before you continue. Once the catch and button are working you only have the lights and wipers to test, but if the catch is proving problematic then you will only be able to reopen the boot using the emergency release on the catch, and this only works from the inside of the boot... So be prepared to have to climb in over the back seats if it's not right.



Overall there are no real adjustments I could see. The existing and new tailgates both fitted the same, and close the same. I didn't need to adjust anything.

Took about an hour, but most of that was pulling wire and connecting/disconnecting things. It would have been closer to 30 mins If I didn't have to mess with the loom so much. So if you are going to a breakers make sure you tell them that connection block is there!

Iceni wrote:There were no local C3's in the scrapyards! I ended up going 45 miles out to Dudley to pick one up.

Colour is identical, Baby metallic blue. If mine has faded then this one has faded in exactly the same way as you can't tell it apart.

Cost £30.

Thanks for the comprehensive instructions for changing the hatch

If I'd of had the chance I would of taken pictures. The weekend has been a struggle to be fair.

Glass blew out at 10pm Saturday night, So I had to clean and tape it all up in the dark. Then fully unload the car and leave the glove box ect open to deter thieves. My street is less than safe. 2 schools, Drunk students all night, and the local hoodlems that frequent the shops. It's all on street parking as well. So Saturday and Sunday night I didn't sleep.

Then Monday without sleep I went out in the car at 7am did 3 local scrap yards and got nowhere, then had to go on ebay and find a seller that was willing to let me collect the same day. Drove to Dudley in the super slow snow traffic, then had to come back. So I didn't get started on it till 3pm, and only had an hour of light to get it working.

The easiest bit of the day was the fitting!