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Hi
You should not be worried about the tailgate job. It only sounds difficult.
There are two options fixing the wires.
You could remove one hinge first then route the wire through it, fix it together and then move on to the second hinge. I never done it that way so I could not say how that works.
I did the job twice by removing the entire tailgate. For both options you should remove the hinges. With mounted hinges routing of the wires unfortunately is hardly possible.
If you decide to remove the entire tailgate you need a second person supporting the gate during removing/mounting procedure.
First detach some inches of the headliner in the trunk. You only need to pull the edge of the headliner from the lip of the roof panel and it becomes free.
Now disconnect the wiring which leads into the tailgate. Bear in mind which wire belongs to which side due to proper installation of the new ones.
Then unscrew the tailgate retaining bolt on the roof inside the trunk. Wiring and bolt become visible after removal of headliner. At that stage it would be safe having somebody supporting the tailgate because the supporting struts may collapse with both hinges unbolted from the car.
When unbolting is finished you could pry away the retaining clips from the support struts on the tailgate and simply pull them sideways till the gate becomes free. Then lift the gate off the car and place it on a tablecloth or something else wich protects it from scratches. Remove the trim panel on the bottom of the tailgate by simply pulling on the edge of the trim until it comes off. Don´t pull too hard because the clips may getting damaged. Now the electrical components becoming visible.
Disconnect all electrical components inside the tailgate.
Now you could unbolt the main tailgate hinge on the gate itself and the little bolt which is visible trough the hole over the tailgate mounting bolt. Perhaps you´re lucky and get the wires out of the hinge without removing the hinge completely...I was not so lucky :-) Pull out the old wires. There is some rubber seal underneath the hinges, bear in mind which one belongs to which side.
Now it´s time to route the new wires through the tailgate. Take a good armlenght of thin rope or thin steel wire and secure it on the new Volvo wire. Then pull the steel wire through the hole on top of the tailgate untill you could grasp it on the bottom of the gate. Then carefully pull the Volvo wire through the gate till it arrives on the bottom of where you could connect the electrical components. Next step is to route the wire trough the hinges. When this is done mount the hinge on the tailgate (do not forget to place the rubber seal underneath the hinge) When wire is trough secure the big mounting bolt on the tailgate and the smaller one in the hole above it.
Now you´ll need the second person again to place the gate back on the car. First pull the wires trough the hole on the roof than put the hinge on it (think of the sealing again) and secure it from inside the trunk. Pull the supporting struts on the gate again and place the securing clips on them. Now you could connect the wires with the existing wires in the roof and the job is done.
Before reinstalling the headliner test proper function of electronics of the gate (wiper, window heating etc). Close the gate and test for proper fit around the surrounding body. If it doesnt fit that perfect loose the mounting hinges (inside the roof and inside the hole above the big mounting bolt on the tailgate) a little bit and push the gate gently in place.
Perhaps this sounds a little bit complicated but when you start you will see, that it is quite a straight forward job. Keep your working area clean and keep care for not losing any parts which you remove from the gate and the car. The very first job , the first hinge, will take longer, the second and reinstllation would go a little faster :-)
When hinges are off you could also replace the ground wires, black wires inside the hinges.
The noises you´ve described could result from bad supporting struts but I´m not perfectly sure because I hadn´t such noises before. I could only say, that I don´t know if such noises could result from the hinges itselves. Normally they doesn´t need to be replaced as long as the chrome is acceptable :-)
Good luck and lots of greetings M.P.
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