Highly likely a broken wire in the harness that goes between the car body and the rear gate, through the rubber boot on the right hand side. See: http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/66-problems-maintenance/12794-05-hatch-lock-problem.html

Let us know if this helps . . .

 

Excellent! I'll run those checks as soon as it stops raining. Thanks

 

In fact now that I look at the bundle of broken wiring in that other thread that is obviously the first place to look. Thanks tons!

 

Please keep us informed . . .

 

Okay here's what I've found. PlainOM you were right on it. Located in the right side wiring harness (there's a left also) I have one broken wire. There is just flat out not enough wire for the bending, as in: I can't get the wire to touch ends even by holding each end with mini needle nose pliers and pulling them together. I had them stripped and was going to solder a short piece in and cover it with heat shrink but my cheesy 30W soldering iron decided to take a nap. Pic showing the wiring harness (I've just worked the lower grommet out of the body hole here and found the broken wire).

This next one is a crappy iphone pic but you can see the ends of the one broken wire.

I had started on the left side and not found a problem. The upper part of the right side was okay too. Of course the last place I looked I found this wire. I might be able to use a single crimp type splice as a temporary fix but I wouldn't expect a long and happy life out of it.

 

That's typical.

Following also in http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums...rums/66-problems-maintenance/41443-replace-05-outback-hatch-wiring-harness.html

Let us know what you do and how it works out . . .

 

Along with rear door lock not activating, the reverse lights are non-working. Does this wiring harness (right side) contain both leads. All other lights on tailgate door work. If these are not related, which side of transmission is back-up light switch located? Any assistance would be helpful.

 

Yes, the wire for the backup lights goes through that same flexible boot between the car body and the hatch. Also, the wires for the wiper, the rear window defogger, the high (third) stop light, and the license plate lights.

If you haven't already, might want to look at http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums...rums/66-problems-maintenance/41443-replace-05-outback-hatch-wiring-harness.html

 

Having the same issue with my daughter's newly purchased 2005 SOB. Except that it isn't the wires coming through the lift gate. All those wires are fine. I was able to manually lock the left gate by taking the panel off the lift gate and manually locking the latch. Unfortunately it seemed to set off the door alarm. It wouldn't stop dinging. Strangely enough there's a cheat code to fix this.

Insert the key and turn the key to 'on'.
While the chime is dinging, insert and unbuckle the seat belt 20 times as fast as you can (20-30 secs).
When you are done, unbuckle the seatbelt and turn the key off.

For some reason, this stopped the dinging. Now I guess I should by a multimeter. I don't think there's any juice getting to the actuator. What other failure points are there?

 

. . . it isn't the wires coming through the lift gate. All those wires are fine.

How were the wires in the flexible boot checked? There's been cases where one or more of the wires inside the wrapped bundle was broken. These breaks are not apparent when simply lifting the rubber boot to inspect the exposed wires. Other than continuity testing, either the bundle has to be separated to inspect the wires, or each wire can be pulled at both ends to see if it (a broken wire) comes out of the bundle.

In any event, checking with a meter for power to the actuator connector at the latch will verify if the connections are good or if the actuator itself is faulty. (Note, when the keyless entry fob is pressed for lock or unlock, power is sent to the actuator for only about 2 seconds. So the meter will more likely only indicate a short pulse of voltage.)

. . . I was able to manually lock the left gate by taking the panel off the lift gate and manually locking the latch. Unfortunately it seemed to set off the door alarm. It wouldn't stop dinging.

Was the hatch fully closed when the lever was used to lock the latch? Did the dinging start as soon as the lever was set to the locked position or at some later time? If some time later, can you recall the situation, e.g. was it when a side door was opened? Did you try moving the lever back to the unlocked position to see if the dinging stopped?

As far as I know, manually locking the rear gate (hatch) latch from the inside should not cause "dinging", which is more often related to the key being left in the ignition switch when the driver door is opened or when a front seat is occupied but the seat belt isn't fastened.

Strangely enough there's a cheat code to fix this.

That procedure is for stopping the seatbelt warning: See: http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums.../forums/66-problems-maintenance/147849-stop-seatbelt-dinging-outback-wagon.html

 

Could be actuator, connectors, or wiring, probably in decreasing order of probability (now that you've eliminated the wires at the hinge from consideration).

Unplug and check the signal at the actuator connector as you hit the remote. You'll know from that outcome which direction to go with the analysis.

 

Thanks. Yeah, I was going to start at the actuator and work backwards. The door ding thing is beyond strange. The light on the dashboard doesn't display either. I'm just glad I got it to stop. That leads me to think there might be a short in that bundle somewhere causing a false error, but who knows? The reverse lights work, and all the fuses check out, so I'm baffled.

 

Well, whatever it was, the cheat worked. It would only start dinging when the car was in Drive. In reverse it wouldn't go off. Just in Drive.

Yes the lift gate was fully closed. The initial problem was my daughter driving around with a lift gate that wouldn't lock. At least I got it to lock now. I'll worry about the issue later this week. And I did pull the wires in the harness to make sure they were not broken. They seemed fine, but they could be broken inside the car somewhere, but that doesn't seem likely.

 

Is this thread being watched today ?

 

Well, you found it and bumped it, so obviously "yes" to that question.

If you are having issues with the rear lock on a Gen 3, there are threads that are more current on the issue; see post #7 in this thread for a link to one of them, for example.

Otherwise, why not introduce yourself here, and if the problem you face needs some expert input, find an appropriate subforum and start a thread about it there!

 

Hello from Oregon. I have a 05 Outback that I bought new. I just finished repairing the lift gate wiring issue. The left side was simply the two wires goi to the radio amplifier for the antenna. The right side had every single wire broken. I went to my local wrecking yard and found an 07 Outback. Removed two feet of the same color coaded wiring to replace the failed section. These wires where not under strain so should last longer. I used shrink wrapped butt connectors I got at Napa. It was a slow process making the 58 separate connections. Everything in back now works properly, the only issue I can’t seem to figure out is no interior dome or cargo light. Thanks for all the information I found on your site.

 

Did you need to cut the boot when you repaired the wires?

 

No ! You are probably going to find all the wires broken on the passenger side. If radio reception is bad the two on drivers side also. I went to my local wrecking yard and found the same cooler coded wiring up in the roof and down below on the passenger side of a similar model year car. It makes the splicing much easier. I have photos of the entire process if you need them..j

 

@Jpsbgt I'm trying to follow what you did, but I'm concerned about reconnecting the wires correctly when there are multiples of the same color. There are 2 different wires that are light green with black on them (one for Luggage Room Light, one for Rear Gate Lock Switch), plus at least 3 black wires. How did you keep those straight?

Did you cut wires that appeared to be perfectly good? I think 6 out of my 14 wires are severed. Unfortunately all the Black ones are severed, so I don't know how I'll reconnect them correctly.

 

How did you keep those straight?

If you're asking this question now, I suppose that means they're already cut and weren't labelled beforehand?

But refer to comment from @Jpsbgt above regarding grounds.

 

I did not find that in my group of wires ! The black are ground wires so I don’t think it’s a issue. I cut out about a foot of the original wiring because that section was under strain not intended by the manufacturer. I located enough wire from the donor car by going up into the ceiling and down below on the right hand side. If you need more photos email me. Jack Paul Shea at G you know what

 

No, the 3 black wires were all severed before I opened it, so I didn't have a chance to mark them. Two are thick; one is thin. I am pretty sure one thick one is for rear defogger, but I don't know what the other thick one would be for. Is there no concern about switching the two thick black wires? I kind of think you're right that it doesn't matter that much, but I don't feel confident on this.

I took a red sharpie to one of the light green/black wires before cutting, so I think I'll be okay there. I was lucky that these two wires were not severed, so I can mark them.

 

No, the 3 black wires were all severed before I opened it, so I didn't have a chance to mark them. Two are thick; one is thin. I am pretty sure one thick one is for rear defogger, but I don't know what the other thick one would be for. Is there no concern about switching the two thick black wires? I kind of think you're right that it doesn't matter that much, but I don't feel confident on this.

All three black wires are ground, as previously explained. Just match the wire gauges like-for-like, and don't worry about it.

 

Sounds good, thanks. I see from the harness diagram that the harness has two grounding terminals screwed into the body quite close to the joint, so I'm guessing those are the two thicker black wires. I see it makes zero difference which is which. Not sure what the thin black wire is for.

 

My son and worked on this and found this video very helpful:

and his write-up here: How To Fix A Subaru Outback Broken Liftgate Wiring Harness | The DIY Guy . net

BUT I strongly recommend making the new wire sections a little longer than the 12" he recommended. I did 13" lengths, and if I had to do it again, I would do maybe 15". It's a pain to have too much length, but it's worse to have to little.