Dashboard/wiring mods Mk3 Astra

[lisbon_road]

Have an ordinary LS Astra which is an earlier one with no spots at the front, no electric windows, no electric mirrors.  Have thought of fitting all those especially as I have a painted from bumper to fit, but the wiring looks awkward.  I have a spare car with all the above and have removed the dash and wiring but it was a bit of a job.  The loom is attached to the back of the dash and it all comes out together.

 

Has anyone ever done anything as utterly pointless as this and have any suggestions on the easiest way?  Either:

 

• Make up an add on loom which would be a bit untidy, plus the join with the door looms would be tricky though I might be able to add connectors to the car side of the door connection
• Just get on with it and swap the entire car looms over, either by removing the dash or perhaps cutting the cable ties and just swapping the looms.

 

I appreciate the sane route is to not do any of this - and that is an option.........

 

[bub2006]

Does the earlier car have any sort of blank plugs in the a pillar kick trim? Sometimes the wiring is there but not into the doors. If not swap the looms over would be the only option i think to do it properly.

[lisbon_road]

There's nothing in the earlier car to help, as far as I can make out anyway.  

[dave21478]

I'm surprised that there isn't wiring already there for stuff like that.

My old mk3 even had the loom for heated seats, just needed switches put in the blank holes and Calibra leather front seats bolted right in and connected to the loom plugs tucked under the carpet.

[lisbon_road]

There definitely isn't.  I think the higher end models might have spare wiring, but the low end models tend not to.  You might get two looms: a low end one and a high end one, and the high end one has more redundant stuff sometimes.  Does seem to me to be a more complex loom than (for instance) Sierras I've taken apart have, as it has these massive connectors for sections of the loom.  But it is definitely a much better quality loom than Ford ones I've worked on, and the way that the fuse/relay box is totally in the dry is just so much better than so many other cars.

 

I think that some of this may explain why these cars survive well.  Damp fuse boxes and poor connections can drive you insane.