cmg535

Agree. You should replace the entire loom from end to end, not just the broken sections. Then it is easier to pull it through into the car and once attached by the speaker in the roof, feed the whole loom (wrapped in a suitable sleeving) down to the tailgate. Do it like in the sencom video, where your joins on both ends remain sealed inside the vehicle otherwise they will eventually corrode. Use silicone cable of the right cross sectional conductor area. I dont think Maplin stocks suitable ones. Silicone rubber is needed to make sure the new ones dont just crack like the original cable. I think the heater and wiper motor wires are 2.5mm^2 - quite thick. See my previous warnings regarding making sure you can still open the glass. Good luck!

norsecarnut

It seems like it should be simple but when the crack in the wire is too far into the upper roof body, I can't get enough slack to bring it out on either end to work on the butt-splicing.

I am so completely sick of this shit.

GrahamS_E61

finally had a long enough gap between he rain to have a go at this - what a mess

i just tackled the right hand side one, that takes power to the bulbs in the tail gate. the previous owner had had a go at fixing it, what a mess. seems they intentionally changed colours on every single wire. massive rats nest of joins by the speakers, the plastic parts that needed removal all had broken clips and the metal wire guide hinges had been bent and broken to get them apart. the replacement wire was just as brittle as the original, and had cuts, splits and damage to every conductor. i have no idea how the fuses hadn't blown.

generally followed the advice and guides here, but with two changes - first, get a mate to help you. it makes it a much easier, quicker and generally more fun job.

Secondly, making the joins outside the car and pulling them through is a really easy way to do it.

So the process was to cut the wire at the boot end, make a good solder joint to the wire going to the lamps, insulated with heat shrink, and a solder 'tack' to the wire going into the car. a gentle pull on this wire shows the bloke inside which one it is, and he pulls it through. cuts to length and joins with a butt crimp, so no soldering over your head inside the car.

the wire in the boot lid was tapped secure with self amalgamating tape, and the clamp refitted. as i wasn't reusing the wire guide brackets it was obvious the wires would now be pulling against the edge of the boot lid, so i improvised a wire guide, from some garden hose - which i had to split down the outside to fit, as it was an afterthought. however it does the job. the bending the wire must do is now spread over a 30mm length at least, not an edge.

i think some 15mm black silicone tube would be an ideal replacement for the original brackets, and if i had fed it through properly would look very good. i may even retrofit it, just means redoing the external joins.

bulb warning has gone, so that's achieved what i wanted. just the other three to look at, when the weathers nice

paul0000

I wanted to add an update. Thanks to everyone for their help as I was able to sort the right hand loom on the rear right (facing from the back of the car) which fixed my numberplate bulb problem.

I had added length to all the wires in that loom and everything was working well until last week.

Remote control stopped working and after lots of googling everything pointed to the diversity antenna ... cheapest I could find online was about £180 so I decided to look at the 2nd loom on the rear right.

Turns out a red/white cable was completely broken with several others needing attention. It was a little trickier to fix as the mounts holding the glass had to be undone (do this with the boot open slightly and the glass lid all the way open (this will minimize the movement as you undo the two bolts).

I forgot to tape ends of the wires as I pulled them through and saw one spark ... this led to fuse 59 blowing (5AMP).

Sorted the wires and changed the fuse, and I now have full remote central locking again!

(I had also taken the diversity antenna out which showed no signs of corrosion and re-soldered the joints on the bottom).

Feel like I'm becoming an electrical engineer the amount of time I've spend messing with the wiring. I know it's only a matter of time before the left hand side breaks.

If it helps anyone coming to this thread, my symptoms were intermittent remote central locking working, opening and closing the boot helped sometimes (pushing the wires back together) and I then also lost all the presets saved on the buttons on my DAB radio. The only good thing was once everything was working, my presets came back!

As others have said it's really poor design by BMW and to see so many reports of this is disappointing. What adds salt to the wound it the amount of money BMW want to fix the problem! I can only imagine for every one person that finds these forums and fixes themselves there are several that are paying BMW £££ to repair the cabling.

Jax of Marlow

Can anyone tell me whether the current 5 Touring suffers the same tailgate wiring problems as the E61 ? I don't really want to repeat the £1800 I have paid further down the road.

grilledcheese

I'm looking to buy one of the SenCom repair kits, but struggling in understanding which one to get. Can anyone provide any guidance / links? The website is in German, and even with google translate I'm a bit confused by the different options.

For reference, I have a 2009 E61 (535 x-drive, USA), and I'm experiencing: a) consistent license plate bulb errors; and b) low-range for my remote lock. No other problems thus far, but I'm looking to be proactive.

Thank you!

gman6262

I'm having the same issues, and will be ordering the following three Sencom repair kits -

Suchergebnisse für: '2016062'

SenCom Kabelbaum Reparatursatz Koaxial Kabel linke Seite (inh. 2 Stück) - ANT0612

SenCom Kabelbaum 2016061 | autoteilemann.de

The vendor is out of stock of 2 of the 3 - as soon as they are in stock I'll order all three and be able to confirm they fit a 2010 MY e61 USA.

awdwagon06

OK, , i got all these things going on , warning backup lamp malfuction, backup light not working, RR defrost not working, glass hatch not working, tailgait not functioning. , etc, etc, etc,

i took much information from this incredible thead, i scroll down to the right side wireing, take out speaker, etc, etc, the wires look fine , as in i see no break, wires, etc, .... are the broken wires totally out of sight ? as in i cant see the break without, cutting out the heart of this mess and buying the recommended repair harness....

Ive read 37 pages of this thread, and see no detail the specific location of the wire split...
any pics, help ,comments or suggestions permitted..

paul0000

I had similar when I did mine. I was very nervous about cutting the wires, but when I did and pulled them through the speaker hole, pulled the tape off it was very clear that several were broken or frayed.

I didn't buy a repair harness. I had some spare wires and extended each wire by about 6" soldering together and sealing up with tape. From memory there is one thicker one (brown) which I'm guessing what the rear window demister.

If you rejoin the wires, so long as you use the same or larger wire then you'll be fine.

Once you cut the wires there is no going back! It's actually fairly easy, if not a little time consuming to do. But it's so much better when everything is working as it should.

Shooy67

I repaired/replace the wiring loom which everything was working since May of this year I.e remote central locking and third break light...just a few days ago all of a sudden the remote stopped working...I checked the wiring that I fixed n all seems fine at this point the third break light was still working...than I replaced the central locking fuse...it's not that....than I checked the antenna under the spoiler for corrosion or water...that seemed fine n dry....after putting antenna back the third break light stopped working.....what else can I try?....should I try replacing antenna unit now?....btw FM radio works fine....or how would I check antenna unit?