kennymcd

Hi, I am trying to repair broken wires in the tailgate and require to lift the tailgate window to gain access to the wiring but the window is not working due to broken wiring. Is there any way the tailgate window can be lifted mechanically or how else can I get in to the repair the wiring. Thanks

kennymcd

My car is a bmw 5 series 2004.

joncp

You will find the answer here :

https://5series.net/forums/e61-touri...r-98217/page3/

This article saved the day for me when I needed to open the glass.

Tetonfiber

The pictures would not paste. I can email the instructions with photos to you if you want.


BMW E61
fixing tailgate wiring problems
>> DISCLAIMER: this manual is intended to explain what I
did to fix the broken cables on my E61 (dec 2004). any
repair you do is at your own risk. I will not accept any
liability to possible damage you make yourself<<
My problems: I had (had!) an intermittent connection with the right license plate
light. This brings up the annoying warning in your dashboard. I could have lived with
that, if not the glass boot lid started to pop up automatically every now and then. This
was the trigger for me to inspect the wires in the tailgate hinges.
My E61 started with these problems in the summer of 2009 at 140.000 kilometres, 5
years of age. The root cause of the shorts and bad contacts are the metal wire
guides which (should) protect the wires from the chassis to the boot door. First of all,
there is not enough space in these metal guides: the wires are really squeezed
together. Secondly, I noted sharp edges within these guides which eventually cut the
wires after some years of usage. Personally I decided to get rid of the two outmost
covers completely.
From what I could tell this describes what hinge is for which function:
1 = rear window heating, water hose to the rear window washer, FM antenna
2= these wires go to the tail lights, fog lights, breaking lights, reverse lights, etc
3 = gsm/gps antenna cable, glass lid switch, middle breaking light
4 = at least: license plate lights (not sure about the rest)
The description is far from complete but it should give you an indication which hinge
is the one you need fixing your problem. In the end you better check them all 4…
chances are that other cables will break soon…
What I did to fix the problem with my intermittent right license plate light:
1 2 3 4
Lefthand side: Righthand side:
Page: 2 from 10
I opened the complete boot (not the glass lid, keep it closed for the moment), and
removed the 3 plastic covers from the right hand side hinge by prying out the plastic
plugs as shown here (use a wide flat screwdriver):
Now the cover is removed. Next step is to remove the plastic plug that holds the
lower part of the rightmost wire guide:
I was not able to remove the plug in one piece, I had to cut it. I decided to buy new
plugs and put these back later. Suggestions are welcome how to remove this plug in
1 piece …
Remove plastic plug
Page: 3 from 10
Now, close the boot and open the glass lid (I hope your glass lid switch is still
working…). Now you see the upper side of the rightmost wire guide. Unscrew the
metal cover with this screw:
Open the metal guide with a flat screwdriver. Be carefull with your fingers…
Page: 4 from 10
Now remove a bit of the black tape and here you see one of my problems: the
grey/black cable was broken off completely, which runs to the right license plate light:
Now… go into the interior of your car (flatten the rear seats) and open the right hand
side rear speaker which will expose the wires from the interior:
Remove these 2 screws (torx)
Page: 5 from 10
Remove the single screw (torx) which holds the cableloom in place:
From here you can retire the cables later…
I then went back to the outside and cut all 9 wires, but I isolated them before I retired
them from the interior:
Page: 6 from 10
Now I retired all the cables from the interior and voila: 4 cables had a problem! (1
came off completely, 3 had a severe cut):
Next I cut all the wires in the interior and extended them with new wires. Then I reinserted
them back through the loudspeaker cave towards outside, put a shrink wrap
around all wires and resoldered them back:
Page: 7 from 10
Finally I decided to not use the metal guide again, but instead I shrink wrapped all 9
wires together like this:
The reason why I did not put back the metal guide is that I had no more plastic plugs
to hold the guides into the hinges. When I find the time I will surely do that. But for
now everything works….