captainfreezy

motopokep

thanks for everyone's support, the car is home and drivable. After watching a few youtube videos last night of people who had the same situation on their various BMW models, I saw several solutions to this that I tried today. One guy was able to open his trunk by turning the key inserted into the trunk keyhole to the left until the point of resistance, and then a quick jerk past the resistance point opened his trunk. This didn't work for me.


Another guy drilled a hole through the plastic panel behind the folding armrest (by the way, my car doesn't have the ski pass through pictured above), and using a hook taped to a stick and shining a flashlight, was able to hook that glowing triangle trunk release. I actually had to drill 3 small holes, as I had to shine a flashlight through 1, insert the hook and stick through 2, and look through 3. I pulled as hard as I can and ended up breaking the plastic triangle as it came off the pull cable. My guess is that the emergency release did not work for same reason my lock stopped responding to the key...there's probably a cable disconnect at some point. I know I removed it once years back when my trunk stopped working electronically, until I found out it was a broken wire in the harness..so I must not have assembled it correctly. all my fault.


Another guy in the videos, on a 7 series, was able to drill a small hall behind the license plate next to the lock, and use a small hook to pull on the cable. I was hesitant to drill metal and figured this may not work for me for same reason emergency release didn't work.


So, I ended up using a router with a small circular saw to cut out that small middle plastic section behind the folding armrest (had to remove the armrest from getting in the way). Then I was able stick my head and only 1 arm to get into the trunk....all of this in 95 degree heat. I was not able to release those 2 latches inside the trunk to release the back seat, so I ended up undoing the 2 torx screws around each. Then I found that there are 2 more black screws under the backrest, inside the salon, toward the center, they're hard to see, as they're behind the seat belt buckle assembly. I took out the whole rear seat assembly and went right into the battery compartment. As I undid the 2 plastic fasteners and pulled on the battery compartment cover, I heard a pleasant BMW chime and my heart jumped, understanding that my car's central computer system or something else that's serious did not die, and it's not a fuse problem. As I was pulling out the cover, it jerked one of the wires the regained contact, but then lost it again. I jerked both wires, note that both terminals were firmly connected to the battery, and heard power come on again. I popped open the trunk via the salon button, and as I jerked around the red wire a bit, I saw power cut in an out and a spark around the second nut, not the one that connects the red contact to the battery, but there is another one, with some sort of big resistor. It was semi-loose and there was some dirt around it, I think a rubber tape around it burned a little and leaked sticky residue on the contact which covered it with insulating material. I undid the screw, cleaned it, and screwd it on hard.


The mechanic is an honest guy and didn't charge me anything for the time he spent trying to open the trunk (but I left a tip anyways)...plus I used his power and parking space, and borrowed a couple of sockets I didn't have on me. He was glad I fixed it as he didn't want to drill through the seat.


So my first project now is to get the lock fixed so if this happens again, I'm not stranded in the middle of the road and can open the trunk with a key. Then I will clean the contact again and make sure they're on tight....I am sure it's my fault as I probably accidentally unscrewed that other screw before when working around the battery (I recently replaced it), and probably didn't screw it back tight enough, so several months of driving made it looser and it explains why the car cut out when I hit a pothole...I'm just glad it happened a mile from my house rather than on a interstate road trip.


Then I will glue back the plastic piece I drilled out, and I'll try to patch up the carpet that got cut with it to make it look nice...I'm not too worried how it looks inside a dark trunk, as it will look undamaged inside the salon, as I always have that folding handrest up.


Thanks for everyone's support and advice...go out and test opening your trunk with a key, as most of us never use it and don't know if it stopped working or not, as you never know when you'll need to emergency open it..... also make sure your triangle emergency release works...years back I was stupid and curious and decided to see what it feels like to be locked inside a trunk and how I would be able to get out, so I locked myself in it, and tried the release, and it took some effort to open it...I spent only about a minute in there, and almost suffocated...there is no air that gets in there, I don't know how they show that in movies where people get kidnapped and locked inside the trunk and transported somewhere and come out alive. Unless it's folding seats, you'll die in there very quickly.


BMW is the ultimate driving machine. The lock not working and the loose battery connection were both my fault. I look forward to driving it for years to come, maybe to 500,000 miles

dingolfing

I agree. My car doesn't have this pass through. BMW figured they would market what should have been a simple, standard "trunk access panel", useful to all, as an up-market luxury feature for the ski-sloping elite and people wouldn't mind paying for it. Because if you can ski, you have money.

dingolfing

I also had to use the actual key lock on the trunk lid to open my trunk one time when I had the battery disconnected while working on the car.

LessIsMore

Great job being persistent and figuring it out, OP.


I'm sure your info in this thread will help others down the road who are in the same position, esp. as these cars get older.