xiTouring

Carl,

Did the dealer check your key, as mine did to see if it has a problem?

There were four breaks in the wiring harness at the tailgate hinges and it now works perfectly. This is a known problem at BMWUSA.

I saw your post about water in the wheel well as that happened to mine too, under warranty. I've also had other wagon specific problems including the rear wiper seize, broken wires at the tailgate window latch causing it to pop open and the main tailgate latch fail, causing it not to close.

pmgoliv

Hi all.

I had a problem like this after washing the car (booth lid was open for some time with water entering into the diversity antenna), but after drying out I opened the diversity antenna and all was looking good, no corrosion whatsoever.

However, recently, I had a strange problem (for two times): after driving a long trip, the remote key was not working. After a while (a couple of hours or so) it worked again perfectly.
Could it be come problem with the rechargeable battery being overcharged and preventing the remote from working?

I am now using the second key to check if the problem was that specific remote key or if it is something in the car.

Did someone had a problem like this?

Thanks.

xiTouring

The dealer is able to test the keys, which showed mine were fine. In my case, the problem was annoyingly intermittent until it stopped working all together.

Keep us posted and good luck!

Spartan335i

I wrote about my similar problems a while back. My diversity antenna was replaced as both keys stopped working from one day to the next. A few months later I eventually had a low battery drain CEL light that came on after many failed attempts by the dealer to locate the problem area. After I reminded them about my diversity antenna repair a few months earlier, they looked again in that area and found the wiring harness also had corrosion and some of the wires were in bad shape. All was OK after this repair.


And now.....


Unfortunately I have to go back now (6 months later) as my tailgate glass portion no longer opens, it's eaither the whole tailgate or nothing!!! I love that we are stuck with what seems to be a very poor design by our BMW engineers!!!

xiTouring

Yup, I had that problem too. The button switch at the rear window needs to be replaced. Same broken wires as in the harness.
Agreed! My car's suffered from every possible wagon problem, and then some such as engine oil and transmission fluid leaks. Needless to say we're very disappointed with BMW's quality and will probably be going back to Mercedes-Benz when the warranty expires.

Spartan335i

It seems that we might share the same problem for the oil leak as well. I have found on two seperate occasions puddles in my driveway. Going on a road trip at the end of the month and need to address these issues before we go.

Kell

I have to say that this is my first BMW and will be my last. I ummed and ahhed between this and an A6 Avant and wish I'd gone for the Audi.

You live and learn.

Theo

Ah well, I have seen too many so-called premium automobiles with obvious flaws throughout all brands and models that I refrain from thinking that one brand is notably better than the other, the automotive business makes you cynical that way. If for example I had a nickel for all A6 owners who told me their experience have them throughly detesting Audi by now I would have ... well, a free lunch at most probably. Point being that all current cars have their known flaws and your customer experience hinges (no pun intended towards the E61 tailgate) completely on the speed and effectiveness of the fixes from the manufacturer through its dealer channel. e60/e61 is somewhat on the good side of average there I'd have to say.

To be honest though I AM very disappointed that the tailgate/wiring wasn't redesigned during the LCI process, it was common knowledge by then that this setup was extremely prone to wear and should have been addressed.

I hope that the grass is indeed greener on the other side for you...

Kell

Actually, my tale of woes with this car goes way beyond the tailgate.

It has been the singular worst car Iv'e owned in terms of things going wrong. It's the most expenseive car we've ever bought and has cost us the most in terms of fixing stuff.

Suspension, tailgate wiring, software updates, pointless diagnostics, the list goes on.

I can only compare to other cars I've owned, but our last estate car was an Audi A4 which we bought with 70,000 miles on it and ran to 120,000 and only had services and tyres, nothing else went wrong.

You could argue, of course, that if we fix all the problems with ours and then sell it that the next owner will think it's great and they can run it to 120,000 miles with no more problems...

Theo

Well suspension and tailgate are issues that we will all have to cope with at some point, if fixed properly and with no hassle I can live with those structural flaws quite comfortably. Software updates gone wrong and endless diagnostics are another matter, those will frustrate you to no end.

I fear that you might be right on the last one and the car will be great onwards, but I also know that when you no longer trust a car it is pointless to keep it. You will no longer really enjoy it and that's IMO the reason that we buy these cars instead of strictly functional entry models...