Fix for E61, luggage/trunk cover release mechanism
 

More pictures to come, but have been hunting for a fix on the automatic release of the cargo cover which is triggered by opening of tailgate.

I have it working on one side such that when the tailgate is opened, you can hear a couple of little actuators move, and the cargo cover is released to glide up the glides.

In my case one side releases just fine. The other side has a little gear set attached to a motor which is no longer meshing.

Challenge has been that there appears no listing of the part that I have on any US BMW site. Seems I have an E61, European model and was only able to find reference to part after many hours hunting.

The breakthrough was finding the motor part number, and tracking it down on eBay.

51437919678 is the trim piece. 9918003164 is the motor/release actuator.

hi. i just took apart and repaired my entire retracting cargo cover since it was non-operational when i bought the car in december of last year. I've posted a few times to various threads about the issues that i had and my troubleshooting process.

in the course of my troubleshooting, i took apart my entire mechanism (trim panels, retractors in the trim panels, reed position switch, cable motor, lcpa module, etc) and i dont recall any motor behind the trim like the one you have pictured. as you mentioned, it must be euro spec only. i cant quite understand what that motor does. do you have any other pictures of where it attaches or any idea why its only on one side?

my retraction mechanism is driven by two cables (that actually look like fuzzy springs) and a motor that is mounted inside the rear of the cargo area near the rear-most tie down hooks on the driver side.

have you done any diagnosis on the motor?

This feature is so annoying for me. Each time I open the hatch the cover retracts upward effectively exposing whatever I tried to cover.

My understanding is its supposed retract upward then return to the fully covered position like this but mine never goes back down.


The engineers who designed this deserve a kick to the nuts.

it's a great concept, but execution and engineering where crappy.

yes, it's supposed to go up when you open the hatch or glass and back down when you close the hatch or glass. mine doesnt go up slowly like this one and just snaps up to the top when i open the hatch. thankfully it returns to the lower position when i close the hatch.

took me a while to take mine apart, clean the seized cables, test all the wiring, etc. but i'm glad that it finally works. now that i see that video, I'll need to find out why mine isnt moving slowing upward.

Maybe I have an intermediary model.
 

I think I may have a model that has functionality half way between 'manual' and 'fully automatic'.

While I need to replace it, the motor for me was only designed to unlatch the cover, and then allow the spring tension to draw the cover up and out of the way.

No 'fuzzy springs' to be found, and ahead of closing the tailgate, its a manual reset.

Think mine is the same, snaps open and fires the cover up but have to pull it down by Jane. One of my motors did not work so in the end I've taken it out, just the one holds it until I open the boot

Interesting. Mine is a US model 530xi and it also does not have a motor to lift the cover. The two pawls just let it open under spring tension.

Jose

I have a similar problem in my 535D LCI Sport Edition 01/2009. When I buy the car the cover, most of the time, not release in the first opening of the trunk. But after releasing it manually (pressing the plastic actuators by hand) the next times the cover release fine. The next day or so the problem will happens again and I have to make the same procedure to make it work normally again.
Now this procedure no longer work.
I still hear the sound of the actuator releasing but nothing happens.
I will try to remove the trim piece and see if the actuator works out of the trim, or if it needs some type of cleaning.
Anybody have some photos of what is needed to do to remove the trims?

There are 3 torx screws running up the trim, look where the cover runs up and down, the trim comes off and then shows the gearing that holds/relises the cover, one of mine the gearing wore away so only one side was working. I removed that one side, leaving the other side to hold the cover, seems to have worked so far.

Today I have a little time to "test" the actuators.
I reclined the back seats and using the key fob I opened the trunk lid (hydraulic). The actuators released the cover but it don't move up. I Released the cover by hand and the cover rolled up. Closed the trunk lid, opened again and same thing, the actuators released but the cover don´t rolled up. By hand I released the cover and after shaking it a little it rolled up.
I closed the trunk lid and rapidly go to the back seat to see if everything works normally. During the process of the trunk lid closing the cover move down and after reach the actuators and being held by them, the "thing" that push the cover down go up again.
I tested some more time only opening the trunk glass and some time the cover rolled up and other don´t.
At this time I have to understand what are happening to preventing the cover move up alone every time.
I think that maybe the "thing" that push the cover down are not moving up every time and because of that the cover don´t roll up alone. At first glance it seems the most logical cause.