Refill hydraulic tank in trunk
 

Hi!

My E61 2007 lci 535d touring hydraulic tailgate started sound like its running low on oil. I bought some oil at my BMW dealer. I cant seem to find the way to loosen the trim in the trunk. Is there any one who has a guide to do this. I cant seem to find it anywere.

Cheers!

it's a little bit of work for 100% duable. took me around 3hrs on a slow pace. The goal is to get to hydraulic pump located on driver side on trunk.

I don't have all the details but basically follow the order below:

1) remove the rubber mat
2) plastic trim on column D ( there are 2 bolt - one is behind a rubber foot )
3) remove trim next to rear windows ( there are 2 )
4) remove trim on column C ( airbag column )
5) you now can move away the inside trunk carpet trim
6) remove the linen that covers the pump
7) you got the pump

hope it's useful

What oil did you use?

I bought a 2006 E61 a month ago. The power tailgate was only working about 1 in 5 times and was making lots of noise. I found that the hydraulic fluid was almost completely empty. I topped it off with AC Delco 10-5041 Power Lift Gate Hydraulic Fluid, which is available from Amazon, and matches the Aeroshell 41 spec. It's died red to match the Aeroshell 41 in appearance.


If you'd rather have the genuine Aeroshell 41 you can get it from Aircraft Spruce just south of Atlanta:

AEROSHELL 41 HYDRAULIC FLUID from Aircraft Spruce

The power tailgate now works perfectly and is very quiet. The entire job was pretty easy and only took a couple of hours. It is much easier if you remove both floor panels and both side panels. The upper bolt of three that holds the pump in place is difficult to get out unless you remove the second side panel.

Greg

FWIW, just did this job - a complete flush and hydraulic fluid replacement - and found it to be much easier than most accounts I've researched. Didn't really have to remove much of anything other than the spare tire hatch cover and the left rear compartment cover.

Used the Aeroshell 41, a commonly-available dosing syringe (ask any pharmacy) and a length of 1/4" tubing.

With the compartment cover off, I was able to unclip, then cut, the factory 'hose clamp' holding the fluid reservoir in place. A bit of gentle prying pulls the reservoir off the pump - be careful not to damage the O-ring.

I then attached tubing lengths to both pump nozzles, put these into two clean glass vessels, and proceeded to flush clean Aeroshell through the system by operating it several times.

Finally, fit a new hose clamp loosely and put the reservoir mostly back on. From there, I was able to fill it using syringe and a well-cleaned length of vinyl tubing. Run the system a few times to fill the whole thing with fluid.

Took my time doing it, but could easily reproduce the whole thing in under an hour now.

Enjoy!