Hi,

I have a BMW 520D, June 2007

Yesterday I suddenly got 4 warnings on my iDrive
- Number plate left
- Number plate right
- Reversing light
- Fog Light

Today I checked the wiring in the tailgate - cables to the far right on the car.
6 out of 9 cables was broken, so I extended the cables and soldering everything

All warnings are now gone!

BUT! my right driving light (?) on the tailgate is not working. Sometimes I can see some very dim flickering.. any ideas of what I can do?

 

Might be a bad ground wire connection in the rear headlight .. the ground is the brown (tad thicker) wire. Take a look at the ground pin in the connector housing, it might be fried.

If so, u can either replace the connector, and probably sooner or later get the same prb back since the connector is under-dimensioned, or make an easy bypass by attaching a new ground wire to the light fixture (there is a tab where you can attach a female spade connector) and either hooking the other end into the brown wire before the connector or simply drill a small hole in the chassis to ground it to.

 

thanks for answer,

do you mean grounding wire for the headlight in the tailgate, or is it common ground with the rear headlight?

 

Oh ok, think I get you point, you mean it's one of the lights in the tailgate itself that are flickering? Well if so, maybe it's still related to ground problem, but sry don't know how the fixture looks like so might not be a fried connector and a nice free tab there etc.

 

I created a new thread (https://5series.net/forums/e61-touri...3/#post1516873) about this..

The ground is 100% good.. testet directly to the battery.

 

found this video, it's German (I think) but there isn't any talking...

 

Renoelv, thanks for your help, I've managed to fix the broken wire to my rear heater (left hand hinge).
For others use, wires (brown & black) go from left hand side of rear tailgate module (where pump & licence plate light are) through the middle hinge and end up going through rear near-side speaker.

BMW's quote for a new wiring loom was £275 + £600 labour. It took me 2 hours

 

While researching how to repair the tailgate locking mechanism I noticed there was quite a bit of rumbling about the wiring harness/loom. Just got through reading this whole thread - just amazing. Thanks so much to all who have contributed along the way.

Two questions:

Would you suggest preemptively repairing the harness? I don't have any problems at the moment but this seems like a when not if design failure. I also don't want to get in a situation where I'm unable to open the glass.

Has anyone found a way to protect the cables from damage? I saw someone modified the metal guide - has that worked out?

 

yes I would do it there def will be wires that almost are cut in two. This is a 100% problem sooner or later.
Sofar I have no problems anymore after that change to the bracket.

 

Regarding the tailgate malfunction, has there been any discussion about a safety recall? Just wondering as my tailgate spontaneously unlocks while driving. Obviously this would a safety hazard and potential lawsuit waiting to happen....