Carterena

Yes, and I even try by pulling wire by wire if somwhere else was cut, but no luck.

As much as I hate it, but I wil have to do it once more

StreetPro

I just have done this repair, way easier is just to take away the speaker and pull cables as far you can and then cut them, so you dont have to fight them back to that small metal clip-hindge... I feel really sorry for that Bmw designer who invented such crapy solution, even Ford can do better job... mine was broken in 5 wires after only 103t km... dont mentioning that f_king gas tube which hold gate open, that is another example of poor design (gas tupe fitted with spring, no idea what for-they could just used stronger tube in 1st place, and on top of that there is another smaller spring just inside that larger one... what happens over some time? larger spring touches the smaller inside one and cracks wide open and damages the otter plastig coating, if you don?t pay attention it will eventually touch the paint as well...)

StreetPro

well just got that new "gas tube with preloaded double spring" non-sense and stealer just said, yeah, we are ordering them on regular basis... omg, poor Bmw, what happened to you lately? :-(

chesney72

I replaced mine with bespoke ones from a gas strut company instead. Took a couple of attempts but they got the pressure right and they have been on for 6 months now with no problems. Was 1/2 the price of the poor BMW ones that will probably fail sooner too!

darkus

To be perfectly honest, wiring harnesses as culprits of problems can sometimes be very difficult to diagnose.. but I am in NO WAY making an excuse for the dealership because in reality that is their job to diagnose, difficult or not. Especially on a 5 series which is obviously a high volume car and you aren't the only person with this problem.

hgulikers

OK now it is my turn to post tailgate wiring issues

My problems: intermittent license plate light (right one). This causes an annoying warning in your dashboard...
I could have lived with that, if not the glass lid switch started to have a life of its own since a week ago. It started to open spontaneously every now and then (only when I started the car, or opened the car). It never did that while I was driving...
My car: E61 from december 2004. The problems started this summer at around 140K kilometers at the very young age of 5 years only.

The posts in this thread have helped me a lot, so as a thank you I wanted to contribute with my fotoshoot. See attached.
The intermittent license plate light issue is now fixed. And I also hope to have fixed my glass lid switch (I simply disconnected it). I rarely use it anyway...

NOTE: be very carefull with wiress that potentially carry supply voltages... I will not be held responsible for any damage that you make...
Using this fotoshoot/manual is completely at your own risk!

Suggestions always welcome. My email is at the bottom of the attached fotoshoot...

Harrie

jehovden

Hello all!

And thanks a lot for this forum and this tread.

When I first lost my license plate light on the right side I went for a new bulb... The dissapointment when the new bulb didn't make a difference was huge!! I could already then see the dollars fly away from me...

I leaved the car at the stealer for a compressor replacement for the level system and asked to have a look at the light as well. Knowing they could probably search for hours I limited the search to a cost of about $180.
When I picked up the car they could report they did not find the problem, so the problem persists....

So I went by this fantastic forum... and after 10-15 minutes at the car I found about where the problem had to be simply by removing one clipped cover and squeeze the two cable harness' on the right side, noticing the licenseplate was blinking.
Whatta f... the stealer has been spending 180 dollars for beats me, but rest assured I will ask!!!

I removed the right hand speaker as per various posts in this thread and voila (see photo). 4 wires completely cut, and all the rest badly damaged..... Fantastic design...

So wires are now replaced and all is back in business.
The feeling of starting the car and not hear a single "bling" for an error message is niiiice!!

So, thanks all of you posting your problems and solutions here in this thread and all the others!!

Best regards,
Jan

colm245

Hello Harrie,

I had a look at the rear hinge wiring in my E61 on Friday last. I only managed to get looking at the left hand side ones. In your DIY you specified which wires are in each hinge. In my wagon "1" and "2" were switched over. On the left hand side pair the inner hinge contained the FM coaxial wire, the return line for the heater and the water pipe for the window squirter. I believe the left hand side outer hinge has a bundle of wires which are for the lights on the left hand side of the tail gate (reversing, fogs etc).

I didn't investigate the outer one as much as I found that the heater return line had snapped and in doing this the breaking wire had heated up and melted a hole in the water pipe. I only got time to repair this wiring and pipe but aim to get to the right hand side perhaps next weekend as I believe this is where the issue with my remote central locking and poor FM reception lies.

Broken Rear Window Heater - Return(Earth) Wire

I also found that it is possible to get the plastic retainer out without damaging it. Simply just get a small blunt screwdriver and tap the center pin through the plastic collar. It then pops out the back and falls out. The collar is then easily prized out with a flat blade screw driver.

colm245

Examining the wiring on the Right Hand side I found A White and Red stripe wire had snapped in the loom near where it goes through a rubber grommet just above the rear right roof speaker. I'm guessing that the White and Red stripe wire provided power up to the Diversity module as it went in the connector on it's right hand side along with 3 or 4 other signals. With the wire lengthened and joined the Remote now works nicely all the time. I noticed one or two other wires in the loom that were getting frayed and troubled looking so extended them too.

I've just the passenger seat sensor and self leveling suspension problems to sort now and that'll be me :-)

Rayman

Hi Guys, newbie here. Thanks for this fantastic write up. I have been having trouble with a left reversing light not working and now my wiper motor and tailgate glass lift have failed. I'm hoping your fix will solve my issues. Dealer quoted me £1100 for new loom!!! ~Only problem I see is that I can't lift the rear tailgate glass as thats not working now - any ideas on how to bypass it so I can get it open?

Thanks for any input/suggestions.