I cannot freakin' believe it... Our 2010 wagon, with only 30,000 miles on it, has had its diversity module replaced twice already, and I've had comfort access key issues forever with it (can't open doors from outside easily, and often when inside, it gives the "Key not found" message when trying to start the car, until you wave your key in front of the NAV screen, then press the Start button). Those issue to date have not been resolved (they replaced a key and two door handles, to no avail), and I've been telling them to check the tailgate wiring all along, thanks to this forum. And then yesterday, the rear defrost stopped working, which AFAIK, is a sure sign tailgate wiring harness is broken! Great... I'm doing their diagnosis work!

I was wondering, is the repair kit mentioned here have any advantage (like a better design, so less likely to fail) over the original design / wiring route? Or does it go thru the same hinges and is just as likely in another 30,000 miles to fail?

Just trying to figure out if they say they'll just replace the wiring loom, if I should insist on doing the fix using the repair kit, if it'll be better off down the road.

Only for right side
Repair cable set, hinge, rear lid 61119231820
only in conjunction with Repair kit, plug, with stops 61119241656

Only for left side
Repair cable set, hinge, rear lid 61119231821
only in conjunction with Repair kit, plug, with stops 61119241657

Repair instructions wiring harness, right (REP-61 12 164) and Repair instructions wiring harness, left (REP-61 12 162)
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RealOEM.com * BMW E61N 535xi Rep. wiring harness, hinge on trunk lid
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In my opinion there are major flaws here the way they designed how the cables are connected/routed from the tailgate to the body (think we all agree to that .. yes they were limited by the tailgate window being openable but anyway). But then, once they chose this design, they continued to make bad descitions a) wrong material in cables, pvc is not flexible and gets fragile in low temperatures so easily breaks when you open tailgate in temperatures below zero, b) to sharp edges between tailgate and body (behind hinges) almost like a cutter, c) to short/tight loom (no slack, pulls/stretches when open the trunk).

I'm afraid that fixing it either way you suggest might not fix it permanently, e.g. I guess both the repair kit and the complete new loom cables are also made of pvc (I stongly doubt they will re-route the wiring). They might leave more slack though, so that c), and somewhat b), will be relieved.

I've seen many repair kits on ebay made of silicon (which has great characteristics), but doubt the stealer would accept to use it (if it's a warranty repair).

When I fixed my e61 (did it myself), I used strong polyurethane cable loom (temp rated range from -40C to +80C) and I left plenty of slack. (coincidentally my new cable was marked "Made in Stuttgart" (which all know is Mercedesland as opposed to Munich/Bayern/bimmerland .. hopefully some bimmer designer(s) at least feels ashame reading this)

But then again, I really don't know, they might've improved on the repair kit. If you go that route please let us know.

 

Thanks for the reply. Yes, it should be a warranty repair, and I might bring up the topic with them first to see what they say, in terms of which route they plan on going, to see if I have any say in it. I'll report back.

 

Hi, I just bought a 2009 e61 and just discovered the remote locking range is very short. Need to put remote right up to the tailgate.to unlock ;(

From this great forum I have learned that this may be the diversity aerial - water damage... or a tailgate loom issue. I'll checkout the aerial first as that seems to be easiest. Sounds like cleaning it up and checking for dry solder joints can work.

If not it appears I'll have to go down the loom route. Some of the photos that owners have posted show wires really noshed up. So my question ... is it worth trying to get the silicon replacement wire loom rather than just regular replacing wire ? Looks like most of the damage is a mechanical sheering rather than just regular bending (at low temperatures ?). I would imagine that silicon wire would be as susceptible.

I must confess at being a bit disappointed at this sort of problem on a very expensive car, especially as the pricey warranty I purchased with the car specifically excludes wiring harness ! (did they have the E61 in mind ?)

I did read up before I bought about the potential timing chain issues,,, hence the warranty. Are there any other gotcha's that I should know about ??

 

I have this issue now, very sad i cant find any cables on ebay the silicon kind or any other high quality kit, where should i look?

Found a good set of instructions on how to fix the right hand side cables its a pdf so save it just incase the link goes bad

https://www.google.se/url?sa=t&rct=j...49967636,d.Yms

Still need to get a hold of some good quality cables in the right colours though? But with the guide and the cables I would say this is not to bad of a diy

and some silicone cables for the right hand side atleast

Kabelbaum Rep Satz Heckklappe Rechts BMW 5ER E61 Touring 06 2004 | eBay

will order those and se if I can get it working properly..

 

I think the SenCom silicon harness you link to on ebay is fine (albeit haven't used it myself). Here's the DIY video they provide:
I see you're from Sweden, alternatively you can buy a 7x0.75 harness from Elfa (polyurethan) and 1.5 or 2.5 mm2 cables from Kjell & co (silicon). No matching colors though.

 

I would have gotten the elfa cables if i had thought about it, changed half the cables for the trunk just now still need to do the cables for the antenna amplifiet..the cables i ordered (those in the video) seam to be good quality silicone cables. In the video they take more out of the loom than i did, i spliced into the wires betweene the speaker and the trunk, they seam to do it more towards the front of tve car.. anyways its a doable diy..

 

A bit of a followup on this.. I replaced 1 of 4 looms myself last summer.. The other week the trunk and glass lid started to act up as well as the read foglight.. Turned the car over to an auto electric firm and they replaced all remaining 3 looms with silicone cables for 3100 SEK about 500 US$ (Compared to BMW who wanted 14 000 SEK or roughly 2100 US$ for the same repair but useing new still crappy cables)..

 

LOL, well, almost two years to the day from this repair, my outside tailgate handle stops working from opening the trunk. So sure enough, they open things up and it turns out that it's the famous tailgate wiring that's broken.

They didn't use the harness replacements as indicated above, as that's a whole new wiring set, so I'm guessing they just repaired the broken wires. Which is probably all they did the first time, two years ago, as it's different wires now that broke.

Which is kind of frustrating, as this is silly to keep opening it up every couple of years for one set of wires, instead of (I had hoped) had they replaced the whole harness two years ago, all wires would have been refreshed. Oh well.

My SA said: Only the right rear connection in wiring was repaired. Left side is ok. Trunk wiring relating to trunk operation is not on the left side.

Hope I don't deal with issues on the left side next...

 

I'm going to tackle this project within the next few weeks. I am going to use MilSpec 55 wiring. (M22759/44) Hopefully it is tough enough to withstand the conditions........