Some of you may have read my post about my remote locking and reat tailgate glass button not working.

Its been a long saga with a dealer in Glasgow pointing finger at the Aeriel Diversity Module and then blaming the body control module.

Well I went to another dealer as to be honest I've lost confidence in the Glasgow one and wanted a 2nd opinion. They traced the fault to a faulty tailgate wiring harness. I can see why this would cause both problems as the ADM is needed for the remote to work and it is located under the roof spoiler on the tailgate and I presume the tailgate glass wiring is all part of the same harness.

Bad news is that this is expected to cost ?800 to fix but the service person said she would be contacting BMW as this is possibly a batch fault and they may help out with a goodwill gesture which could cover the parts. That could halve the bill. Still a lot of cash for a simple fault but it was good of them to offer to ask as I didn't even think they'd consider it as the car is a year out of warranty. Hopefully they'll get back to me mid week.

I keep thinking back to when I put new tailgate struts on and I felt I had overextended the tailgate when putting them on. Wonder if this could have either damaged the harness or maybe even dislodged the plug.

Anyone have any idea where this harnes runs to/from as Looking at the tailgate I cannot see any sign of wiring going to the tailgate unless its within the hinge?? Wouldn't mind a quick check of it in case it is something I can sort.

 

If you open just the upper rear window you will see this(see picture) All the harness for the tailgate go through this cables so you chould be able to easily check if some of them are broken. But changing the complete harness is not much work. Im guessing two hours if they know what they are doing.

 

Thanks ArneR I'll have a look at that. Problem is without that tailgate button working I need to strip the inside of the boot and wiper to get the glass open

 

Got a message from the dealer. I'm in shock!

They said BMW will pay 100% of the parts and I only need to pay for labour....but they want ?800 for labour!!! Bit shocked as this seems to be the price they thought for parts and labour when it was diagnosed last week.

Wonder if they'd just give me the part?

 

Had a little fiddle today and got the rear tailgate glass working. I pulled the speakers out the roof and got access to the loom. You can feel that it gets stretched a bit when the boot is fully open and I tried to work the loom so there was a bit of slack. Maybe just a coincidence but the glass is now working fine

No joy with the remote locking though so I'll see is I can trace that..

 

I have a similar problem with a numberplate light not working, and the rhs tailights only working when the boot is closed. have traced to faulty loom where it enters the hinge of the tailgate. Am trying to sort it as I type!! I know the E34 and E39 models had the same problem, so why have BMW not sorted it on this car?

Did you get a loom in the end?

 

Hi. I have similar problem for about 2 months now, still trying to sort it out. my both rear number plate lights stop working, rhs reversing light and rhs rear fog are not working. what seems even strange is when i turn the head lights on, it stops the rear boot lid handle to response as well. but if you turn the lights off, it works again.. i have been tracing the cable harness with the internal boot lid stripped completely out. still no joy..
The E34 and E39 are easy to sort out as it has a normal boot lid, all cable are easy accessible. where E61 is all compactly routing throught the hinges and into the soffit where the rear speakers are.. i am really puzzling, I still have a month to sort this out before the mot. otherwise.. i have to take it into a bmw specialist, which i think they will carry out what i have done and may not be able to sort the faults out.. any luck please drop a line back in to this forum... Gary E61 2005.

 

In answer to Gary's question. It's 21:00 and I have just got the rear lights and numberplate light working. I got some wire from FAB BMW breakers in Cinderford (though any car loom would do) and did a "cut and shut" job on the loom. Quite fiddly, but just in time for MOT tomorrow! The part of the loom I cut out was broken in 3 of the 9 wires. Rubbish design, and from this forum seems to be quite common. My E39 has a similar problem (rear window heater - lights were all OK), but it is on 287k miles, not 50k like the E61 so will forgive it! I really do think that the E39 is better built.

 

Well done!

I've been toying with pulling the loom through. Did you unplug everything from the tailgate side ad pull it through to the speaker hole? I know there are looms going through both hinges and was going to give it a try but am a little worried I'll get myself all tangled up!!!

I contacted BMW about this and they've not bothered to reply

 

I had to take the rooflining down to get full access to the loom. You will have a break in the wires, but by moving them a little, you may have gained a couple of weeks working tailgate!!