E61 5 Series Tailgate Wiring
Discussion
Electrical things have slowly been dying at the back of my 5 series, first it was the heated rear screen, then the red lights on the tailgate would flicker when you opened it, more recently I noticed the high level brake light was out and then it all took a turn for the worse...
First of all it decided the boot was open all the time (it wasn't), alarm noise every time time you stopped / started, most annoying. Shortly followed by the rear wash / wipe packing in. Finally the remote central locking went meaning unlocking it with the key / the alarm going off when you did this.
It's a well known issue that the wiring through the tailgate hinges is a weak spot so last weekend I decided to tackle it! I'm not averse to a soldering iron (Electronics Engineer by day) so Saturday I got to work.
What a PITA of a job. Started on Saturday lunchtime with a few hours window as we were going to friends for a BBQ later. Tackle the main tail gate hinges first. Got into the left hand side one, about 12 wires of which I think about 3 were undamaged. Cut them all and extended the wiring back from behind the rear speaker back into the tail gate so some 24 connections to be soldered, heat shrinked, etc. What with stripping off the various bits needed to get at the wiring and doing this first hinge I now had about an hour left. Made a start on the right hand side. For reasons unknown not quite so bad that side, only a couple of damaged wires but consensus was that to prevent further issues down the line it's a good idea to extend all the wires by a few inches so chopped this lot and started on another 20+ solder joints. Ran out of time so left it for the day.
Sunday was made worse by the weather being unable to make up its mind. In between the rain finished off the second main hinge but it seemed every time I started it was a cue for more rain. Was preparing to give in to it after the second hinge but Netweather said it would dry up in the afternoon. Oh for a big garage or a gazebo, should have planned ahead.
Now to the wiring in the glass opening, still playing games with the weather but pressed on. Decided to do the left hinge first as it only had a few wires + the screen washer pipe. Pretty sure this side is the heated screen and yes stripped that back and the broken thick wire came away in my hand. Also looked like the screen wash pipe had been leaking a little, put some self amalgamating tape around it. Stupidly cut through the coax cable for the diversity antenna so had to hack a joint for that, made my own coax, insulted wire through the centre, insulting tape, then wrapped some stripped wire around the outside for the screen, soldered it and wrapped it all up in tape (radio still works!).
Finally though losing the will to live moved to the right hinge on the glass. Pretty much every wire gone, maybe 2 out of 12 still attached. The wires for connector to the high level brake light just came away as soon as I started unwrapping the loom tape. Repeat the process of chopping them all, extending the wires and so on. Only issue here, three brown wires through the hinge, only one attached (just), 50:50 chance of getting it right with the other two but I know one goes to the brake light. I guess they're all neutrals anyway but why couldn't they have used a different colour for each. Finally got all that lot joined up again. Twisted one of the brown wires onto the brake light connector. Right, reconnect the battery...
Car hasn't caught fire, good start, ignition on, still ok. Plug in brake light and check, yeah that works, must be the right brown wire? Turned it off again and joined the last two wires. Put it all back together. Now to test.
Main and glass boot releases working, good. Remote locking back, yes! Rear wash / wipe, yes, yes. Lets go for a drive. Boot now thinks it's closed / no alarm - amazing. No bulb warnings or anything else. Brilliant.
So best part of a day of my life lost to sorting this cr*p bit of design BMW, thanks for that. But massive sense of achievement for sorting it all and probably saving myself a £500+ bill for someone else to sort it.
If anyone else is having electrical issues with their tailgate Google it, well known issue. If you're brave enough to tackle it yourself then it can be done!
First of all it decided the boot was open all the time (it wasn't), alarm noise every time time you stopped / started, most annoying. Shortly followed by the rear wash / wipe packing in. Finally the remote central locking went meaning unlocking it with the key / the alarm going off when you did this.
It's a well known issue that the wiring through the tailgate hinges is a weak spot so last weekend I decided to tackle it! I'm not averse to a soldering iron (Electronics Engineer by day) so Saturday I got to work.
What a PITA of a job. Started on Saturday lunchtime with a few hours window as we were going to friends for a BBQ later. Tackle the main tail gate hinges first. Got into the left hand side one, about 12 wires of which I think about 3 were undamaged. Cut them all and extended the wiring back from behind the rear speaker back into the tail gate so some 24 connections to be soldered, heat shrinked, etc. What with stripping off the various bits needed to get at the wiring and doing this first hinge I now had about an hour left. Made a start on the right hand side. For reasons unknown not quite so bad that side, only a couple of damaged wires but consensus was that to prevent further issues down the line it's a good idea to extend all the wires by a few inches so chopped this lot and started on another 20+ solder joints. Ran out of time so left it for the day.
Sunday was made worse by the weather being unable to make up its mind. In between the rain finished off the second main hinge but it seemed every time I started it was a cue for more rain. Was preparing to give in to it after the second hinge but Netweather said it would dry up in the afternoon. Oh for a big garage or a gazebo, should have planned ahead.
Now to the wiring in the glass opening, still playing games with the weather but pressed on. Decided to do the left hinge first as it only had a few wires + the screen washer pipe. Pretty sure this side is the heated screen and yes stripped that back and the broken thick wire came away in my hand. Also looked like the screen wash pipe had been leaking a little, put some self amalgamating tape around it. Stupidly cut through the coax cable for the diversity antenna so had to hack a joint for that, made my own coax, insulted wire through the centre, insulting tape, then wrapped some stripped wire around the outside for the screen, soldered it and wrapped it all up in tape (radio still works!).
Finally though losing the will to live moved to the right hinge on the glass. Pretty much every wire gone, maybe 2 out of 12 still attached. The wires for connector to the high level brake light just came away as soon as I started unwrapping the loom tape. Repeat the process of chopping them all, extending the wires and so on. Only issue here, three brown wires through the hinge, only one attached (just), 50:50 chance of getting it right with the other two but I know one goes to the brake light. I guess they're all neutrals anyway but why couldn't they have used a different colour for each. Finally got all that lot joined up again. Twisted one of the brown wires onto the brake light connector. Right, reconnect the battery...
Car hasn't caught fire, good start, ignition on, still ok. Plug in brake light and check, yeah that works, must be the right brown wire? Turned it off again and joined the last two wires. Put it all back together. Now to test.
Main and glass boot releases working, good. Remote locking back, yes! Rear wash / wipe, yes, yes. Lets go for a drive. Boot now thinks it's closed / no alarm - amazing. No bulb warnings or anything else. Brilliant.
So best part of a day of my life lost to sorting this cr*p bit of design BMW, thanks for that. But massive sense of achievement for sorting it all and probably saving myself a £500+ bill for someone else to sort it.
If anyone else is having electrical issues with their tailgate Google it, well known issue. If you're brave enough to tackle it yourself then it can be done!
Happened with my E91.
Twice I repaired the rhs boot wires, common failure of central locking.
I also had a bulb out on the other side.
Bulb would light but then power would be shut down to that circuit. Easy, no. It was shorting out from wires on the Lha, both issues caused by chaffing on the outer plastic.
Twice I repaired the rhs boot wires, common failure of central locking.
I also had a bulb out on the other side.
Bulb would light but then power would be shut down to that circuit. Easy, no. It was shorting out from wires on the Lha, both issues caused by chaffing on the outer plastic.
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