BMW E61 Tailgate Wiring Repair

Concentrating on repairs to the Coax + Water Hose

This is my guide on how to fix the known issues with the section of wiring harness
which runs through the hinges for the tailgate (boot) on the BMW E61 5 series
Touring. This issue has been well discussed on the various forums, and indeed I
gained all the knowledge I have from reading through the threads explaining how to
fix this problem. So if you are planning on doing this repair yourself I strongly
suggest you do the same and spend an hour or two doing some online research first.
It is a fairly straightforward repair, but it is very fiddly and can take some time getting
the trim off to get to the wires. I’d suggest setting aside a full day to complete the job,
and also making sure you have all the bits and tools together first.

As such I should start by thanking everyone else out there for sharing their
experiences. Without that help from the forums and the other guides I wouldn’t have
had a clue where to start.

Please be aware that if you attempt this fix you do so at your own risk. You are going
to be cutting wires and removing trim that will affect the functionality of your car if you
mess it up. If you’re not comfortable with any of the steps, or try and use the wrong
tools then please don’t try this at home! I hold no responsibility if you break your
car! 

I realised I had a problem when my rear glass demister stopped working. I was also
having interference with the radio signal when the demister was on, so I knew I had
an issue with the wiring somewhere. After researching online I found out that there
was a wire for the demister that ran alongside the coax for the headunit and the
water hose for the rear wash. This is contained on the left hand hinge (passenger
side UK) on the inside of the car. Marked by the red arrow in the first picture. Please
note that the picture was taken after my repair job and when you see it there will still
be the black metal hinge cover over the wiring.
Have a wee play opening the full boot and just the glass and you’ll get an idea what
wiring goes where. It stands to reason that the inside hinge covers on each side only
feed the glass section, so will include the demister wiring, along with wiring for the
glass release switch/solenoids etc. All the other wiring for the lights/main boot
release etc will run through the outside covers. This guide will concentrate on getting
to the inside covers. It took me so long to sort out the coax that I haven’t had time to
check the wiring on the outside sections. How to access these is covered in the other
guides available online.
Once I managed to get into the wiring this is what I found. The brown (earth for the
demister) had broken completely and had melted the black wire (coax for headunit)
and the washer hose. All 3 would need replaced.
The first thing you will need to do is to remove the plastic trim surrounding the
hinges. First take off the long plastic trim which sits along the top of the boot (green
arrow). This is held by plastic tabs which slot into a metal holder. There are 3 tabs
along the middle of the plastic, and one on each side which go into the other trim
sections that run down the side. Just pull the full section of trim from the top firmly
and it will come away, but take care not to break the tabs. Also before you remove it
take note how the trim sits in underneath the rubber seal as you’ll need to put it back
that way when refitting.
Next remove the plastic trim surrounding the hinges, one on each side. These are
held by 3 of the standard plastic expanding rivets and you remove them by pulling
the pin out from the centre. Get a flat head screwdriver in behind the head and lever
it out. It might not come all the way out but it will still come out enough to remove it.
Also note that the ones on the very outside of the trim (white arrow) will need to
come all the way out, as they are slightly different.
Next you’ll need to remove the speakers in the headliner at the very rear of the car.
The grill covers are easy and you can just pull them off with your fingers. The
speakers are held in place by 2 Torx bolts (red arrow) and one clip (yellow arrow).
I didn’t realise the clips were there when I took mine out and broke them, but that’s
not a big deal as the screws create enough force to hold the speakers securely.
Take the bolts out and push a flat head screwdriver into the gap to release the clip.
Next pull the connector out. It will be tight but it should come out with enough force.
Also note that the connector goes into the rear most slot on each speaker. I think the
other slot is for the optional tweeter which I don’t have.

Now the speaker is out take note of the tabs on the side closest to the back of the
car. When you refit you’ll need to slot these tabs in first to get it to fit correctly.
Next remove the Torx bolt which secures the cable holder at the bulkhead. Only one
bolt here.
Next you’ll need to remove the plastic expanding rivets which secure at the bottom of
the black metal hinge cover. Once you know how to get these out they’re easy. Just
get a very small screwdriver and push the pin through the rivet.
It will then pop out the other side.
Just grab it here and pull it out. If it falls out don’t worry you can retrieve it from the
space below. Then get your small flat head screwdriver and prise the rivet out. This
is what it looks like once removed.
Now you’ll need to get the spoiler off. Open the glass and you see 4 circular covers
spaced evenly from left to right. Prise the covers off with a small flat head and you’ll
reveal the Torx bolts which secure the spoiler (red arrows). Remove the bolts.

Once the bolts are out you’ll be able to slide the spoiler backwards with your fingers.
Be careful once it starts to release though as there are electrical connections you
don’t want to break. With the spoiler off you see the black plastic cover which seals
the diversity unit. Lift this off. To completely remove the spoiler you’ll need to
disconnect the white flat ribbon cable which goes to the radio antenna, the clip
connector for the high level brake light and the water hose pipe for the rear wash.
The brake light clip is on the right, the water hose is on the left and the antenna
comes out from the connector circled in red (next picture). This is quite tight but it will
come out. Place the spoiler safely to the side.
Now you’ll need to remove the nuts which hold the rear glass onto the hinge spring. I
read various horror stories about this, people nearly losing fingers etc so I tried to get
the black metal hinge cover off without removing the spring bolts, but it’s impossible
to do it this way. You can take them off safely if the glass is fully open. In this
position the springs are unloaded so there is no danger involved. Remove the 3 nuts
(red arrows) with a socket.

Once you slacken the nuts off the glass will slide down, but this is OK as the bolts
will hold it in position. When you are putting it all back together you can just push the
glass back up slightly and use the marks on the metal plate as a guide to where it
should be sitting. With the nuts removed you can slide the metal plate out which
holds the hinge cover in place.
You will now need to get a flat head driver and prise the two halves of the black
metal hinge cover apart. You will see in the picture above the red circle. Get your
screwdriver in from the bottom here and prise the circled part outwards. Do the same
on the other side. When you do this you should be able to pull the two halves of the
cover apart. Please note that the picture shows one half already removed. Before
refitting you can bend the section back in and the two halves should clip back
together OK. Or you can buy replacements from BMW, part number 61136978340.

With the bottom half removed and the metal plate removed you should be able to
completely remove the remainder of the black metal hinge cover. This will expose
the wiring and you can do an initial inspection for damage, however the damage will
probably have been done by the black metal hinge cover and will be further in
towards the interior of the car. Disconnect the black and brown wires at the diversity
unit (or indeed the other connectors on the other side if that’s where you are
working). With these disconnected you’ll be able to pull the wires all the way through
the speaker void. Remove the loom tape and inspect the damage.

So, my problem was with the coax, brown wire for the demister and the water hose.
The coax and water hose seem like the most difficult to fix from the whole of the
tailgate wiring loom.

The rest of the wires are pretty standard and can be fixed by using replacement
silicone wire (AWG22 + AWG14 recommended on another forum) and connected by
using either solder or a crimp. When researching the job I found the solder butt
connector which I’d recommend for repairing the standard wiring. Basically you strip
the wires, push or twist them together and then slide the solder butt connector over
the top. Heating will shrink the tubing and seal the cables at either end, and then the
solder will flow to ensure the electrical connection. Brilliant invention and perfect for
this job where it’s awkward to work. You can buy these form many places, I got mine
on eBay. The Red size is perfect for AWG22 and the blue for AWG14. The white will
fit on AWG22 but is pretty tight. You will of course need a blowtorch or heat gun to
use these connectors.
The water hose repair is fairly straight forward too with the right bits. Spare tubing is
available from many places. Sencom in Germany do an OEM repair kit if you need
extra length.

http://www.sencom-kabeltechnik.de/shop#!/SenCom-Reparatursatz-
Waschwasserschlauch/p/43207018/category=10569699

Luckily I didn’t need any extra hose as there is quite a bit of spare underneath the
spoiler. I cut the burned sections off and used a straight through standard auto hose
connector.

3mm internal diameter is the perfect size for the OEM water hose. I used this to join
the hose and then used some EvoStick Plumber Maite to make sure there was a
water tight seal. It seems to be holding so far but time will tell.....
One end of the hose connector installed.
Both ends installed and hose repaired.
You can see in the picture above where I used the Plumbers Maite (red circle) to
make a good join. Also you can see where I used the blue solder butt connector
(white circle) to splice in the new silicone wire (green) for the demister. I ran the new
cable from there all the way to just before the rubber sealing block which is utilised at
the diversity unit. Another solder butt connector was used to join onto the original
brown wire here.
Now on to the coax. I was actually close to tears when I realised the coax had been
damaged! I know how hard they can be to fix, and having not seen anyone else
attempt a repair on the coax I was entering into new territory. I work at a TV station
though so this gave me a bit of prior knowledge.

To repair the coax you’re going to have to buy some specialist parts and a crimp
tool. The crimp tool you need must have sizes 0.042 and 0.178. This will allow you to
crimp the SMB connectors that you’ll need to use. This is the one I bought.

http://ccsukltd.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&path=4004_4005&product_id
=147995

I bought all of the parts from BMW to do the repair as I wanted to make sure I had
the right bits. The connectors are listed with BMW as SMB connectors. However, I
bought some generic SMB connectors from Amazon so as I have spares in case
anything went wrong, but these are a different size to the BMW ones, so I’m unsure
if there are varying sizes of SMB connectors. The ones I got from Amazon won’t fit
over the BMW repair cable, so I’m again unsure of the size of the coax. I was certain
it was RG174, but now I’m not so sure. Also I’m unsure if the crimp tool I bought will
work with these smaller connectors from Amazon, so probably best to stick to the
BMW parts even though they’re more expensive.
So that’s the coax cable, 1x male SMB, 1x female SMB, a Fakra plastic plug (I
ended up not needing this) and the Fakra crimp termination. In order to get the best
possible signal from the antenna in the spoiler to the headunit you need to have as
few joins in the cable as possible. So for me that meant the male SMB went on the
OEM cable just at the speaker void, the female SMB went on to the new coax cable.
On the other end of that the Fakra crimp termination which went into the OEM Fakra
plastic plug at the diversity unit. This was the only way to get the new cable in with
as few joins as possible.

It actually turned out that the OEM coax which is in the car has a VERY thin copper
core. So thin in fact that the 0.048 crimp was too large! This meant when crimping
the connector onto the OEM cable I had to use some wire cutters to crimp onto the
copper. This worked and suggests you may get away with doing this instead of using
a crimp tool, but you will risk the connector coming loose if you try and crimp the rest
of the plug this way.

To crimp the SMB and Fakra connectors this is the process. First strip the outer
cable cover and braided shield. Then strip a small section of the dielectric shield to
reveal the copper. Also at this point slide the circular ‘crimp’ part of the connector
over the cable.
Next you need to crimp the small inner conductor using the 0.048 crimp.
Next slide the rest of the plug over the cable and fold the braided shield back up.
Then slide the ‘crimp’ part over the shielding and crimp it on using the 0.178 hex
crimp tool.
Just for added security (but not really needed) I added some heatshrink over the end
of the connector.

Easy!! This will give a nice secure shielded termination for the cable.

Once you figure out the length of cable you need (use the OEM cable as a guide)
you can crimp the Fakra crimp plug on the other end of the new cable. When you
remove the coax from the diversity unit this is what you will have.
To remove the plastic Fakra plug lift up the pink plastic part and then lever this clip
up (red arrow next picture) using a small flat head screwdriver.
You will now be able to pull the OEM Fakra crimp connector from the plastic Fakra
plug and keep the plug for use once you make up the new cable. This is the OEM
plug I took out of the plastic Fakra plug (next picture).
One problem here is that both the brown and black cables run through a rubber
block (white arrow 2 pictures up) which helps seal where the cables enter the cover
for the diversity unit. I think they must either melt or glue this part together at the
factory as the only way I could find to get into it was to cut it open using a Dremmel.
This is unfortunate as it means the sealing at the diversity unit is not 100%. I’ve still
to look into how to seal this up better, but for now the cover over the diversity is
sitting OK with the new coax sitting in the rubber block like this (next picture).
Possibly some silicon sealant might be a good idea to make sure no water gets into
the diversity unit, but to be honest there is very little water ingress in that area
anyway.
Now you have the new section of cable made up the hard bit is crimping the SMB
connector on the OEM cable at the speaker void. As already mentioned the copper
in this cable is very this and you may have to use the cable cutter technique to crimp
the small inner connector for the SMB. You can still use the crimp tool for the rest of
the plug though. Once you have all of the connectors crimped on it’s just a case of
plugging them together and inserting the Fakra connector back into the plastic
housing. You can feed the new coax cable through the cut you made in the rubber
block as shown above. I am now thinking after the job that I should have cut the
OEM coax further back in order to keep the SMB connectors away from the bend at
the boot hinge, but removing the black metal hinge cover should help here, and I’ve
plenty of new coax left if I need to do this in the future. Something to bear in mind.

My radio signal is now as good as it ever was. Before I bought the repair kit I did try
connecting the coax using the solder butt connectors, but don’t even bother trying
this. It introduces so much interference it renders the radio un useable.

All that remains to be done is to tape the cables up. I used some fabric wiring
harness tape which I bought on eBay. I taped the 2 wires together and left the water
hose as is. Just in case it leaks I don’t want it getting water on the repaired cables
That should be the job done by this point! Now it’s just a case of feeding the cables
back through and connecting everything up. As mentioned at the start and shown in
the first picture I didn’t bother putting the bottom half of the black metal hinge cover
back on. You’ll see when you take them out, but it is this that causes the cables to
bend when the boot is closed. I used a cable tie to keep the cables tucked out of the
way. It’s obviously not as neat but it’s still functional and should help prevent the
same issue. It should be easier to put everything back as installation is just the
reverse of what you did earlier.

I hope my guide provides some use. If it helps just one other owner get this job done
and avoid paying silly money at the dealer or an Auto Electrician then it’s been
worthwhile. If you have any questions feel free to email me

mitchifer69@hotmail.com

GOOD LUCK!!!

Michael