Wife's 2005 Cabrio trunk will not open. It sounds like the release is working but the motor to open the latch is not working. The release under the seat is not there. HOw do I get into fix it?

 

update, I have found the tool that you use to release the rear seat. I have unlocked the rear seat manually but it appears to not be unlocking when I use the tool to release the seat it does not do so. I have had six Mini's, rebuilt a couple of BMW's and I hate this thing!

 

Are you back seats locked. Look at the outside sholder of each seat & there is a key hole. If your seats are locked they won't open.
Sorry about your luck Hopefully that works

 

yep, Ive locked them but they still wont open, I'm guessing both mechanism have frozen from 6 years of lack of use, don't know if the seats have ever been down.

Ok, following that line of thought: I used some drinking straws to squirt some penetrating fluid into the mechanism and now have the seat down.

 

Glad you got them open.
My drivers side back seat is stuck most of the time, I'll try loobing it tonight so I don't run into the same problem.

 

6 years..no lube or use....lubing the mechanisms is on the mantaince 2 schedule I think...so is testing it for operation.
Good to hear you got it open.

 

My '05 R52 trunk latch stopped operating today. I was able to get into the trunk via the emergency release; now looking for the cause. Hoping for an easy fix, I checked both fuse panels, but none of the icons suggested "trunk lock" to me. Are there any common failures for this?

 

Mine did the same thing on an '08. Two wires were broken inside the rubber boot between the trunk lid and rear of car.

 

Thanks. I saw a similar comment in another forum, but I couldn't figure out how to get the rubber boot off without damaging it. I was able to remove the cover inside the lid and disconnect the cable, but couldn't expose the wires inside.

 

I had to cut the flexible rubber boot thing to expose the cut wires. I had to remove the boot trim that's under the tailgate and also the trim on the tailgate itself. I cut the wire back and made the splices under the trim with barrel connectors and then used some flexible wire loom to replace the rubber boot. It was clear the wires broke after being flexed a few hundred times. I don't know why BMW uses such thin gauge wire. I've had to do some wire splicing on my E46 BMW as well.

 

Thanks. I'll take another run at it this weekend.

 

I have the same issue where are these wires cut so I could check mine out.

Please help!

 

Wow!! That was my only possible explanation for why my hatch won't open but I thought that it would never happen. I'm going tomorrow to find the broken wire. I've spent days researching the micro switch as I thought that could only be the problem but today crossed the 2 wires of the switch and still nothing so was about to give up but so glad to hear that it's probably a wire!! Thank you!!

 

Yup, its a bad design, one that they revised on the 2nd Gen R57 to take the strain off it. The rubber boot does not offer much protection from constant bending and trapping in the hinge area, and rather than designing that part of the harness with connectors each end for easy replacement, that part that kinks and flexes in the rubber boot appears to be part of the larger vehicle wiring harness, which leaves little choice but to have to solder it when it fails. I'm on my third go around now with that fix. There is no easy way to remove the rubber conduit unless you want to cut off the connector on the end and redo that whole mess. so the path of least resistance for me was to slit the rubber boot open, patch the broken wires, and wrap the whole schebang in electrical tape afterwards. My brother has a similar issue with his BMW wagon, with wires breaking where the tailgate flexed them.

 

Yep, trunk lid grips here:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ght-cover.html

You can get just the rubber for the Gen 1 MINIs R50-R53

https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-...717039261~oem/

 

I thought we were talking about this bit of rubber...

 

Reviving this thread on R2 rear trunk open problems. My 2005 cabrio's trunk is cable-pull-only at the moment.
Hopefully someone can point me at what to look at next. Here's what I've done so far.

1. Confirmed fuse is good (both F23 and F37)
2. Took off switch trim handle. It's in pretty good shape for the age. Rubber over switch not cracked or missing. Attempted to test switch with multimeter. Didn't see continuity change when button pressed. Not really sure what to expect since its a momentary switch.
3. Jumped Grey/Brown (switch signal wire) to Brown (gnd) on hatch side connector as shown in this thread. No joy.
4. Disconnected connector between hatch and body and confirmed continuity of Grey/Brown and Brown wires in hatch harness
5. Confirmed actuator motor OK by feeding 12V straight from battery to Green/Gray pin on hatch side connector.
6. At this point I assumed broken wire in the hatch to body rubber conduit. Removed trunk trim, slid conduit back, and sure enough Green/Grey wire was broken off right where conduit bends
7. Spliced Green/Grey, plugged in trim handle switch expecting good things. No joy.
8. Next I thought maybe Gray/Brown or Green/Gray wire is broken inside insulation so I stripped small amount of insulation from each about 10 inches inside trunk and tested continuity at connector (Green/Gray spliced already). All good.

 

Update: Creator 310 can't communicate with BCM.

 

I had no issues wit my schwaben tool. I would try to plug and replug in the scan tool. Sometimes the scan tools can have issues themselves.

 

I’m sorry to revive this thread, but my R52’s trunk stopped working months ago. I finally got an opportunity to look after considering whether it may be a fuse, switch or broken wire. I opted to look at the wiring as it was a prominent culprit in this feed. The first place I looked, where the harness feeds into the trunk, I discovered a solid yellow wire not connected to anything. I can’t find where it goes. The complement to the wiring harness has no solid yellow wire. I took the trunk plastic interior off and can’t find where this is supposed to go. Photos below.

Also, I’ve benefited from the great knowledge in this forum over the years. This my first post. Any ideas are appreciated. Thanks!






Help?

 

My first thought is that it goes in the open hole in the holder but you'd think the wire would show a bit at the end of the yellow wire. I looked at my trunk but didn't want to take off the back of the trunk opening not knowing whether this holder is inside the back or inside the trunk itself. Let me know that if you haven't gotten it fixed. You could always strip a bit of the end and poke it in the hole to see if it worked.
On another note. Since you have such a great looking car, but if you like how mine looks, and I just did the back end the other day but have had the front looking this way for many years, I found a company online that sells reflective tape (this is 1inch) and it's a little stretchy so very easy to put on and I think it looks great. You may not but let me know if you like it and if you can't find the tape, I'll send you the link. Not expensive, comes in different colors and I think the rolls are about 38 ft or so. They also have motorcycle tapes and decals.

 

fredril12: Thanks for the prompt response. Your thoughts were exactly mine. I was going to do so, but not seeing a solid yellow on the other side held me back. I took the interior plastic off to explore where the other half of the yellow wire might be. You don't have to remove it to see the connector I photographed. It's at the base of the interior trunk hinge and just pulls out. I would love for you to take a look at yours - when it's convenient. That would help me a bunch. I couldn't find a video or other posting that showed that detail.

I like what you did at the back. I was considering applying a new set of stripes on my car. I'll have to think about that a bit more. Thanks for the info and the photos. Your car looks great!

Thanks again.

 

I’ll take a look tomorrow. Not exactly sure where I pull on the cable of wires to be able to see the connectors. My mini has 133k, bought it used with about 12k on it. The stitching in the middle of the seats disintegrated on both seats, probably mostly from my sweat after playing tennis. Recently got the entire center panels replaced for $125 a seat and they look terrific.

 

I checked my wiring and each of the connections only have 4 wires, no yellow wire at all. My wires are all 2 colored. I have a photo but I can't figure out how to get. in on this site as the iPhone changes the format to REIC or something like that that won't let me load it and I can't figure out how I got the pictures in before:(. If you want to give me your phone number, I'll text you the photos. I do have a yellow and white wire but it's on both sides of the connection. This all doesn't make a lot of sense. I have no idea why my wires would be different from yours. Anyway, my # is 301 767-6306. Thanks, Fred

 

The Yellow wire looks like the wire that is used when someone installed a back up camera