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Boot soft close failure-Fixed

mcbutler
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Boot soft close failure-Fixed

Post by mcbutler » Mon Nov 11, 2019 12:43 pm

Apparently fairly common on early cars, my 09 23i developed this snag as well.
Due to the wiring being a wee bit too short that's all.
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flybobbie
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Boot soft close failure-Fixed

Post by flybobbie » Wed Nov 13, 2019 9:08 pm

It's not short, it has been partly cut through by a cable stripping machine, at the factory where it's been manufactured.
And then hidden behind some tubing.

Davyand
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Boot soft close failure-Fixed

Post by Davyand » Sun Dec 08, 2019 2:12 pm

Just a quick thank you to flybobbie for posting the initial solution.
I experienced the exact same problem with my e89 (2011) on Friday. The boot didn't close properly although it was locked. Sometimes the soft close would just cycle without actually latching the boot down. Had a look this morning and when I gave the left hand switch wires a light tug, all three just broke away. I soldered them back together and all is ok now. I'm sure it would have cost a fortune if I'd taken it to BMW. Great work, thank you! :thumbsup:

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Boot soft close failure-Fixed

Post by flybobbie » Sun Dec 08, 2019 5:55 pm

Davyand wrote: Sun Dec 08, 2019 2:12 pm Just a quick thank you to flybobbie for posting the initial solution.
I experienced the exact same problem with my e89 (2011) on Friday. The boot didn't close properly although it was locked. Sometimes the soft close would just cycle without actually latching the boot down. Had a look this morning and when I gave the left hand switch wires a light tug, all three just broke away. I soldered them back together and all is ok now. I'm sure it would have cost a fortune if I'd taken it to BMW. Great work, thank you! :thumbsup:
I think someone got charged £400 for a new mechanism and £200 to fix.
BMW should just own up and fix for free, their supplier provided these with a manufacturing fault.

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Boot soft close failure-Fixed

Post by Rpegg » Wed Jan 08, 2020 5:45 pm

Thanks from me to..I had same symptom including boot light not activated. Removed assembly as suggested and trimmed away the sleeving and found clean cut about 20mm away from the LH microswitch on the green and half cut on the blue. Cut, trimmed and remade all 3 via inline solder joints and shrink sleeving. Perfect- im sure ive saved myself at least £200 by not going to my BMW dealer
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Mittellegi
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Boot soft close failure-Fixed

Post by Mittellegi » Sun Feb 02, 2020 9:46 am

Same problem here on my 2015 e89 on LHS - all 3 wires severed with a gentle tug on the black outer sheath...thanks for the OP flybobbie :thumbsup:
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Boot soft close failure-Fixed

Post by flybobbie » Sun Feb 02, 2020 9:40 pm

BMW should have made this a call back item,or at least fix for free.
My car 2009 and still on 2015 cars.
There supplier must of made 10's of thousands with the same defect.

It's intriguing to note the cut point is at the edge of the white plastic.
I wonder if someone measured to the white plastic and then realised the wires were too short, they forgot to add the extra length inside the white bit to the micro switch. But the earlier measurement still ended up in the machine cutting the wires.

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Mittellegi
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Boot soft close failure-Fixed

Post by Mittellegi » Tue Feb 04, 2020 11:16 pm

My experience was thankfully in the winter: no recycling of the soft-close function, no failure of the boot light...the lid just wouldn't close. How much more 'inconvenient' this would have been had the failure have occurred mid-summer, on my annual trip to the Alps, roof down...open boot, boot fails to close on closing...roof will not close. This is a shocking failure on the part of BMW...not to acknowledge and recall this f*ck*p by their supplier. My failure was on the LHS...but I will be stripping down the RHS next weekend!!! Apart from this...I still love my Z4, well, apart from the cost of new tyres :rofl:

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Boot soft close failure-Fixed

Post by ric19 » Thu Mar 05, 2020 3:02 pm

flybobbie wrote: Fri Oct 28, 2016 7:38 pm Well set about fixing today.
Initial symptom was a juddery roof operation, when closed the boot soft close would cycle and not shut, but boot would latch so secure.
So removed the mechanism, needed t15 and t40 torx.
The servo motors would initially run, but had completely stopped.


Began to trouble shoot.
First thing I noticed the boot light was off.
So that would suggest a fault with the left micro switch.
Waggling it's wires the boot light would flash intermittently.
So something wrong that area.
Stripped out the switch and found to be open circuit on testing with multi-meter at the ends of the wires at connector, Bingo!
The switch mechanically worked ok.
So decided to chop off the wires at about one centimetre from the switch, the switch tested ok on the multi-meter so something wrong with the wires to connector.
So stripped back the rubber tube the wires ran through.
Before I had chance two equal lengths of insulation fell out.
It would appear at manufacture the wire stripping machine had already cut into the wire slicing the insulation and possibly the copper core, weakening the wire, before the wire was used with this switch.
Then it got assembled into the switch cable.

The blue I pulled off the wire, the other two fell off with wire inside.
Is this just a one off or a production fault on many switches?
This cable flexes as the servo motor runs.
Video here of the fix and mechanism running.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEeFPf01714
You can see the loop wire flexing.

A bit smug, I think I saved myself £405 on a new boot latching mechanism :D
Flybobbie, thanks for the info, I had a look at mine today and after stripping the outer sheathing back found the cut insulators and i have remade them up by soldering and heat shrinking. I didnt realise that the right hand side was actually a plug and was wondering if you have any idea of the item code of the actual piece that is breaking, I have done a search but cant pin it down ?

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ric19
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Boot soft close failure-Fixed

Post by ric19 » Thu Mar 05, 2020 3:46 pm

Answered my own question, apparently they are not sold as a separate item https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tskd9zaLW2M

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Boot soft close failure-Fixed

Post by ric19 » Thu Mar 05, 2020 3:53 pm

GeeMan has a few videos related to this https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSiQko ... QPMUwSwG6g

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Boot soft close failure-Fixed

Post by Ouroux71 » Fri Apr 03, 2020 9:49 am

I have the problem....

Took apart the rear boot cover and removed the boot motor assembly (tied up with light rope to support it)...

I managed to get one side of the connectors off but not the other side - I just can't see how it is connected? I did strip back the outer sheathing of the little harness but no breaks.. The boot motors make the noise but the soft close function doesn't work... The bigger bronze couloured cogs don't move...

You can see the LHS and the RHS do not have cut wires...
I can get the connector marked by the yellow arrow off, but not the one marked with the red arrow...

Kind of stuck unfortunately....
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Boot soft close failure-Fixed

Post by aid » Fri May 15, 2020 7:42 pm

hi guys first time on one of these chat thingys but just had to say a big thanks to you all i decided to tackle my dodgy boot today.The light stopped working ages ago then the boot soft close played up now and then so i read this forum and bingo!!!It was exactly as you had stated the Green and Black wires were cut right through, really clean cut though .
A great big thanks to everyone on here keep up the good work!!

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Boot soft close failure-Fixed

Post by Mike gorman » Wed Oct 14, 2020 5:34 am

So glad I decided to look on here for this problem ,only had my car a couple of weeks and this has started to happen on my 2011 so will get right on it as soon as I can .not worth bothering the dealer as I do a lot of soldering with my rc aircraft so not a problem (I hope)😀
Thanks to all who posted pics' etc , great help .
Cheers, Mike.

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Boot soft close failure-Fixed

Post by Mike gorman » Thu Oct 15, 2020 9:55 am

Smartbear wrote: Thu Aug 08, 2019 9:57 am It’s a shame that bmw haven’t held their hands up for causing this issue, i wonder how many owners have paid considerable sums of money for this to be resolved? :?
Rob
Sorted mine yesterday the soldering took about 5 minutes but geting all the screws out and the cover took about two hours 😂
Same problem, wires cut , works fine now!

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