B7TMW 76 Report post Posted April 17, 2016 have been asked to look at a 2011 320d e90 (saloon) with the following issues one foglight not working, number plate lights not working and the worst one of all, boot not opening. Obviously, we have a loom issue with broken wires. but the question is, HTF can you open the bootlid with no power to the actuator. Here's the really stupid part. After build date 03/09, BMW deleted the key option. Earlier cars had the key slot in the number plate light panel which would allow emergency opening. This being a 2011, this doesn't have it. The rear seats are not fold down. No armrest either or I'd kick the ski hatch panel out. So no access to the boot via that route. The rear seat can only be taken out by unlatching it in the parcel shelf area. Yep, you guessed it.....from the boot area! I know it sounds ridiculous but I cannot think of a single way to release / open the boot lid, so that I can get to the loom and repair the damaged wires! BSS325i this morning suggested breaking a rear light which is a good (if drastic) call. problem is, the outer ones are a lot of money and by breaking the inner ones in the boot lid, it's got the internal boot trim in place. IF there's an emergency release cable (seems that maybe US cars only), it's going to be hard to get through the internal boot trim to access that handle / pull cable. If it's even there!!! If anyone has an LCI saloon e90 and can check / take a photo, with their boot open, of any emergency release and it's location, I'd appreciate it. As I would any other ideas. Cheers Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Henal Madhvani 20 Report post Posted April 20, 2016 Mate, don't break your rear lights, you should be able to trace the wires to your locking actuator and send some power to them, if it's unplugged that sucks, if all fails, you will need to get in the boot and that mean the rear seats have to come off, at worst you will have to cut a few bolts and replace them afterwards. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rickyrooney 0 Report post Posted April 28, 2016 Hi there,had the same problem as you,this is what I did. I removed rear bottom seat.the seat back held by 2 torc bolts at bottom,remove. Lift and pull the side bolsters out which then allows the seat to swing up on the catches at the top.these are released inside the boot so I took the 2 torx bolts out which hold the catch in place.now the seat is free to pull away (as far as the middle seat belt will allow).now inside the boot at the lock mechanism. 4 wires go to the mechanism,brown one is ground/earth.take a wire from earth in bonnet to brown wire at mechanism(strip a bit of insulation off),connect and operate key fob to open.POP! Now in ,the rubber boot wiring loom remove from car body each end and in there,there will be a snapped brown earth Wire! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
B7TMW 76 Report post Posted April 29, 2016 22 hours ago, rickyrooney said: Hi there,had the same problem as you,this is what I did. I removed rear bottom seat.the seat back held by 2 torc bolts at bottom,remove. Lift and pull the side bolsters out which then allows the seat to swing up on the catches at the top.these are released inside the boot so I took the 2 torx bolts out which hold the catch in place.now the seat is free to pull away (as far as the middle seat belt will allow).now inside the boot at the lock mechanism. 4 wires go to the mechanism,brown one is ground/earth.take a wire from earth in bonnet to brown wire at mechanism(strip a bit of insulation off),connect and operate key fob to open.POP! Now in ,the rubber boot wiring loom remove from car body each end and in there,there will be a snapped brown earth Wire! Sussed it an easier way. Just removed the rubber release switch assembly from the bootlid and applied an earth to the brown wire. Operated the switch and the boot popped open. One completely dissed earth and 3 wires with split / cracked insulation found. Complete crap really on a 2011 car! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wrongmark 0 Report post Posted December 11, 2017 ^^^^ Thanks for this. Just had same problem and managed to fix it. One of the ground cables had broken altogether and about 3 or 4 of the other cables were damaged. Managed to use a crimp connector on the broken one and insulation taped the rest. Hopefully it will last a while, but might have to replace a whole section of the harness if it breaks again. Then had a constant vehicle inspection in the on board computer. Cleared the error codes using OBD reader (there were lots of short circuit codes). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
