Well it seems my tailgate no longer wants to power open or power close with the buttons. I can hear it lock/unlock so I suspect it is the spindle drives.
It started intermittently (maybe 1 out of every 10 opens/closes), then became progressively worse, to not working at all.
I could live without this feature, but the tailgate is not only heavy, when you force it open/closed the spindle motors create extra resistance that you really have to force it open or closed, it's tiring actually.
There is a general post on the F30 area of someone with an F36 Gran Coupe who replaced the electric spindles with a simple gas shocks. I like this idea but it seems to require some custom measurements and some calculations on the lifting weight, etc. so the resistance in the gas shocks is just right.
https://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=2054103
On the other hand, it looks like the electric spindles are plug and play once I get all of the plastics pried off the hatch.
Has anyone replaced these before and I wonder if there is any coding involved? Hopefully not and I can just try to replace them one by one to see if I can get a fix myself - and not go to the dealer.
The spindles are roughly $300 each so perhaps I'll start with one side and then order the other side if no luck.
There doesn't seem to be much DIY info out there for the F34, or any other modern BMW that uses electric assist rear hatch spindles like the X5, etc.