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BMW 3-Series and 4-Series Forum (F30 / F32) | F30POST > 2012-2019 BMW 3 and 4-Series Forums > Regional Forums > UK > Help! F31 tailgate won't open
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      12-12-2016, 04:15 AM   #23
-berq-
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Sorry for the late update but yes everything is well sorted now. The culprit was the glass locking mechanism on the tailgate. It got stuck & affected the opening of the tailgate itself. Had to dismantle it from the inside though. Apparently the garage said that he had another f31 with this issue before.
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      02-13-2023, 06:35 AM   #24
khaled hamdy
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can you share a pic for this mechanism,
or more details
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      01-07-2024, 11:12 AM   #25
wrongmark
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I've just experienced what I think is the same problem as the op on this thread. After a lot of searching, I can't seem to find any walk through on how to solve this.

The problem:
I opened the rear glass to put something in, then closed it. Got in the car to drive away and the dash said that the boot was open. I was only a few miles from home, so I just left it. I arrived home and surprisingly the rear window was securely closed. Then neither the rear window or the tailgate would open. Pressing the window opening button would make a noise in the mechanism, but it wouldn't open. Neither would the tailgate, presumably because the car thinks the rear window is open and won't trigger the tailgate opening.

What I tried:
Locking and unlocking the car repeatedly - no change
Forcefully pushing up and down on the rear glass while pressing the button to open - didn't work
The button to open the tailgate on the key fob - didn't work
The button in the drivers footwell to open the tailgate - didn't work
Used ISTA to trigger the tailgate opening - didn't work (just made a noise)
Tried resetting modules etc. – no change.

After a bit more digging in ISTA, I concluded that the locking mechanism for the rear glass must be faulty. And although the rear glass was properly closed, it wasn’t properly activating the microswitch to tell the car that it was closed (I think - part number 51247250299).

I managed to climb in the back and found the manual tailgate opener (thin white thread behind trim in floor) - this opened the tailgate immediately. I don’t know if this I supposed to have a hook or something on the end, but mine is just a loose bit of thread. You may need to pull back the carpet in the boot to find this.

Then on to removing the tailgate lid trim. You need to get the rear glass open to access two of the screws holding this on, so this was a problem. I managed to pull the trim off just enough to get in and manually override the rear window lock. I couldn’t find anything online about how to do this on the F31 (only E91 which is a different locking mechanism). One last try at getting it to work electronically by pressing the button while tapping the locking mechanism from the inside – still nothing and this then made the noise coming from the unit worse still.

So I ended up breaking it open to figure out how to open the rear window. DM me for photo if anyone needs it (having trouble putting them here at the moment). I used a thin straight pick tool to do this. You should be able to put a pick tool straight in the small vertical slot and push the small plastic/metal piece in the direction away from the window to unlock the rear window.

So off to either the main dealer or a scrap yard for a replacement unit.

In the meantime, I temporarily used a jumper cable so that the car thinks that the boot is closed, and it can be opened on the button. I now don’t get the warning on the dash constantly. Jump the Brown/orange and Brown/red cables.

I hope this helps anyone with the same issue, because I couldn’t find any help on this.

Edit: I've now ordered a replacment lock off ebay for £11 delivered, which makes me think it's not a common problem (main dealer price quoted was £116 with a two day wait).

Last edited by wrongmark; 01-14-2024 at 05:12 AM.. Reason: Problems with photos so removed
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