Tailgate Electric lock malfunction

[g300d]

Hey Q, yeah, spent a few hours on it.

The problem I had was that a mechanical malfunction in the mechanism was causing the mechanism to be physically stuck in open position instead of resetting to allow the latch to catch and hold the striker. The mechanism seemed to be overextended to open and it was held open by a latch with a lever (imagine closing a door while holdibg the doorknob twisted open). Tripping the lever allowed the mechanism to reset and the latch would engage, after which the mechanism would cycle and the tsilgate lights would go out (presumably because the hall effect sensor has been triggered by the engaged latch).

I could not see what changed in the mechanism that made it stick to open since I could not see under the riveted covers. I could see that manipulating the exposed lever reset the mechanism, and keeping the lever up would allow the mechanism to cycle, so I rigged a plastic stop to keep it held upward.

Hoping the fix lasts, since it seems some of the rivets holding the thing together are also pivot points for certain parts and so the replacement rivets have to be exactly the same. I might not go into disassembling this one

[Will308]

Lots of good info on this but I haven't been looking too deep into my problem ( 2006 E53 x5 3.0). Lift gate does not work, had to use the emergency release. Figuring it was a fuse, I went to change fuse 82 ( 30 amp) and it immediately sparked and blew when I installed it.
My guess is the relay for the soft close is continuing to provide power to the fuse. Am I on the right path?

Originally Posted by Qsilver7

As I mentioned in post #17...the image of the rear relay locations that belongs to powers1 (he doesn't have any model/model year/build date in a signature)...it apparently is the pre-face lift layout.

I was just reading this information this morning about the e53 X5's face lift changes (starting with 10/03 build date)...and below is some info about the SCA (soft close actuator) and the rear relay/fuse box layout below...the SCA relay is the one on the far right in the rear right cargo area:

This is an image of my 2006's rear fuse box...SCA relay is on the purple relay on far right




FACE LIFT layout of rear fuse carrier (10/03-up build date)

Lo

[Will308]

Ok, rear upper liftgate latch not working. I used the emergency release to gain access to the fusebox. Fuse # 82 , 30amp, for the soft close latch is blown. Go to replace it and the new one sparks and blows immediately. Removed the screws for the fuseblock to investigate behind it and low and behold there's a red and yellow striped wire that had chaffed through and shorted to a flange on the body. Cut, splice and now all is working properly. Hope this helps someone in the future...looks like there's a good possibility this could happen to all E53 given the location of the wire and the flange.