Changing out rear AD shocks

[TriX5]

Today swapped the rear adaptive drive shocks as the right rear went bad a few months back while on a long drive. I thought it might be a connection problem but when I finally got it home, INPA insisted that there was no connection to the valve coils. I have no idea whether these can be opened up and serviced. Searching online for a repair service rendered nothing and I bought a rear set from an auto recycler.

Before bolting in the replacements I connected the wiring to the car and turning on the ignition I could tell that the car no longer gave me the suspension failure warning. So, I proceeded to search for the top of the shocks inside the car. I guessed that the trunk side panels had to come off. The trunk side panels are relatively straight forward but unfortunately the weather stripping in the rear doors needs to be partially removed so that the covers below the C-pillar can be unclipped. Once those covers are off, the fasteners (reusable rivets) come in to view except for one that is hidden under the bit of cover attached to the rail with the cargo hooks. The rail is easy to unbolt but the rearmost bolt is under a little square cover in the hatch opening.

I found no info on removing the trunk side panels anywhere online and used realoem to get some idea of the fastener locations. I hope the pictures below help anyone on a similar journey.

Very happy that the car runs without faults again but an oil change and replacement of the vacuum lines are on the agenda. To get to the vac lines I will remove the intake manifold. However, first I have a 2000+ mile road trip coming up and the E70 will have to wait for a few weeks.